It was at the Jodrell Arms in Whaley Bridge, and it was there that I first met Reg Kenworthy at a Sunday night session.  This is the pub on the station, often confused with the Railway Hotel at the bottom of the station approach which I believe was run by Syd Lawrence at one time.  "Jazz at the Jodrell" was started by Cornet and Flugel Horn player Phil Taylor.  The session ran from about the middle of 1994 through to Christmas 1995, when there was a change of management - a familiar story!
 
Phil had assembled a fine band: Reg on Bass, Ed Fish on Piano and Nigel Cretney on Drums.  Alongside Phil on the front line was Pete Haslam on Trombone and Sammy Reynolds on Reeds.  At some stage Sammy left, but I can't remember who replaced him.  Reg sometimes did an interval number on piano, usually to accompany a guest singer.  Reg didn't miss many nights, but I remember Mike Dexter doing the occasional dep.  I already knew Mike from the Wednesday night sessions at the Cheshire Cheese in Buxton.  I met Bill Oldham for the first time at the Jodrell, Bill was the regular replacement for Pete.  There isn't room here to describe my subsequent experiences with Bill!  Paul Medina was another dep on trombone.
 
From the start the band welcomed any sitters-in during the second set, so I took the opportunity to introduce myself and was invited to join in.  At this time I hadn't been playing jazz for very long and with hindsight I was rather "green".  However, I remember a lot of friendly encouragement from everybody.  When I started to sit-in I asked to play tunes that I knew, then I chose tunes off Phil's play list for the evening.  Eventually I just got up and played whatever tune was called, so I look back on that period as my "formative years" for that style of music. 

After I had gained some more experience and learned more tunes I did an occasional dep for Pete.  One night Pete didn't arrive due to a mix-up.  I hadn't got my Trombone that night, and it would have taken nearly an hour to fetch it.  Phil had an old Valve Trombone in his car, and asked me if I could play that for the evening.  I was vaguely familiar with valves from school days and a bit of brass band work on Eb Tuba, so I had a go and got through the night.  I also had to quickly develop a technique for hooking a finger under the sticky first valve!  I remember another regular sitter-in was Julian Gregory on violin.   Julian now has his own jazz band, but his day job was with one of the Manchester Orchestras.     
 
Another memorable moment was when my friend Harry Townsend came up from Cornwall for a few days.  Harry was the leader of the New Jubilee Jazz Band, well known around Cornwall and the South West.  This was actually the VE Day 50th anniversary weekend, and I have some photos showing the pub decorated for the occasion.  Harry played a couple of tunes with the band, Savoy Blues was one.  We then did a couple of numbers with three trombones and the rhythm section.  This is where it gets complicated, Pete Haslam played his own trombone, Harry played my trombone with his own mouthpiece and I played Phil's valve trombone with my mouthpiece - I hope that's all clear.  I'm sure Mike Dexter was on Bass that night, I'll have to dig out the photos. 

I would usually drive to the Jodrell with my partner.  Sometimes she was doing something else in the early evening so I would get the train from Buxton and we would meet up at the pub later.  One night there was a delay for some reason, and I was sitting for ages with a pint and an orange juice in front of me.  It looked as if I'd been stood-up, and I remember Reg making some comments along those lines! 

For a time an Indian Restaurant operated in the upstairs part of the pub which was level with the station platforms.  One night I got off the train and noticed a fire door was open.  I walked in off the platform and went straight down the stairs to the bar, perfect! 

I missed the last few sessions at the Jodrell.  Towards the end of the year Harry was very ill, so I spent some time with him in Cornwall.  Harry died at the beginning of December 1995, and I then returned to Cornwall for his funeral.  The first Sunday in January 1996 I returned to find no band and an obvious change of management.  So that was the end of Jazz at the Jodrell. 

Nearly twenty years later, I'm still grateful for being given the chance to play, and I still meet the friends and acquaintances I made from the band and the audience at the Jodrell.
 
By coincidence, years later I found a cutting from the Buxton Advertiser in what passes for my archives, otherwise known as "a box of stuff".  This was a brief feature headed "A Year of Jazz at the Jodrell", that would have been the summer of 1995.  At the time I was playing with Phil Taylor at the Baker's Vaults in Stockport.  It was good to take Phil a copy of this cutting, almost ten years to the day since it was published. 

Happy memories.

Sam Wood