The Great Northern Jazz Band features two prominent North West musicians, Malcolm Hogarth (piano) and Isabel Toner (bass)

I first encountered Dennis Armstrong at the Old King’s Head, a pub in Bingley, near Bradford, Yorkshire, in the mid-1960s. I have avidly followed his career ever since and seen him blossom into one of the country’s finest cornet players. I have, however, always wondered about the years before that - and so, half a lifetime later, I asked him and his recorded reminiscences follow below. I hope that his busy schedule will allow a subsequent interview to bring his fascinating career up to date for Just Jazz readers.

A. L. What is your first jazz memory?

D. A. It was at Ermystead's Grammar School, Skipton, about 1950, when I was thirteen. The school jazz band consisted of Butch Hudson and Bunt Bamber on trumpets, Gordon Kippax on guitar, Micky Bell on bass, and Gordon Kay on drums. They played on a schools' radio programme, and made quite an impression. I'm not sure the headmaster was that pleased. By then they'd added Peter Tillotson on piano. As well as the band, they played records, mostly Humphrey Lyttelton or Freddy Randall. One day they had the Bunk Johnson band, with George Lewis, playing Tishomingo Blues. It knocked me out. I'd never heard anything like that. When someone told me who the band was, I asked, "Do Americans play jazz?"

A. L. When did you take up the cornet?

D. A. When I was nine the Skipton Town Band were recruiting at Brougham Street School. They gave me a cornet to blow and I got a clean note straight off. I started going to Junior Band practices. Also, Peter Maroney and I had private tuition from a Mr Booth, but I really wasn't that keen. Then Mr Booth was killed in a road accident on his way to give us a lesson. I gave up playing, and didn't touch the instrument again until after I heard the school jazz band. Then, when I heard the Bunk Johnson record, I knew that was the music I wanted to play. Sixty years later it's still an obsession.

A. L. Who were your early influences, on record, and locally?

D. A. Bunk, of course, also Humphrey Lyttelton and Freddie Randall. When I started to listen and play locally, there was Alan Benson, and John Cook. John was very encouraging in the early days. He said to me, "Keep at it. Get stuck in!" Later there was Bert Gaunt.

A. L. So when did you start playing jazz?

D. A. After hearing the school jazz band, I started trying to play jazz myself. I'd handed back the cornet from the Skipton Band, but I think I borrowed a trumpet. I forced my school friend, Harry Crabtree, to play the clarinet. I knew the school had a clarinet somewhere, and hunted until I found it. Then I got Harry to play it, though he really wanted to play trumpet. (He eventually became a very good reed player, and ran a local big band.) We fumbled along with the help of various friends on banjo, piano etc. and played for a few school concerts. We must have made an awful noise.

My sister Joyce joined Christ Church Youth Club, so I joined as well. We went on hikes, and they ran dances. I enjoyed that, but rugby and jazz were my priorities. When I left school I got together with the Coe brothers. Their father, Billy, ran a local dance band. Tony, who was always known as Joe, played piano, and Randall played trombone. We eventually put a band together and started playing upstairs at the Castle Inn in, at the Skipton Jazz Club, started by Ivan Wright.

Ivan, at this time he was my chief mentor and I would never have got anywhere without him. I'd got to know him through Jack Miller, an 18st Rugby forward who played banjo. I didn't have many records, nor a gramophone of my own to play them on. Ivan had a good collection which I could listen to, and that way I learned a lot of tunes. Through him I got to hear American jazz.

A. L. Tell me more about that Castle Inn band.

D. A. We didn't get paid by the club, but my sister Joyce took two shillings a head on the door, which went to the band. It lasted about 18 months. The final line-up was me on trumpet, Alan Windle on clarinet, Alan Jowitt, from Bradford, on trombone, Jack Miller on banjo, Micky Finn on piano, and Peter Dunn on drums. At first we'd have guests on bass, but eventually we had Les Woodhalve. He came over from Shipley on the bus, and had to buy a ticket for his bass as well as himself. Ivan Wright introduced me to the Wool City Jazz Men, which was a popular band in the Leeds and Bradford area, and I got to sit in with them. Alan Benson was the cornet player, and I learned a lot listening to him. Then some of them came over to sit in with me. I remember Jack Dyson (clarinet), Brian Goldsborough (banjo), and Bernie Netherwood (trombone), all came over.

A. L. I know you switched to trombone for a while. How did that happen?

D. A. By the time I was 18, the band at the Castle Inn had folded. At that time I used to go over to the Central Youth Club in Keighley and met Dave Copperwaite, John Kirkham, and a pianist called Peter Thompson. His father, Tommy Thompson, ran the Ambassador Dance Band in Keighley. Peter was at Leeds University, and had a jazz band there. His trumpet player was Martyn Sharp. The band needed a trombone player, and I fancied having a go.

