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Forty years have elapsed since the death of the British jazz legend Tubby Hayes and yet his story still continues to captivate. Beginning as a precociously talented teenage saxophonist, he took first the local and then the international jazz scene by storm, displaying gifts equal to the finest American jazzmen, appearing with none other than Duke Ellington and proving almost single-handedly that British jazz need not labour under an inferiority complex. Hayes' triumphs during the 1950s and 60s enabled still later generations of English musicians to take their music onto the world stage. However his story has rarely been accurately recorded. Distorted by the folklore surrounding his tragically early death, aged only 38, much of what has been written, broadcast and recounted about Hayes has added only confusion to our understanding of his short but brilliant life.