Traditional Jazz in The North West (UK)
This site began as Traditional Jazz in Lancashire in 1995 FEBRUARY 2021 - KEEP SAFE
24/02/21 - I'm having to put the Lockdown Pictures on hold for a while as the page has become too big for my web page editor. Some text and pictures have gone astray, and in some cases text was overwriting the picture. I've already spent a lot of time trying to divide them up, but I abandoned it and need to start again when I get time. 23/02/21 - Multi-instrumentalist Dave Wearing of Ulverston (guitar, bass, clarinet) has recently died. He will be remembered by many for his solid double bass playing in various bands throughout the North-West back in the 1980s after his conversion from bass guitar in the local rock scene, and in more recent years his fine rhythm guitar work in the Furness and South Lakes area. R.I.P. - Bruce Carnaffin 23/02/21 - "This week's Wednesday quiz asks for the names of animals found in tune titles, and there is a wee assist for each.", says our quizmaster Bert Thompson. The COVID rages on, but with diminished fury. This coming week I will get my second shot of vaccine. There is still much inefficiency here over the distribution of the vaccine, many sites (in California, at least) having to cancel or postpone appointments. So far I have lucked out in that regard, so fingers crossed". 23/02/21 - "Sadly I have to report the death of banjo player Geraldine ("Gerry") Duckles, wife of the late Alan Duckles. She passed away peacefully on Sunday February 21st with family members at the bedside. She played in my band for many years as did Alan, and was always full of fun. She also played in The Quayside Hot Stompers (Tom Culbert's band), for the duration of the band. She was a good straightforward rhythm player and did the job well. She left my band when Alan passed on, and never played again". - Barrie Marshall. 23/02/21 - Whilst the lockdown photographs continue to pour in, Sheila collier has pulled the strings out and sent me some great photographs from her scrapbook, which she hopes will bring back happy memories for people.
23/02/21 - Seems
like I'm not the only one looking back during the lockdown, The
Scottish Herald has an article - "Remember when .... Scots
trad jazz fans gather for band contest", as it talks about "the
cavernous St Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow, where an expectant crowd
(above) of more than 2,000 trad jazz fans waited for the
entertainment to begin. Backstage, in the band room, half-a-dozen
groups were running through a final practice". What I found
intriguing was that, "The interval entertainment was supplied by
Josh Macrae, Scotland’s top folk-singer".
22/02/21 - The
lockdown photographs are certainly getting people to dig into
their scrapbooks. The latest are a record from Mick Unthank and some
cuttings from 1963. A very
young Micky Cooke and John Hallam. sent in by Duncan Hollows.
21/02/21 - Here’s a great website, I haven’t explored it fully, but these interviews with the wonderful trumpeter Herman Autrey are fascinating. - Jon Critchley 21/02/21 - A notice has been added to the Fest Jazz Brittany website. It's quite amazing that the French Ministry of Culture have issued this very helpful statement regarding music festivals this Summer. No doubt Trevor Stent and his young team are well pleased. Maybe Boris will pull his finger out and give the same help here. - Norman Gibson 21/02/21 - Keep your eye on the lockdown pictures, there's one or two coming in at the moment. I'm concerned that all the photos are going to make the page slow to load for those people with a slow broadband connection, If that's the case I'll split the pages, let me know. Certainly proves some people have got time on their hands in the lockdown. Your help is needed on one of them
21/02/21 - A treat for steam radio
fans all next week is the fictumentary dramatisation of Jackie Kays
book on Bessie Smith. Mon-Friday 9:45 Radio 4 - Jeff Roberts 20/02/21 - Early New Orleans Drummers Show with Hal Smith & John Petters - Monday at 7PM on The Sound of Spitfire. I’ve a special treat for fans of New Orleans jazz on Monday at 19:00 (repeated Thursday 01:00). Earlier this week I interviewed the legendary American drummer, Hal Smith, who’s drumming I have admired for many years and who is perhaps the finest player in the traditional jazz and swing styles these days. In Monday’s show, we start with Hal’s “On The Levee Jazz Band”, which he formed a few years ago to play in the style of the great Kid Ory Creole Jazz Band – and Hal neatly captures the full flavour of the style without slavishly copying. - John Petters 20/02/21 - I've just been informed that pianist Adrian Ridgeway passed away on Friday, in Victoria Hospital, Blackpool. Adrian, who originally came from Stoke on Trent, was well known in the Blackpool area, having played there for many years. Cyril Wroe told me that he had played with Adrian for about 45 years, doing gigs originally with a quartet, and then in Cyril's Dixieland Band, The Festival Jazzmen, and also with a trio, "Smooth Jazz". They played at The Norbreck Castle as well as The Imperial Hotel. Adrian was a builder by trade, and I first met him when he played with the Festival Jazzmen at Uncle Tom's Cabin at Blackpool, back in the late 90's. His son and daughter are both living in Australia, and Adrian and his late wife Marie, made several trips over there. There is a tribute page for anybody who wishes to remember him.
