Patrick Cairns "Spike" Hughes (19 October 1908 – 2 February 1987)
was a British musician, composer and arranger involved in the worlds of classical music and jazz. He has been called Britain's earliest jazz composer. Later in his career, he became better known as a broadcaster and humorous author.
Early career
Born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, England,
Hughes was the son of Irish composer, writer and song collector
Herbert Hughes and great grandson of the sculptor
Samuel Peploe Wood.
[ His childhood, spent mostly with his mother Lilian Meacham (1886–1973), a Harley Street psychiatrist, involved extensive travelling in France and Italy, as well as a more settled period of education at Perse School in Cambridge.][Gammond, Peter. 'Hughes, Patrick Cairns ]pike
Pike, Pikes or The Pike may refer to:
Fish
* Blue pike or blue walleye, an extinct color morph of the yellow walleye ''Sander vitreus''
* Ctenoluciidae, the "pike characins", some species of which are commonly known as pikes
* ''Esox'', genus of ...
in ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' In 1923, at the age of 15 he spent an extended period in Vienna to study composition with Egon Wellesz
Egon Joseph Wellesz CBE (21 October 1885 – 9 November 1974) was an Austrian, later British composer, teacher and musicologist, notable particularly in the field of Byzantine music.
Early life and education in Vienna
Egon Joseph Wellesz was ...
. While there he claimed to have visited the opera nearly 450 times, always standing at the back of the gallery with a score in his hand.[''Radio Times'', Issue 720, 18 July 1937, p 48]
/ref> He also began writing his first music criticism for ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...
'' of London.[Avery, Kenneth]
'Hughes, Spike (Patrick Cairns)'
in ''Grove Music Online'' And he heard his first jazz, at the Weinberg Bar, Weihburggasse, a band led by trumpeter Arthur Briggs.[Godbolt, Jim. ''A History of Jazz in Britain (1919-1950)'', (1984)] Returning to the UK in 1926, Hughes had a solo cello sonata performed in London, and wrote the incidental music for two theatre productions in Cambridge.
Jazz
His interest in jazz was stimulated by the London revue ''Blackbirds'', starring Florence Mills
Florence Mills (born Florence Winfrey; January 25, 1896 – November 1, 1927), billed as the "Queen of Happiness", was an American cabaret singer, dancer, and comedian.
Life and career
Florence Mills (Florence Winfrey) was born a daughter of for ...
and Edith Wilson
Edith Wilson ( Bolling, formerly Galt; October 15, 1872 – December 28, 1961) was the first lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921 and the second wife of President Woodrow Wilson. She married the widower Wilson in December 1915, during hi ...
, in September 1926. It was an enthusiasm he shared with his friends, the composers Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...
and William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton (29 March 19028 March 1983) was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera. His best-known works include ''Façade'', the cantat ...
and the conductor Hyam Greenbaum. Hughes taught himself double bass (using a German string bass made of tin, the spike of which led to his nickname)[Carr, Ian and others. ''The Rough Guide to Jazz'' (2004) p. 378] and formed his own jazz group in 1930. The group was one of the earliest artists signed to Decca Records in England, and over 30 sessions were recorded between 1930 and 1933.King's Road
King's Road or Kings Road (or sometimes the King's Road, especially when it was the king's private road until 1830, or as a colloquialism by middle/upper class London residents), is a major street stretching through Chelsea and Fulham, both ...
, Chelsea as his recording venue, and in April 1930 persuaded the visiting Jimmy Dorsey
James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peop ...
to visit Chelsea for some sessions.[ These records were used as the basis for the "hastily assembled" jazz ballet ''High Yellow'', put on by the Camargo Society at the ]Savoy Theatre
The Savoy Theatre is a West End theatre in the Strand in the City of Westminster, London, England. The theatre was designed by C. J. Phipps for Richard D'Oyly Carte and opened on 10 October 1881 on a site previously occupied by the Savoy P ...
in London, June 1932. Choreography for the ballet was by Frederick Ashton and Buddy Bradley. The title comes from the once widely used, now discredited term high yellow, describing mixed black and white ancestry.
From 1931, Hughes played regularly with the Jack Hylton Band.[ His career in jazz culminated in 1933 with a visit to New York, where he arranged three recording sessions involving members of ]Benny Carter
Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...
's and Luis Russell
Luis Russell (August 5, 1902 – December 11, 1963) was a pioneering Panamanian jazz pianist, orchestra leader, composer, and arranger.
Career
Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of African-Car ...
's orchestras with Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...
and Henry "Red" Allen
Henry James "Red" Allen, Jr. (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Armst ...
from Fletcher Henderson's band. These fourteen sides were predominantly Hughes' own compositions.[
Most were not released in America at the time, but are considered classics of their era.][
Some of his jazz pieces show the influence of Irish folk melodies and his father Herbert Hughes (''Donegal Cradle Song''). Others are clearly inspired by the work of Duke Ellington (''A Harlem Symphony'', first tried out on William Walton's piano at No 2 Carlyle Square). Hughes, along with ]Constant Lambert
Leonard Constant Lambert (23 August 190521 August 1951) was a British composer, conductor, and author. He was the founder and music director of the Royal Ballet, and (alongside Ninette de Valois and Frederick Ashton) he was a major figure in th ...
, met and socialised with Ellington when he was in London in 1933.
Later career
After the New York recordings, Hughes ceased performing jazz.[ He orchestrated and conducted shows for C B Cochran and (using the pseudonym "Mike") wrote jazz reviews for '' Melody Maker'' (1931–44),][ He wrote radio plays accompanied by his own musical scores for the ]BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, such as ''Nikki Makes News'' (1937).