The one jazz song The Strangler’s Hugh Cornwell defies any rock fan not to enjoy: “It’s an absolute gem”

Posted On November 22, 2025November 22, 2025

Amid the punk milieu of the period, The Stranglers stood out like a Ferrari in an Aldi car park. They were the envy of their peers because they had more chops in abundance than a butcher’s window. This drew their ire.

They were also enemy number one because they had slagged every other band off too, but Hugh Cornwell tells me “That’s what you did in those days, you know, slag people off, because that’s how you got in a headline.” Yet, their willingness to do so, coupled with the evident virtuosity and ingenuity in their ranks, made them somewhat of an oddity.

It doesn’t take long delving into the music that first inspired Cornwell and his leather-clad gang to see why. His older brother was a jazz fanatic, so alongside the likes of The Byrds, Cornwell grew up loving Miles Davis, Nat Adderley, and a collection of Harlem heroes. These would later go unnoticed amid the furore of The Stranglers.

And perhaps it was for the best that they largely went undetected, despite the likes of the keyboard solo on ‘Walk On By’ being as jazzy as it gets, because the operative word in the last paragraph is: ‘fanatic’. It is a long-held belief that you’re either a ‘jazz fanatic’, drawn into the dark and mystic world of difficult listens, or you’re strongly averse to it.

Cornwell doesn’t think that’s the case, and he lays down on firm challenge to that stupid but sustaining sensibility. Speaking about the Art Blakey album, The Big Beat, the still swaggering Cornwell comments, “Well, this has got a great track on it called ‘Dat Dere’, which is sort of a hip way of saying ‘that there’.”

He adds, “It’s written by Art Blakey’s keyboard player called Bobby Timmons, who is another fabulous keyboard player and writer. And he wrote this beautiful song.” With plenty of the dynamic motion of rock ‘n’ roll, it’s easy to see why he picks it out as a prime starting point.

“It’s an absolute gem,” Cornwell continues to wax. “It’s an absolute jazz classic, and I defy anyone who likes music and melodic music and rock music to listen to that and not enjoy listening to it. It’s a fantastic track, and it’s on that album, The Big Beat.”

While Cornwell never got the chance to witness it live before Blakey passed in 1990 aged 71, commenting, “The closest I got to seeing any of my jazz legends was Chico Hamilton. He was one of my favourite jazz musicians, and he was fantastic,” it’s easy to see how ‘Dat Dere’ would’ve somehow summoned an almost-punk-like spirit with its swelling energy.

It might not have been a monumental seller even in the jazz fanatics’ world back in the day, but Cornwell lays it down as a gauntlet that remains impossible for any music fan to overlook. So, why not give it a whirl? You only live bloody once, you doyle. 

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