Alan Branscombe (artist) • The Paul McCartney Project

Born:: Jun 04, 1936

Died:: Oct 27, 1986

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About

From Wikipedia:

Alan Branscombe (4 June 1936 – 27 October 1986) was an English jazz pianist, vibraphonist, and alto saxophonist.

Biography

Branscombe was born in Wallasey, Cheshire (now Merseyside), in 1936. His father and grandfather were also professional musicians. He played drums with Victor Feldman in a talent show as a child. He began on alto sax at age six, and played in the army with Jeff Clyne in 1954–56. He toured and recorded with Vic Ash in 1958, recorded with Tony Kinsey in 1959, and toured Japan with Stanley Black in 1960. He worked with John Dankworth as pianist and vibraphonist intermittently between 1960 and 1972, including in the 1963 film The Servant. He joined Harry South’s band at Ronnie Scott’s club in the mid-1960s, and played as a sideman with Tubby Hayes (1964), Stan Tracey (1966–68), Paul Gonsalves (1969), Ben Webster (1965, 1970), and Albert Nicholas (1973). Branscombe toured in Europe with Stan Getz in 1970, and played with the Lamb-Premru group around 1971.

Branscombe also recorded as a leader with Tony Kinsey and Tony Coe as sidemen on the album The Day I Met the Blues (EMI, 1977).

As a session musician, he played tenor saxophone on The Beatles song “Got to Get You into My Life“.

BEATLES PLUS JAZZMEN

IT’S Ringo, Paul, George and John week! And in this week of “Paperback Writer” (it’s out tomorrow, Friday), comes the news the Beatles have recorded an LP track with top British jazzmen.

Georgie Fame advised the Beatles on the best musicians available that would “think Beatle”. On the session were Ian Hamer, Les Condon and Eddie Thornton (trumpets), Alan Branscombe and Peter Coe (tenors).

Trumpeter Les Condon told the MM of his reaction to working on a Beatle date: “Interesting and unusual — I’ve never done a session quite like it before. The tune was a rhythm-and-bluesish sort of thing — we were only on one number which they had recorded previously. Apparently they felt it needed something extra. That’s why we were there. The arrangement? Well, they didn’t have a thing written down. We just listened to what they’d done and got an idea of what they wanted. Then we went ahead from there and gradually built up an arrangement. We tried a few things, and Paul McCartney – he’s really the prime mover who gets everyone at it — and recording manager George Martin decided between them what would be used. But most of it went right the first time. Ian and I jotted down some voicings but everybody chipped in and credit for the arrangement must be evenly divided. I suggested something for the trumpets for an ending, and we dubbed that on. They didn’t think it was quite strong enough, so we dubbed it on with the three trumpets again. You’ll really be hearing six trumpets in that coda. It was the most relaxed session I’ve ever been on. The Beatles all seemed very nice fellows. And do you know what? They didn’t tell us anything. They kept asking things.”
From Melody Maker – June 11, 1966