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Robert Coull Wellins was born January 24, 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland and studied alto saxophone and harmony with his father Max, and also played piano and clarinet when young. Joining the RAF as a musician playing tenor saxophone and after demobilization he played with a few Scottish bands before moving to London. England in the mid-1950s.

He was a member of the Buddy Featherstonhaugh quintet between 1956 and 1957 with Kenny Wheeler. Around that time Wellins also joined drummer Tony Crombie’s Jazz Inc., where he first met pianist Stan Tracey, and then joined Tracey’s quartet in the early 1960s.

In the mid-1970s he led his own quartet with pianist Pete Jacobsen, bassist Adrian Kendon and drummer Spike Wells. Ken Baldock, and then Andy Cleyndert in the 1980s would replace Kendon. He also worked with Lionel Grigson in 1976 and by the end of the 1970s he was a member of the Jim Richardson Quartet.

The 1980s had him forming a quintet with fellow saxophonist Don Weller and Errol Clarke on piano, Cleyndert and Wells, while the latter featured guitarist Jim Mullen and Pete Jacobsen on piano. Following this group, Wellins led various quartets that included pianist Liam Noble, bassist Simon Thorpe and Dave Wickens on drums. He renewed his association with Spike Wells and put together a quartet with pianist Mark Edwards and bassist Andrew Cleyndert.

In 2012, Wellins was the subject of a documentary film, Dreams are Free, directed by Brighton-based director Gary Barber, tracing the rise, fall and redemption of Wellins. It covered his addiction and depression, how he overcame it and rediscovered the desire to play after ten years away from jazz.

Tenor saxophonist Bobby Wellins, best known for his 1965 collaboration with Stan Tracey on jazz suite inspired by Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, passed away on October 27, 2016 after being ill for some years.

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