Lennie Felix

b. 16 August 1920, London, England, d. 29 December 1980. Although Felix began his career in the years immediately before World War II, it was in the early post-war period that he became an established pianist on the London jazz club scene. In the 50s he played in the UK with Freddy Randall and Harry Gold, and in New York with Henry ‘Red’ Allen and Buster Bailey. Towards the end of the decade he was a member of Wally Fawkes’ Troglodytes. He continued to play through the 60s and 70s, making records and radio broadcasts. At his best as a soloist or leading a trio, Felix displayed the traits of dominant musical personalities such as Fats Waller, Earl Hines and Art Tatum. Perhaps as a result of such mentors he was temperamentally unsuited to the role of accompanist and some of his musical partnerships ended disastrously. One, with visiting American cornetist Ruby Braff, a man not known for his reticence in dealing with awkward associates, ended with the visitor declaring, ‘I asked for a piano player and they gave me a disease.’ During the Christmas season, 1980, Felix was struck by a car as he was leaving a London jazz club and he died on 29 December that year.
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