I bought a trombone from Martin's brother, paying him £12, at £1 per week. I quickly picked up the instrument by relating the slide positions to valve positions on the trumpet. I played with that band for about a year. I would travel to Leeds from Skipton by train, and stay the night in various people's flats. I remember there was a clarinet player from Manchester, Fred Cooper, and John Clayford, from Huddersfield, was on drums. The band played in and around Leeds, but mostly at the university. We used to rehearse on Saturday mornings. There was another jazz band at the university then, the Gerry Wilson Five, but they were never rivals. Gerry started the band, but soon went back to Ireland. The band kept going, but never changed the name.

A. L. When did you stop playing trombone?

D. A. I played with Pete Thompson's band for about a year, then some of the students graduated and the band broke up, some time in 1956. Some of my friends were doing National Service, but I was deferred because I was doing an apprenticeship, studying dyeing at Bradford Technical College. I had no band to play with, but I still went regularly to hear the Wool City Jazz Men play at the Market Tavern.

One evening a pianist called Hedley Turner collared me and dragged me across the road to the Oddfellows' Arms. Peter Dennehay's Imperial Jazz Band were rehearsing there. Peter said, "Now then laddie, we've been looking for you." Their trumpet player, Phil Siddall, was emigrating to Canada. They knew about me from the Castle Inn days, and wanted me to take his place. Although I'd moved on to trombone, I borrowed Phil's trumpet to play a few tunes with them. Then Peter Dennehay ordered his drummer, Mike Hoggard, to sell me an old cornet he owned, for £5. So I joined the Imperial Jazz Band, which played every Thursday at the Ling Bob, in Wilsden, near Bingley. I was a cornet player now - and, apart from a brief return to trombone, have been ever since.

A. L. Who else was in that band?

D. A. Peter Denehay played clarinet, and Peter Forrest, wicket keeper for the Yorkshire 2nd XI, was on trombone. The rhythm section was Hedley Turner and Mike Hoggard, (piano and drums), and Geoff Shires on banjo. Geoff was later replaced by Ken Senior. Because the band practised regularly, I was learning a lot more tunes.

I used to travel by train and bus to rehearsals and gigs, but Peter wanted me to have my own transport. So I bought an Ariel 350 motor bike for £15. It needed a bit of attention from my father, who was a motor mechanic, but then I could get to play more gigs and visit jazz clubs further afield. I still went to listen at the Market Tavern in Bradford, and the Crown at Batley. I also went to the Dyers and Finishers’ Club at Huddersfield, where I remember the girls with their mini skirts and beehive hair-dos, drinking pints. There I would have heard Chris Mercer, but I didn't get to know him. It was over forty years later that we started playing together, in Jim Shelley's Frisco Band. I also met Ed O'Donnell, just after he'd left the Ken Colyer and returned to Yorkshire.

A. L. You were still quite young, so what was the next move?

D. A. Peter Denehay and some friends had acquired a large cellar in Bradford, and planned to turn it into a jazz club. This took all his time and effort, and meant the end of the Imperial Jazz Band.

Everybody pitched in to help set up the club. I went over whenever I was free and built the stage. They put in toilets and a bar, (soft drinks only), and decorated the place. There is a story that David Hockney, who lived locally and was at art college at the time, painted a mural. This is a myth. There was a mural painted by a local art student, but his name was Seton.

The Students' Club opened with Dizzy Burton's Jazz Aces, from Manchester, and was a huge success. I wasn't able to take advantage of it, because my call-up papers had arrived. Even more frustrating, I lost the chance to join a new band. I was playing at Fountain Hall in a band alternating with the Maryland Jazz Band. Brian "Sam" Ellis was with them, and he came to ask me to join a new band he was forming, the Savannah. I had to decline, because a week later I joined the RAF.

A. L. So what was life like in the RAF? Did you have a chance to play?

D. A. No. I didn't play jazz, or rugby, for nearly a year. After basic training at Wilmslow I was sent to Netheravan, in Wiltshire, to be a policeman. I was a tall, smart fellow then, and they offered me a choice of police or RADU. When I discovered that RADU was the ceremonial drill unit, I quickly opted for the police.

After Netheravon I was posted to Marham, in Norfolk. I could get home on leave on the motor bike, so I still went to listen to jazz. One day at Marham I saw a notice in the mess. It asked anyone interested in forming a jazz band to contact Junior Technician Pringle.