17/02/21 - "That time of week
again", says Bert Thompson, "This week's quiz,
Something in Common, asks one to identify what the folks in each
case have in common. Things seem to be improving a bit on the COVID
scene here, but there is still a woeful lack of inefficiency in
distributing and administering the vaccine. We are not hearing too
much about how it is progressing in the U.K., but I hope it is a bit
better.
16/02/21 - I didn't get
many guesses for Howard Murray's photograph in
the lockdown pictures, so look again and
you'll now find the answers
15/02/21 - Dear Fred , Thank you very much
for your Birthday Wishes - 81 on Thursday 18 February , 2021 I was a
war baby , and I was born in Worsley , Manchester near the
Bridgewater Canal . Started singing the music in 1958 when I went to
Manchester College of Art . John Mayall played in the lecture
theatre in the lunch hour -- I was singing a lot in Sweden and
Denmark until my 80 th - then Covid struck , Here we are a year
later and it is still the same - My son James has booked me a flight
home at the end of April but we don't know yet if it will be
possible. Bit fed up with Sweden as there is no sign of me getting
my vaccine yet . I send all my love and happy memories to everyone
on your page - you really do us such a great service. All the best
from Helsingborg , Sweden. - Sheila Collier.
Sheila has sent some more photographs which I'll try and post
this week. - Fred 14/02/21 - The Merseysippi Jazz Band recorded for Esquire, Clinton Ford for Oriole. - Gerard Bielderman.
14/02/21 - Happy Valentines Day, and Happy
Birthday today to the Merseysippi Jazz Band which celebrates its
72nd birthday today. Many Happy returns to Barry Pryme on Tuesday,
and to Sheila Collier on Thursday,
13/02/21 - Re: Keith Nichols,
I just spotted this -
another nice memorial! Keep warm and well - John Westwood
11/02/211 - I was told
that Clinton Ford was under contract to another recording company
hence the subterfuge. ' Al St. George ' never appeared or recorded
with the Mersey's again, nor anyone else for that matter. My
request for Ragtime Goblin' Man ( from Any Old Rags ) was broadcast
on JRR 13.02.1971. That night at the Band's party ( Fulwood Park,
Liverpool ) I mentioned this track to Clinton Ford. He was almost
incandescent with rage and said he'd like to find whoever had
requested the record. I quickly dissolved into my shoes. I
bought the record, along with All The Girls (03.03.57 ) and West
Coast Shout ( 15.05.56 ), from Steve Voce. He used to give a
sound-illustrated talk on jazz between sets of the Mersey's Monday
night gigs at a pub near to Liverpool Stadium , the old one .
One night he produced a box of MJB records , discovered at some
clearance sale in Manchester, unless my memory has that wrong .They
were offered to the audience at a very reasonable bargain price .
There must be other copies out there in the jazz firmament.
What a great band that was, and what wonderful nights although the
'follow on' sessions at the Liverpool Press Club could be daunting.
