Biography
Roy Babbington supplied the bass pulse at the core of Britain’s inventive jazz community throughout the 1970s. Pianist Keith Tippett and trumpeter Ian Carr both drew on his services for the era’s most exploratory and fusion-oriented projects. From 1974 to 1976 the bassist held a chair in Soft Machine, an affiliation that came after nearly two decades of professional work that had begun when he turned eighteen. Relocating to London in the closing years of the 1960s, he first earned his living as a session player, gradually exchanging anonymous dance-hall and pub gigs for partnerships with Tippett, Carr, and similar figures. He also anchored rhythm sections that supported visiting American jazz musicians on British stages. By the late 1970s theatrical scores occupied more of his time through repeated engagements at the National Theatre. Subsequent alliances linked him with Harry Beckett, Graham Collier, and Barbara Thompson. During the 1980s his lines could be heard inside pianist Stan Tracey’s groups and on broadcasts by the BBC Radio Orchestra; Tracey’s 1987 Steam album Genesis showcased some of Babbington’s strongest playing. He has remained a regular on London’s club circuit, most notably joining the inimitable Mose Allison’s trio for a series of live dates captured in 2001. Although his sessions with Elvis Costello during the 1990s brought wider recognition, Babbington’s work with distinctive songwriters stretches back much farther, encompassing earlier recordings with Soft Machine’s Robert Wyatt and with the under-recognized Chris Youlden. After bassist Hugh Hopper’s death in 2009, Babbington entered the Soft Machine Legacy lineup alongside drummer John Marshall, guitarist John Etheridge, and saxophonist/flutist Theo Travis, contributing to the quartet’s Live Adventures (2010) and Burden of Proof (2013).