What a great site! As you may recall I found out about Jazz North
West through my long standing friend Simon Jones, who mentioned it
to me when passing on the sad news about Bill Williams. Since then I
have been wading through all the postings, debates and features.
All this has rekindled a desire within me to get playing some jazz
again and earlier this week I dug out my old directory of musicians
and made some phone calls. I spoke to most of the original members
of my band The Santa Fe Syncopators and all of them to a man were
keen to get blowing again. So, with all this new found enthusiasm
and after almost a decade of silence a phoenix may well rise from
the ashes and all because of your website!
This photograph is of the Syncopators playing at the Whitewater
Hotel in the summer of 1996. The line up L-R Mike McLachlan, Charlie
Walcom, Phil Yates, Bryan Cunliffe, Paul Marks, Tony Ormesher and
Simon Jones.
The second photograph taken at the Albert in Southport in 1997 shows
L-R Simon Jones and Bix Roscoe.
I was very interested reading the articles on the Southport jazz
scene. I too remember a lively scene in the town in the late 80s and
early 90s and became a part of it myself during the 90s.
My first introduction to traditional jazz came at the Hesketh Arms
in January 1987 when I went along quite by chance to find an all day
jazz fest in full swing. The day of jazz had been organised by the
then landlord Dave Everatt. It was mid evening before I got there to
see the Merseysippi Jazz Band and The Chicago Teddy Bears. So
inspired was I that the following morning I went to the local music
shop and bought a trumpet.
During the months that followed I recall going to see Al McDowells
Wirrorleans at The Railway in Tithebarn Street Liverpool, where I
was introduced to Phil Yates, Roy Swift and the late Alan Jackson
(cornet). Alan lived in Southport at that time and was most helpful
in teaching me the rudiments of the instrument. He had an enormous
collection of recordings, sheet music and chords which he freely
shared with me. We remained good friends until his untimely death in
(I think) 1993.
I remember the Monday sessions of the Alt River Band at the Marine
Club (what a dive!). Tuesday nights could be spent at the Southport
Arts Centre Bar or the Brooklyn Caravan Club. Wednesdays were spent
at the Hesketh Arms. If I wasn't at the Railway on a Thursday then I
would travel to the Eagle and Child in Upton to listen to the Panama
Jazz Band where I became friends with the late Bill Williams who
managed to eventually persuade me to sit in with the band. Friday
nights were spent in the plush surroundings of the Royal Clifton
Hotel listening to the
Dobbs Gutter Band. On the weekends I don't recall any
regular venues but there would be plenty of one off gigs
particularly in the holiday season. Jazz pretty much every night of
the week, that's how it was back then.
Reading the other postings I recognise a lot of the names of the
musicians from that time and indeed in later years I would come to
share the stand with many of them. I'm sure many of them will
remember me, invariably the youngest person in the place, a skinny
kid with a mop of hair which (along with all these venues) has now
sadly all gone!
Other names that I might be able to add include drummer Bryan
Cunliffe who told me that he used to play with the River Alt when
they played at the Crown. Dennis Kirkpatrick was also largely
involved in the Southport scene and was someone I would gig with in
the future. Could "the man who made love to his double bass"
mentioned in Linda Wilde's posting be none other than the late Don
Gee?
Eventually all the venues turned their back on jazz and by the mid
nineties there was only the Hesketh Arms left. However, in 1997 for
the first six months of the year my band The Santa Fe Syncopators
enjoyed a regular Thursday night residency at The Albert. The band
at that time comprised of me on trumpet, Simon Jones on Trombone and
occasionally Sousaphone, Phil Yates and Gerry Owens shared the
clarinet duties with reedman Howard Murray being a regular dep, Mike
McLachlan was our pianist, Charlie Walcom on bass, Jason Higgins
Banjo and Bryan Cunliffe or John Shevill on drums. The sessions were
reasonably popular and we were surprised and disappointed when the
management called a halt to our performances.
Several people have written about the late great Bix Roscoe the
multi instrumentalist and vocalist who was "more nutty than a fruit
cake". Dear old Bix was no stranger to us and was a regular member
of the audience at the Albert during our sessions there in 1997.
Phil Yates has summed him up absolutely perfectly in his posting. I
recall Bix coming along one night with his trombone and a complete
set of band charts for his composition Trombone Sauerkraut written
and arranged under the alias "Otto Weinmann". Despite our
reservations he insisted we add it to the night's set list.
Unfortunately (or should that read fortunately) our efforts on the
multi themed rag were never committed to tape. However, I have
recently unearthed some recordings from that era made by a lady
called Pat who was a regular in the audience. On a recent trip to
Cumbria I nearly crashed the car when listening to us playing "So Do
I". Bix unexpectedly and almost certainly uninvited sang the entire
chorus in German! Happy times indeed.
Ironically the only regular traditional jazz venue now left in
Southport is the Albert. (now at The Shrimper
in 2013)
What a great site! As you may recall I found out about Jazz North
West through my long standing friend Simon Jones, who mentioned it
to me when passing on the sad news about Bill Williams. Since then I
have been wading through all the postings, debates and features.
During the months that followed I recall going to see Al McDowells
Wirrorleans at The Railway in Tithebarn Street Liverpool, where I
was introduced to Phil Yates, Roy Swift and the late Alan Jackson
(cornet). Alan lived in Southport at that time and was most helpful
in teaching me the rudiments of the instrument. He had an enormous
collection of recordings, sheet music and chords which he freely
shared with me. We remained good friends until his untimely death in
(I think) 1993.