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Who first influenced me as a
musician
Trumpet
16/07/20 -
I am happy to admit that the first musician I heard that made me
want to learn to play the trumpet was Eddie Calvert and I have met
really good, admittedly older, jazz trumpet players who admit the
same. Next for me came Humph then Louis. Nat and Eddie had
something important in common. The ability to help people love
music. I would be very interested to hear from other trumpet
players who their very first influence was.
A bit more to add to my musical
schooling. Started on trumpet at about age 15yrs at school in about
1956. The music teacher gave me my instrument at the end of term
ready to start lessons next term. I couldn't wait so started at home
during the holiday. Humph in a book advised to always play in front
of a mirror to look like your hero. I naturally play downwards so to
look like him I filed my mouthpiece on a chamfer to angle the
instrument upwards (I only heard of asymmetrical mouthpieces very
recently). My tutor had a fit when he saw it, so back to the
downwards embouchure more like Tommy McQuator. He said don't follow
Humph or Dizzy because they do it wrong! Methinks they did it wrong
quite well!
I joined a London County Council student dance orchestra c.59 and
learned to read hot music tutored by Bert Wilton who I recently
discovered played 1st Tpt. With Harry Roy in the 30's. I could not
busk anything and only began learning to improvise later with
Charlie Prince, banjo player with Ken Ames in the River City
Stompers.
Peter Boswell
16/07/20 -
In Reply to Peter Boswell question about favourite trumpeters, for
me you couldn’t go past .”Freddy Randle” Humph, Louis, and of course
“ Harry James” to name a few. magic moments listening to Freddy’s
version of “ At the JazzBand Ball” ..Humph recorded “ Come on Stomp,
Stomp, Stomp” on my 5th Birthday, the brilliant Stop Chorus after
the 2 clarinets solo. it
was one of the first solos I learned to play and I used to go along
when I was a teenager to the New Orleans Club and play with “The
Clem Avery Jazzband “and use that solo every week until some one
said “ Hold on, you played that last Week..” -
Derek
Dalton
When asked
if he played trumpet, Derek replied, "Yes, after many years
working with the Phoenix Jazzmen in Newcastle I played lead trumpet
in Blackpool for a time with Jack Hawkins at the Blackpool Locarno,
then joined Ken Mackintosh at the Hammersmith Palais in London, I
ended up Emigrating to South Australia and joined the “Band of the
South Australia Police” as the principle trumpet soloist ,I
appeared in 2 Edinburgh Tattoos with the SAPOL band , 1990 .2000. at
the end of the 1990 Tattoo I was the Bugler on the “Castle Wall”
great memories".
23/07/20 - Regarding Pete
Boswell's note on Eddie Calvert - Eddie was a terrific horn man and
a nice guy to boot. He was a brass band player and had a fabulous
tone but he freely admitted that he was never a jazzer. However he
really admired the great jazz horn men and was really chuffed when
Harry James recorded a cover version of Oh Mein Papa for the US
market.
He was good to be in digs with and used to talk of his time as a
sideman and featured soloist with Gerry Bright (Geraldo) and Stanley
Black. However it could be a bit disconcerting when he used to open
the windows in the digs and blow out to the street. He was that good
that I don't ever recall anyone complaining and of course you don't
get that good without a heck of a lot of practice !
Dave Moore
26/07/20 -
It’s a long time ago now, but I think the first ‘live’ one was
Humph, and the way his band powered along with well arranged
cohesion really impressed me. I bought my first trumpet when I was
15. The musician I still regard as my favourite, though, was Henry
Red Allen Jnr. who I heard live both in New York and UK. A trumpet
tutor at a seminar I attended some years ago asked me if there was
anything I wanted to learn. I said I’d like to be able to growl and
glissando like Henry Red. ‘So would I, next question!’ said the
tutor. Influences is a slightly different subject to favourites,
though, and I think sometimes it depends on the mood you are in as
to how you play, and it could be anyone from Miles Davis to Louis.
Richard Knock
Clarinet
19/07/20 -
My interest in music started when I
was 11 and I joined my school’s recorder band. Somewhere around 1955
I saw the Benny Goodman Story at my local cinema. I actually saw it
every day of the week and twice through on the Saturday. A clarinet
looked similar to a recorder so, on the Sunday, my dad and I bought
a second hand instrument for £25. I had to pay dad £1 a month for a
year to own half of it! The tune in the film that grabbed me was
‘Memories Of You’ and, in 1976, when I first visited New Orleans, I
actually met Eubie Blake - the song’s writer. From those days I
joined a local amateur Jazzband and have been lucky enough to be in
a variety of bands ever since - leading to my present leadership of
the Pedigree Jazzband.
