Big Jay McNeely

IN AUGUST 1983 Big Jay McNeely flew to London for the R & B Jamboree at Camden 's Electric Ballroom where he topped a bill which included Willie Egan, Chuck Higgins and the grievously underrated Young Jessie. The companionably crowded audience gave the 56-year-old Grand Master a tumultuous reception and he played to the gallery in a vulgar, rough-hewn style unseen in Europe since Big Jim Wynn toured with Johnny Otis over ten years before.