19/06/22 -

It is with sadness and regret that I have to inform that Eric Sumner passed away a few weeks ago. Originally from Liverpool many will remember Eric playing Trombone and singing with the Phoenix Jazzmen at the Westminster Hotel, City Rd, Chester from 1975-2009.  Eric's funeral is arranged for Thursday 23rd June, in Chester. Should anyone wish to attend or contact his family please email me and I will pass on further details. My partner and I have also set up a just giving site in his memory for donations to The Musicians Benevolent Fund/Help Musicians. -

Phil (son) Email: sumner5339@yahoo.co.uk 

Westminster Hotel, The Steam Inn - c2003
John Lawrence (Tmpt.Cnt), Eric Sumner (Tmb.vocals), John Hill (Pno) Keith Small (Bass) Ken Jackson (Dms)

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19/06/22 -

My condolences to Eric's family. I played drums in the 60's with Eric's Band, The Tunnel City jazz Band

Mal Thory

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19/06/22 -

I enjoyed many gigs at The Westminster and elsewhere with Eric's Phoenix Jazz Band: lovely chap, very knowledgeable, good player and singer, and the best for giving pre-satnav directions to gigs: locations of every letterbox, prominent buildings, etc. ensured we always found the venues. Lots of fun with his band which included the effervescent reed player in the photo, John "Jack" Clack, my old Heat Engines tutor at college in earlier days. RIP Eric.

Jon Critchley.

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22/06/22 -

I was very sorry to learn that Eric Sumner had died. I first encountered him in the early 1970s when he depped with (Lymm’s) Original Dam Jazz Band. Dep jobs for me followed with Eric’s Phoenix Band in Chester and I became a band member for the last few years of the decade.

Eric was a vey effective front man, trombonist and singer, and excellent company. The band played few functions, generally happy to explore a variety of tunes and styles, which seemed to satisfy listeners at weekly sessions at The Westminster. I suppose we took the music seriously, but not much else. I left the band on removing to Bolton and encountered Eric only infrequently (occasional depping), but I met up with Phil (his son, a bassist) at a folk night in Lymm maybe eight or ten years ago (yes, Folk and Jazz ARE compatible) and got more news of Eric who also took part in Big Band sessions.

Eric and I shared many opinions musically and in more trivial matters (like the meaning of life). Five or six years ago (it may be more) I collected him and we met up with (drummer) Ken Jackson for a pub lunch on the Welsh border. Naturally we put the world right, only to find, on emerging from licensed premises, that nothing had changed.

Condolences to family and friends. I shall remember Eric with affection.

Harmoniously,
John Muskett

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26/06/22 -

Sadly, yet another of our jazz colleagues has passed away.

I first became friends with Eric when he asked me to join what was then the Phil Baxter Jazzmen (formerly the Tunnel City Jazzband) to replace their banjo player. After a few years, we became resident as the Phoenix Jazzmen on a Thursday night at the extremely tolerant Westminster Hotel in Chester where we managed to avoid ejection for some 35 years (this may be a record for an unbroken residency in one venue) and declared it to be a banjo-free zone. Eric always delighted in reminiscing about the disgruntled guest coming downstairs in his pyjamas to complain about the noise. Over the years, there were changes in personnel, but the nucleus of Ken Jackson on drums, Eric and myself remained.

I lost touch with Eric in recent years after he'd retired from playing and I'd run out of bands to play with, but we'd remained friends for most of my time in jazz and there are so many good memories to look back on. Condolences to Eric's son Phil and partner Barbara. I've included a photo of Eric taken at the Westminster Hotel with our first ever celebrity guest, Roy Williams.-

John Hill

 

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