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Doom and Gloom Part 4
D&G 1 : D&G 2 : D&G 3 : D&G 5 : D&G 6 : D&G 7 : D&G 8 : D&G 9
23/02/11 - You may recall that I mentioned a school jazz band in Lancaster called the Rip-Roarers, Well I'm pleased to get more information from Dave Bateman, banjo player with The New Riverside and The High Society Jazz Bands. The school is The Ripley St. Thomas Church of England High School, and the band (The Rip-Roarers Jazz Band), is currently on a trip to South Africa, and you can read their blog here
Dave
tells me, "The band was started about 4 years ago, when the Head of Music,
Robert Richmond, encouraged some of the youngsters from the school's concert
band to get together to play some jazz arrangements. Robert himself is a very
talented pianist, and is interested in many different forms of music. The band
features Lily Whitfield on trumpet and Sophie Flint on tenor sax. Both are very
excellent musicians, who play in a wide variety of bands (They both play with a
quartet called 'Huevos' which has had regular gigs around the area, and Lily has
played recently with DizzyHack, a 16 piece big band which now regularly plays
jazz/swing/funk at The Bowerham Hotel in Lancaster on the first Tuesday of each
month.) The line-up includes clarinet, trombone, piano, alto sax, tuba and
drums. The band has played a number of gigs outside school, including a concert
at Lancaster Priory which was part of the last Lancaster Jazz Festival, but most
of their concerts are associated with school events. They were chosen, from a
number of school bands which also auditioned, to play for a National Education
Conference in Birmingham last year. They mostly play written arrangements,
although Lily and Sophie are quite capable of improvised solos. On their recent
CD, the numbers include Washington and Lee Swing, Five Feet Two, Alabama
Jubilee, Basin Street Blues, Bill Bailey and St. James' Infirmary - all fairly
traditional tunes - with a 'small band' arrangement of 'Little Brown Jug', and a
swing version of S'Wonderful. The band is currently in South Africa, as part of
an international exchange programme which the school is involved with. The only
downside to this really exciting development is that some of the band, including
Lily and Sophie, Daniel Mawson (Also Sax) and Simon Saunders (Drums) will be
leaving at the end of the school year. No doubt they will continue their musical
careers elsewhere, but Robert Richmond is trying very hard to discover and
encourage new young players to join the band so that it can continue next year. 20/11/11 - Just thought I would send this as an example of how to attract 'young blood' into jazz clubs. Leeds jazz club has been suffering recently because of the age of its supporters. Like many trad jazz clubs throughout the country attendances have fallen off due to the traditional support aging and no longer able to attend. Indeed some clubs have closed down completely. So it is important that a younger element is attracted to this genre of jazz. Unfortunately trad jazz does not get any air time on mainstream radio so the younger music fan does not get exposed to the music. This is a shame because in my experience as a musician who has played trad and modern for more years than I care to remember when ever young people experience trad jazz they invariably enjoy it and want to come back for more. So it was that I asked a singer, Tessa Smith, who sings with my band occasionally and who I knew liked to dance if she fancied coming down to the club with a partner and see what she thought of it. This she did and enjoyed it so much that she has been back virtually every week since. Not only that, she has spread the word among her friends to such an extent that last week I counted at least 20 youngsters dancing and having a really good time. Ken Butler 30/07/12 - Hi Fred, There is a certain jazz club that we play at in Yorks. Some time ago it was discovered by a group of students from the local university. They loved the music and started coming to every session. Being young they like to dance and it was a pleasure to see them on the dance floor jiving and jitterbugging. They had obviously watched the old films from the ' 40's and were well into it. The last time we played there the room was in darkness except for the stage and the bar and the dancers were almost invisible. When I mentioned this I was stunned to hear that some of the audience had complained about the dancers and some had even stopped attending ! What on earth can one say ? This is exactly the infusion of new blood that we need. Didn't the old fogies who complained dance to jazz when they were young ? Yours in despair, Moe Green.
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