I went straight to find him. I knocked on the door and walked in. A bunch of guys were sat round a table, playing cards. Not just playing cards, but playing cards for money. This was against regulations, and I was standing there with my white hat and gaiters, in full "snowdrop" rig. Everyone froze. I said "I'm looking for J. T. Pringle", and a white-faced young man was pushed forward. I said "Don't worry lads, I'm off duty. I'm just here to find out about the jazz band." There was an audible sigh of relief!

There never was a jazz band at Marham, but Tony and I got to spend a lot of time together. I was a corporal, and in the corporals' recreation room was the very latest in record players. Tony had a good collection of classic jazz records. I could get the key to the room and so we spent many off duty hours there. I learnt a great deal from Tony, and came to realise that classic jazz was the music I wanted to play.

When I'd been in the RAF about 18 months, and the end was in sight, I had an offer from the Cescent City Jazz Band. I'd got to know them because David Copperwaite, played with them, and I often went to hear them when I was on 48-hour stand-down. Malcolm Webb had left the band, and they needed a trombone player. They remembered I had played trombone, and asked me to join them. I bought a Selmer Lincoln for £20 and was ready to be a trombone player again.

A. L. You were still in the RAF then. How did you manage playing regularly with a band?

D. A. I managed to play on weekend leaves by swapping duties with fellow "snowdrops". The Crescent City did regular jobs at the Students' Club in Bradford. They supported bands like Terry Lightfoot, the Merseyssippis, Mick Mulligan etc. The line-up was Dave Copperfield on trumpet, Bernard Johnson, (now living in California) on clarinet, and me on trombone. We were backed by "Blondie" Wright (bass) and Peter Cridland
(drums). In 1960 I left the RAF. The next day, a Thursday, we played at Scunthorpe Jazz Club, then at Dishforth RAF station on Friday and the Students' Club on Saturday. (I particularly enjoyed playing at Dishforth, as I no longer had to call the officers "Sir". )

The band rehearsed at the Temperance Hall in Keighley. I was back living with my parents in Skipton. (As well as playing jazz, I'd gone back to playing rugby for Skipton.) The band "headquarters" was the Lord Rodney in Keighley, run by Mr and Mrs Pollard. During this time we formed a New Orleans’ style marching band to play in Keighley Gala. It was called the Spartan Brass Band, because there was a float featuring Mike Lamb dressed as Spartacus. By the next week, at Skipton Gala, the Spartan Brass Band was part of the show. From then on it grew and continued playing at Yorkshire Galas until 1968.

A. L. When did you form the Excelsior?

D. A. After a couple of years, the Crescent City broke up and I formed the first of my own bands, the Excelsior. The first line-up was me on cornet with Martin Emsworth (clarinet), Brian Harvey (trombone), Mike Hurrell (banjo), Ronnie Walsh (drums) and Malcolm Moore (bass). Malcolm was mainly a folk/blues guitar player, but was also very good on bass. The band rehearsed, and we started working on some classic jazz tunes - stuff by Oliver, Armstrong, and Jelly Roll Morton, and some old marches. Then, sadly, work dried up, because the bottom had dropped out of the "Trad Boom", and the Students' Club had gone bankrupt.

A. L. So what did you do next?

D. A. In about 1964 I went with my old friend Malcolm Webb to the Market Tavern in Bradford to hear the Yorkshire Jazz Band. We weren't impressed. All the musicians were good, but in our opinion they weren't playing well together. We remarked on this to Dave Wheatley, their clarinettist. He was a bit shocked and asked if we could do better? When we nodded, he said if we did form a band, he would like to play in it.

Within a few days we had the following line-up: myself on cornet, Malcolm on trombone, Dave Wheatley (clarinet), Dickie Speight (banjo), Trevor Shaw (bass), and Ronnie Banks (drums). I saddled myself with the task of finding a venue. We decided that the best area to go for was outside of Bradford, somewhere around Bingley. This was mainly because of the proximity of the Teacher Training college, then an all-female establishment.
(Get the birds to draw the blokes!) I eventually settled on the King's Head, and spent an evening persuading the landlord and his wife to let us play there. We said we would play for nothing. They said Tuesday was a dead night, but that suited me. The landlord offered a few free beers for the band, and we agreed.

The first evening at the King's Head was fairly successful. A crowd of 30 - 40 turned up and the landlord was delighted. Then he said how he regretted that he would shortly be moving on. I went to see the new landlord, and he was happy for the band to carry on, and on improved terms.
(More beer!) Within a few weeks we were packing the place. We had raffles to raise a bit of money for the band.

The sessions at the King's Head ran for several years. Ronnie Banks left the Tuesday band, to be replaced by Ronnie Walsh. The pub continued to have successful jazz sessions until sadly it was closed and demolished to make way for the new headquarters of the Bradford and Bingley Building Society.
 

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