A
REMEMBERANCE FOR JERRY UNDERWOOD
14:08:1956 — 03:08:2002
On the 3rd of August 2002 our friend and colleague, saxophonist Jerry Underwood passed away. He had been very ill for about 18 months with a tumour and the onset of further complications finally claimed his life.
Jerry was quiet by nature, a modest drinker, non-smoker and devoted husband to Natalie. He was very considered in everything he said or did. We think this came from his love of mountaineering where every move has to be planned carefully, no room for mistakes. A perfect example came when Pentangle had some dates in Italy. We had agreed to meet Jerry at the train station in Venice. He was travelling from Lyon in France, where he lived and we were coming from the U.K. Unfortunately we were hampered by delays and dreadful weather, finally, arriving hours later than planned, we split up to try and find him, not knowing if he had given up and gone home or taken his own initiative to find the gig. When we eventually located him, he was sitting very relaxed on some steps at the station. We on the other hand all panicked and stressed greeted him like a long lost brother. After much apologising and explanations from us he said, “ Well I just did what you would do on the mountain. If you get separated or lost, just stay put and someone will find you”.
Jerry was one of the finest saxophonists of our time. He could rock with the best of them yet be deeply sensitive and melodic as his outstanding performances show on our albums, “About Thyme”, “Passe Avant” and “At The Little Theatre
Jerry had a wide range of musical interests aside from our band. We went to see him at the 606 jazz club in Fulham where he was playing avant garde with Gary Husband and Dil Katz. He was also with John Martyn, Carla Bley and the group Spirit Level.
In 1999 Pentangle played Cropredy Festival. We invited Ric Sanders up to play with us. After Ric’ s first solo, he looked at Jerry to take over but Jerry sensing his enjoyment beckoned him to carry on and stood back. After the gig Ric said how much he had enjoyed playing and just could not believe how generous Jerry had been with him. That’s the way he was.
A big thank you to the people that came to the Mill Banbury on Wednesday 7th August to see Anna Ryder and Jacqui McShee. Spencer Cozens was able to sample Jerry’s solo at the end of the song “Thyme” taken from the original studio master including Jerry’ s voice at the end asking for the track to be sent to him again. Of course we didn’t because that’s the one we kept.
It enabled Spencer, Alan Thomson and ourselves, however, to jam along with our friend for the last time. A tearful moment but our tribute to a great player and a wonderful guy. Joni Mitchell sang “Love is touching souls”. We would like to humbly amend that to “Music is touching souls”, surely he touched ours.
Love
Jacqui McShee and Gerry
Conway
If anyone would like to send messages of condolence
to Natalie please send them to:
GJS Records, P0 Box 155 Reigate, Surrey RH2
ONT.
See you all down the road.