Tubby Hayes is undoubtedly one of the most important, influential and ground-breaking UK jazz musicians of all time. During the ‘50s and early ‘60s, Hayes had stood apart from many of his UK-based contemporaries, displaying a self-confidence and virtuoso musical delivery that placed him neck-and-neck with many of the leading American jazzmen of the day. He worked with the likes of Quincy Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Charles Mingus and Duke Ellington and his many fans included Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley and Sonny Rollins. He had his own primetime TV show and was the face of UK jazz. His premature death in 1973, aged just 38, left a legacy that many critics and fellow artists point towards Tubby as the first UK artist to put British jazz solidly on the global map. Grits, Beans And Greens: The Lost Fontana Studio Sessions 1969 is a previously unissued studio album recorded by the iconic British jazz saxophonist Tubby Hayes Philips Studios, Stanhope Place, London, May 27th & June 24th, 1969. Thought to be either lost until their recent rediscovery, these sessions are being hailed as among the very best work in the Hayes discography and it is the UK’s equivalent album to Coltrane’s 2017 Both Directions At Once: The Lost Album release. The recordings have been lovingly remastered at Gearbox Records’ Studios, London, directly from the original tapes using a Studer C37 -inch stereo tape machine. They were then equalised through an all-valve mastering desk built bespoke for Decca studios in the late 1950s, Vintage Lang Pultec EQ, Prism Maselec EQ and Telefunken U73b valve limiters from 1959. For the vinyl format, the LP lacquers were cut on a beautifully restored Haeco Scully Lathe from 1967 with Westrex (Western Electric) head and cutting amps: the same go-to lathe that Rudy Van Gelder used. The CD formats have been mastered using MQA [Master Quality Authenticated] technology. MQACD plays back on all CD players. When a conventional CD player is connected to an MQA-enabled device, the CD will reveal the original master quality. “This Fine Jazz Man Will Blow You Away” - THE TIMES “No doubt in my mind that had they been shared at the time that these recordings would’ve been seen as Tubby’s last great album” - CERYS MATTHEWS (BBC 6MUSIC) “it’s a discovery that’s a momentous find and one that’s as important to British music as last year’s Both Directions At Once by John Coltrane is to US jazz” - RECORD COLLECTOR**** ”the work of a master musician who was among the top tenor saxophonists of his time” - JAZZWISE**** “…with its excellent recorded fidelity, is such an indispensable release” - JAZZWISE “Now in the form of ‘Grits, Beans And Greens’ we finally have a bookend to the most illustrious career in British Jazz that can serve as a fitting epitaph to the genius of our own Little Giant” – UK VIBE “Even if someone were to discover the mythical Buddy Bolden cylinder tomorrow or find a photo of Robert Johnson shaking hands with the devil they would count for nothing beside these 50-year-old recordings by Tubby Hayes” - BEBOP SPOKEN HERE “A unique and brilliant voice” - JOOLS HOLLAND “The greatest tenor sax player performing anywhere” - DIZZY GILLESPIE “Tubby Hayes. Surely one of the most influential and dominating personalities on the British jazz scene” - RONNIE SCOTT “How could I play with Tubby Hayes and be big-headed?” - DANNY THOMPSON