One very late night the barman got so fed up he said serve
yourselves, went home and left us the keys to lock up! It was
more than jazz. - Bob Lamb 11/02/21 - Replying to Jon Critchley and his answer to Bob Lambs lockdown photo. I am pretty certain that the vocalist was Clinton Ford and not Mr. Melly. Clint used a pseudonym of Al St. George because he was signed to a rival record Co . I think that it was Columbia records. - Peter Darwin
10/02/21 - In the middle of a complete
rebuild of my PC, which can be quite challenging, so time to take a
break and upload this week's quiz No. 47
from Bert Thompson. Bert says, " This week's quiz, the first of two,
focuses on musicians who died far too young. Things are still a bit
chaotic here regarding the administration and supply of the COVID
vaccine. I am one of the fortunate ones as I have an appointment for
the second, booster, shot. Others in the 65+ age group have not been
so lucky as they are still in the throes of trying to get the first
shot. I trust things are a bit better in the U.K.". 08/02/21 - Here's a real treat for you, especially if you are a fan of Eddie Condon, Peanuts Hucko, Edmund Hall, Bechet and more It was first transmitted over the radio 77 years ago this week, and John Westwood recorded it and has made it available for visitors to this site to enjoy, but hurry it's only going to be there for 5 more days. 08/02/21 - ex-pat Peter Cowden sent me this from Australia, "Jazz Festivals in Australia have been cancelled due to Covid but one of our smaller festivals came up with a virtual festival. The concept is quite interesting so if anyone in the UK would like to put one together please don't hesitate to contact Peter Ryan the co-ordinator". I'm sure your reaction will be the same as mine - Fred
08/02/21 - The missing
V.O.A tune ("I'm trying to find the signing off tune of Jazz hour" -
03/02), is Neal Hefti's Coral
Reef. I hadn't forgotten it...I never knew it! - Howard Murray. 08/02/21 - Jon Critchley comes up with the answers to Bob Lamb's question - "It’s a 10”LP, 8 tracks, with Alan George Melly vocal, it was their 6th LP".
07/02/21 - Barry Prime says, re: Howard's Photograph, Ian McCann on guitar? 07/02/21 - Many Happy Returns this week to Judy Eames on Tuesday 06/02/21 - AFN must have been responsible for sowing a lot of Jazz seeds in the UK. After the war my parents used to rent a converted railway carriage at Dungeness for holidays, and we got good reception from AFN. It set my elder brother and I on course for a lifetime of listening and playing the music, and also set me off on a career at sea, with of course, a number of visits to both New York and New Orleans. My younger brother was a bit young to be involved, but he must have picked something up because he used tp play a mean blues piano in pubs around Kent in his youth. We also went up to London to Ken Colyer’s club in Great Newport street, and to other venues as well. Then there was Alain Chassagne’s weekly jazz records request programme on the BBC French service. We bombarded him with so many requests that he once dedicated a whole programme to us. Those were the days when you listened to the test matches in Australia on short wave, with all the bubbles and squeaks involved! — Richard Knock. 06/02/21 - "Remember when ... 1957: The continuing rise of skiffle" - That's the title of an article in The Scottish Herald, featuring a photograph of Muir Laurie's skiffle group in action in 1957 06/02/21 - My first "Now You has Jazz, Jazz, Jazz" - Monday show last week got the biggest listenership on the station so far! I have a fantastic show lined up for Monday at 19:00 (repeated Thursday 01:00). I will be profiling pioneer jazz drummer, Tony Sbarbaro, who made the first jazz recordings in 1917, with the Original Dixieland Jass Band. That historic million selling record will open the show. It' will be on www.soundofspitfire.co.uk/ - John Petters 06/02/21 - Could the guitarist and trombonist be Mike Swift and Bart Poole? Both are as good looking as them. - Jon Critchley 06/02/21 - In reply to Howard's post, I can advise that I listened to AFN just north of Rochdale, and the fading I experienced suggested that the transmission was from Europe. After broadcasting began in 1922, my father built a radio, I think a one- or two-valve set. When manufactured sets became available, it was discarded but he retained all/some of the parts. Round about 1946 when I was about thirteen, he presented me with a kit of parts, minus a cat's whisker, accompanied by a schematic diagram on a piece of paper with a suggestion/instruction to "build yourself a radio ". I had no interest, but, to repay his interest, I proceeded. I can't recall all the details, but a main component was the coil. In this case, it was the coil from the radio he built and was a sort of multi-coil arrangement on a tube of about three inches diameter with a secondary coil inside the tube at one end which revolved within the main coil tube. Certainly I only needed one of the coils. The aerial was seventy-five yards of stranded copper wire insulated with