Brenda Canty Forrest
RIP 3rd Jan 2021

04/01/21 -

I have just heard that Brenda Canty-Forest has died this morning at home (3rd Jan). Apparently she was taken ill at home and died before the ambulance arrived. Her daughter Carole was with her at her home in Colwyn Bay.

Martin Snow

04/01/21 -

 Unfortunately this email is to confirm the passing of Brenda Canty Forest. Yesterday morning I was advised by her daughter Carol that Brenda was taken ill and had passed away before an ambulance had arrived. Brenda had battled with cancer for a period of three years, but tried to carry on enjoying her extended family - and Jazz.S he was very much involved in the jazz scene from the early 50's playing piano in various bands. During the last few years she was a great supporter of Jazz Rag at Betws y Coed.

Morris Jones

05/01/21 -

Brenda, who was living in North Wales, was a regular visitor to this page and once wrote, "I have to say that through your site I have been in touch with at least 4 musicians from 50 years ago... you certainly have deserved recognition for services to trad jazz. When I was in Pete Haslam's Collegians band we played Wrought Iron Rag on a live "People and Places" programme on Granada TV around 1959/60. I remember we had to keep on practising it to get it exactly in time with the slot we had in the programme. We were in the studios all day and the men had to change their shirts into more colourful ones to show up on black and white TV and I then had very dark hair and had to have gold spray on it to show curls! It was a very popular tune for us in clubs so that was probably why we chose it for TV. I also have an LP we did with this on which we recorded in the Free Trade Hall one cold Sunday morning by TH Adkins, Rendezvous records. Thinking about it,... When we did the TV show, we may have been called The Crescent Jazz band as we obviously didn't have our colourful striped jackets we had when Paddy McKiernan took us on and changed our name."

Fred Burnett

13/01/21 -

Colin Tomkins played in the Zenith Six alongside Mart when Brenda was pianist with Pete Haslam's Collegians. We knew Pete very well but not Brenda at that time. The Zenith never had a pianist so she wouldn't have played with them at all. I remember Brenda and Colin moving to North Wales. When Mart and the musicians in Manchester Jazz played in North Wales Brenda would turn up to talk to us and reminisce about the old days. It was always good to see her, and I would like to send my condolences to Carol and her family

Janet Rodger