Career
Don Weller began learning clarinet at the age of 14, and was classically educated on it for four or five years, soloing in Mozart"s Clarinet Concerto at Croydon Town Hall when aged 15. He began playing in Dixieland bands around the Croydon area, but later switched to tenor saxophone and played in Kathy Stobart"s rehearsal band. In the 1970s, his jazz-rock group Major Surgery played only Weller"s compositions.
This was followed by a quartet with drummer Bryan Spring.
At the same time he worked regularly with pianist Stan Tracey, and also with Harry Beckett and in a quintet with Art Themen. Renowned for his versatility, he has played with artists such as Alan Price, Tina May and Charlie Hearnshaw.
He played saxophone on the 1973 album Allright on the Night by British hard rock band Tucky Buzzard. He appears as lead sax (with Tower of Power backing him on horns)on the instrumental track "Nascimento" of Cat Stevens" 1978 LP Back To Earth.
He also played on the Alex Harvey album The Mafia Stole My Guitar released in 1979 delivering the solo on the track Wait Foreign Maine Mama and writing Don"s Delight.
In 1981, he stood in for Michael Brecker when the Gil Evans Orchestra played at the Bracknell Jazz Festival, subsequently touring the United Kingdom and recording with one of the band"s trumpeters, Hannibal Marvin Peterson, added on to the Weller–Spring Quartet. He also played and recorded with Evans" British Orchestra in 1983. He has been involved with the films Absolute Beginners and Stormy Monday both as performer and composer.
In 1995 he was commissioned by the Appleby Jazz Festival organiser Neil Ferber to write The "Pennine Suite" for a jazz big band which was premiered at the 1995 Appleby festival and released on Civil Defense the following year.
Since then the band has regularly appeared at other jazz festivals. A more recent commission from Appleby Jazz was for his "Electric Jazz Octet".