what looked like a black bituminous material which did several laps of a triangle on my bedroom ceiling. My mother was distinctly unimpressed. Everything was installed in a suitable wood box from the local army surplus store. The cat's whisker had to be poked on the surface of the crystal until a transmission was detected and then great care had to be taken not to jolt the set-up or the contact would be lost and back to the beginning again. Subsequently, I learned that a "permanent detector" could replace the cat's whisker, and I set about procurement from a local radio shop. This proved to be a solid-state component, perhaps an early transistor, and the sacrifice of a lot of pocket money sealed the deal. The result was amazing. Jolting was no longer a problem and I think it was probably with this modification that I picked-up AFN on a pair of German headphones, possibly from the same source as the box. A "bobby-dazzler"? It was a random group of connected components in a wood box, but it provided hours of entertainment. Happy days, and thank you for prompting their recall. - Alwyn Smith 04/02/21 - Howard Murray has set us another picture puzzle. Can you name these musicians in the latest Lockdown Picture. Could that be Howard himself on there? 04/02/21 - Hi Fred, it’s a small world, I didn’t know Ian Royle was at the Tower Ballroom with Paul Griffin because Paul depped for Alan Robinson at ‘’The Locarno Ballroom” when I was on lead trumpet with Jack Hawkins, I was really impressed with Pauls playing and he told me he was Harry James’s Godson and used to sit on Harry’s knee and play trumpet for him and I said’’ that’s amazing’’ .. Ian also knows and worked with my Brother Wilf in Manchester with “The Millionaires”, fantastic stuff. Paul knew them all Billy Butterfield, Al Hirt.. Ziggy Elman.. Cheers - Derek Dalton 04/02/21 - Re: Pete Darwin's quiz,. picture is Rico Tomasso as Dizzy whose early work has Armstrong DNA embedded in it. - Jon Penn
03/02/21 - Good to read that answer from Alwyn Smith (29/01). Yes, I also went through the crystal set phase and listened to the MW, as Alwyn says "Getting what you get!" Jazz Hour was specifically Short Wave, one of several bands, as has been declared in various items. Because of the very high number of American forces in Munich, VOA had stations located within hearing range of München but they were all Short Wave. All material broadcast was relayed from Stateside. (Washington I think) (Conover was not well known in the United States, even among jazz aficionados, as the Voice of America did not broadcast domestically except on shortwave,) (Wiki). The same applied to AFN.. American Forces Network which DID radiate on MW. I can only guess that maybe Jazz Hour was put through AFN but I certainly don't remember it. Was rarely heard during daylight which suggests European transmitters. Same applied to MW 208.. Radio Luxembourg. Must also say that Alwyn's Xtal Set must have been a bobby dazzler. I never made one to that standard of selectivity nor sensitivity, unless Alwyn lived near an AFN MW transmitter. I've no idea if they had them in the UK. Best I ever got was BBC Regional Home Service and sometimes the Light programme but the obvious Home service still in the background. BOY Did I listen to the Goon Show! For AFN on MW, I was left to listen on my R1155, radio out of a Lancaster bomber. Tell me about that super Xtal set, Alwyn. I'm trying to find the signing off tune of Jazz hour. Voice of America shut down with Yankee Doodle. No idea about AFN.. Stars and Stripes? Listened to John Petter's A1 jazz online. Fred and I both understood Slim Gaillard's number about Communication because we both speak Morse code. Fred speaks it like a native. If Alwyn goes on Y/T, he'll find loads of stuff about the Jazz Hour, some with 1960s QRN and QSB. This is for Alwyn - Howard Murray 03/02/21 - The young band, 'Sweet Peppers', I rather liked when I saw them at Fest Jazz a few years ago, have just put their latest video recording out on You Tube yesterday. This is it and I don't think I'm the only one who's going to be impressed ! - Norman Gibson 03/02/21 - Time for another quiz from Bert Thompson - This week you have to fill the blanks in each song line or title with the name of an action [hint: all end in ing or in’]. Bert says, "Hope all goes well with you. The virus is still on the rampage here, but at least I am adding to my defence as tomorrow I get my first vaccination shot--finally! ". 02/02/21 - John Westwood captured recordings on tape in 1987, of The Roy Pellet Hot Four accompanied by Humphrey Lyttelton, Rod Mason and Beryl Bryden and has now dug them out and put them together on a CD and has kindly allowed me to add them to the Lost Tapes series at Number 18.. 02/02/21 - Peter Darwin has sent me a picture quiz which you can see here. He says, "Hi Fred, This is a picture of a well known trumpet star doing an impression of Dizzy Gillespie playing Afro Be Bop. I know who he is but , how many others recognise him ? 02/02/21 - Re: Jon Critchley's comment on his cellar on the lockdown pictures, - There’s a hole in your bucket, dear Jon, dear Jon =- there’s a hole in your bucket. Dear Jon, a hole". - Frank Slater
