In 1980 Bobby Wellins was commissioned to write a suite of music, which he called ‘The Endangered Species’ because, in his words: “Some years ago there was an oil spillage which washed ashore in Bognar Regis where I live. The guillemots were being pulled out in a dreadful state. One reads about such things, but to see for oneself a bird's life being taken away from it is quite horrific. Their lives are short enough anyway. It brought home to me very directly the damage we are inflicting on ourselves and the creatures around us and I felt I needed to express how I felt by composing a jazz suite.”

The suite was written for Bobby’s quartet and was premiered at the Folkestone Arts Centre in February 1981. That concert was recorded and Bobby played it to Bob Cornford whom he greatly admired. Bob wanted to be involved in the production for an album and Bobby was very keen for him to orchestrate the suite for a small chamber orchestra in addition to the quartet. In February 1982 the suite was played on a short tour of six concerts in Hertfordshire and East Anglia, with the addition of Kenny Wheeler and the tour was promoted as being by The ‘Bobby Wellins / Kenny Wheeler Quintet’. Shortly after the tour, Bobby took his quartet, plus Kenny Wheeler and percussionist Chris Karan, into the studio to record The Endangered Species suite. He then sent the studio recordings to Bob Cornford, asking him to write the arrangements but, sadly, Bob died before he was able to do this. Sometime after this, Bobby then asked Tony Coe (a close friend and musical associate of Bob Cornford) to write the string arrangements. 

The Delmé String Quartet were commissioned to record Tony Coe’s string arrangements which were dubbed onto The Endangered Species studio recordings. There was then quite a gap but in 1989 the album was finally released on CD, but under a different title, as ‘The Birds Of Brazil’. This album is the first time that Bobby’s suite has been released with its original title ‘The Endangered Species’ and based around the original studio recordings ie without the added strings. We’ve also included two more CDs comprising live recordings of the suite in both quartet and quintet format, as well as tunes that were played on the 1982 tour, including a number of standards and Kenny Wheeler compositions. 

This is the second Jazz In Britain album that has emerged from the Bob Cornford tape archive, courtesy of Tony Rees who has looked after the tapes since Bob passed in the early 1980s, plus live recordings made by Spike Wells who also co-produced this album. This is a triple CD album of almost all new Bobby Wellins music; the only tracks that have been released before are the three additional tracks that were recorded at the studio session.