Chris Walker
Bass
22/07/20 -
Early influences Al Rex slap bassist with Bill Haley swinging
alongside Cliff Leeman . When I first played with the John Keen
River City Stompers I remember being told I must have based my
playing on Pops Foster and surprised the approacher with “Sorry ,
Never heard of him”. True at that time !! Bob Casey -very under
mentioned bassist.
Guitar wise Django , Denny Wright - aspiring guitarists all
went specifically to see him with Johnny Duncan. Later Tiny
Grimes is my top man.
Incidentally ,Hello to Pete Boswell another River City member as
seen on the early influences page. .
Ken Ames
24/07/20 -
It may be
hard to distinguish between heroes and influences. My mouth organ
heroes were Ronald Chesney, Larry Adler and Max Geldray. Taking up
the guitar in the skiffle craze, I got into blues and jazz a couple
of years later and heroes were Django Reinhardt and Big Bill Broonzy.
I quickly realized that I would never remotely approach Django's
technique, so didn't waste time trying. After quite some years I got
the hang of Broonzy's Hey Hey Blues, Guitar Shuffle and House Rent
Stomp, but a boy of about the same age from Surrey had mastered
these very quickly and Eric Clapton is rather better appreciated.
The first jazz I listened to was traditional. Basses were often
poorly recorded, but the Dutch Swing College's output was remarkably
clear, so that I somehow absorbed the logical accompaniment of Bob
van Oven. Thus when I took up the double bass I had an idea of what
to do, although I never copied any of his lines (to my knowledge).
Only gradually did I begin to appreciate the playing of other
bassists, from Bill Johnson and Chink Martin, through the wonderful
music of Jimmy Blanton and Ray Brown to Charles Mingus, Scott LaFaro,
Christian McBride and many others, not forgetting British bassists
Alec Dankworth and Steve Berry.
Harmoniously,
John Muskett
27/07/20 -
There was a
London bass player called Sammy Stokes, and many years after he
influenced me I read that he'd taught Jet Harris, the original
leader of The Shadows (but I'm sure he taught him double bass, not
bass guitar). When I was lad growing up we had an Alan Lomax LP at
home which opened with an amazing, swinging rendition of This Train
is Bound for Glory – a couple of bars of solo harmonica (played by
Johnny Cole), and then in came Sammy's bass. Other instruments
‘faded in’ at about the same time, but it was the bass – pizzicato,
two to the bar – that gave the sense of completion. This was what we
had been waiting for, and I’ll never forget the thrill of it. I have
since met people who knew Sammy Stokes, but I never met him or
learned any more about him than that. The first time I got my hands
on a double bass (having stolen into the music room at school
without permission), I listened to that harmonica opening in my head
and came in, bang on time, with those descending fourths. I was
away.
The first
time I heard a pizzicato double bass ‘sing’ was when I saw The
Jaques Loussier Trio at Birmingham Town Hall in the early seventies.
Before that I’d always thought of it as more of a percussive sound:
you heard it, but then it immediately died. But that night
Loussier’s bassist, Pierre Michelot, played a solo that absolutely
blew me away – producing a much more beautiful sound (to my way of
thinking) than a bowed bass simply by applying increasing pressure
and vibrato with the left hand as the plucked note faded. I’ve
incorporated it as appropriate in my own playing ever since, and on
more than one occasion a front-line player has turned round in
surprise, thinking I was using a bow!
Pierre Michelot is the bass player with Dexter Gordon’s band in the
unmissable 1986 film Round Midnight. Everyone over a certain age
will have heard him on the 1960s TV advert for Hamlet cigars in the
Loussier version of Air on the G String.
Allan Wilcox
Drums
27/07/20 - I first became interested in jazz
before the ban on American musicians playing in the UK was lifted so
I was totally dependent on records. The problem was that the early
records I listened to like the Okeh recordings of King Oliver were
acoustically recorded and I couldn't hear the drummer. So it was no
drums or a demented woodpecker tick tocking away. I couldn't
understand this as the very first jazz recordings back in 1917 had
Tony Sbarbaro { Spargo ) knocking seven bells out of his kit and the
Victor recording men handled it no problem. Gene Krupa was the first
to record his kit in 1927 although it didn't sound influential to me
at the time. So my first influence was Ray McKinley with the Dorsey
Bros. Orch. ( 1935 ) He was perfectly recorded and had a number of
drum fills. From there it was a short hop to George Wetling and Ray
Bauduc , probably the greatest Dixieland drummers along with Nick
Fatool. Then I stumbled across Art Blakey followed by Elvin Jones
Max Roach etc. So I have an eclectic mix of N.O, Dixieland and
modern drumming. One final point ; I never cared for Buddy Rich. He
had a phenomenal technique but always sounded mechanical to me. "
wind him up and watch him go " Even in his later years when illness
had restricted his technique I much preferred Gene Krupa who I still
think was one of the best.
Moe Green. |