JANUARY 2021 01/02/21 - Radio Ulster's excellent Jazz Club of 31.01.21, hosted by evergreen presenter Walter Love, featured both Chicago and New Orleans Classic Jazz. The programme included firstly Muggsy Spanier from 'The Windy City,' followed by Captain John Handy of New Orleans fame and is one not to be missed on BBC iPlayer Radio. 31/01/21 - Jon Critchley has sent in some photos of the Blue Magnolia Jass Orchestra taken off the tele. by his brother Peter, when they appeared on “Opportunity Knocks” in the late 70s: Another one for the Lockdown Photographs 31/01/21 - Ian Royle has passed on a message from Paul Griffin, who Ian says, "I knew from my days at the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. His Dad was first trumpet with Benny Goodman. Some interesting tuff on this!! ". - "American Masters on PBS produced a series called "In The Kingdom of Swing" The producer got in touch with me to connect with my Dad, and they produced these interviews in our Library at The Griffin House.". 31/01/21 - I was very interested in the Willis Conover reference and the ‘Voice of America Jazz Hour’ which was broadcast by AFN ( American Forces Network) in Europe and aimed at the Eastern Bloc. As a youngster in Carlisle in the 1950’s we were just able to hear the broadcasts from Europe on the Medium Wave albeit with very patchy reception and recorded some on an old Grundig TK20 reel to reel tape recorder. Willis spoke very slowly and clearly so that the Eastern Bloc nationals had a better chance of understanding his English. There is a very extensive free library dedicated to Willis here:- Hours of relief and jazz history here to mitigate the lockdown blues. Keep up the good work, - Den Morgan 31/01/21 - Gee Fred, talk about memory lane. I remember watching that program with Willis Conover on Tell the Truth on AFN TV when I was stationed in USAF Goose Bay Labrador, must have been '58 or '59 I was the only guy who knew who he was, also used to listen to him on the radio. Great programs. Best wishes and Happy New Year. Bernie Hives
31/01/21 -
Many Happy Returns today to Ken Doran. Also on Monday to Brian
Carrick and Tony Pollitt. On Thursday it will be time to say Happy
Birthday to Alan Matthews. 30/01/21 - Delcia McNeil has emailed to say, "I’ve just brought some albums out of my cellar, one of which is by the Blue Mags, that was signed by several in the band on 19th August 1975. It’s just called The Blue Magnolia Jazz Orchestra, produced in 1974 Liverpool Sound (Enterprises) Ltd. There's more from Delcia with pictures from the LP in Lockdown Pictures 30/01/21 - I’m very happy to announce that my hot jazz show, Now You Has Jazz, Jazz, Jazz returns to the Sound of Spitfire on Monday, 1st February at 19:00 with a repeat for Stateside and Australian listeners (or insomniacs) at 01:00 utc on Thursday 4th February", writes drummer John. Petters. "This is a show which I hope is a bit different from anything you can hear elsewhere. I hope to be able to do as Lord Reith prescribed in the original BBC Charter, to educate, inform and entertain. I have built up a huge collection of great jazz recordings over the years, which I will be sharing with you". 30/01/21 - Does the name Simon Gronowski mean anything to you? Must admit it didn't to me. He escaped the Nazis as a child and went on to write and speak widely about his experiences. In April, he began brightening lives by playing jazz tunes from his apartment window at his home in Belgium. Simon had committed many acts of bravery and generosity in his 89 years of life, and opening a window in April wouldn’t ordinarily have counted among them, but this was no ordinary April. It was the height of the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which hit Belgium as hard as any place in the world. But as a Holocaust survivor, Mr. Gronowski had faced death more intimately before. It's well worth reading this article in the New York Times. Tuba Skinny read the article and then arranged for him to play along with them. Read the article and then watch https://youtu.be/ECGAE178nrc 29/01/21 - Peter Boswell is the latest musician to add a contribution to My First Instrument page 29/01/21 - Re Howard Murray 29.01.2021 and Willis Conover, I used to listen to The Jazz Hour in bed on my home-made crystal set, which I think would be medium wave, although with a crystal set, it was a case of get what you can. The opening announcement (from memory) was "AFN, Munich, Stuttgart. This is The Voice of America - The Jazz Hour, Willis Conover reporting". On the subject of lost tapes, somewhere about 1957-58, the BBC Jazz Club featured a three-way programme with The Saints JB from Manchester, The Second City Jazzmen from Birmingham and the London contribution came from (I think) Eric Silk's Southern JB. It was a terrific programme and it's a matter of great regret that I was between tape recorders, and couldn't preserve a record of it. It's a long shot, but does anybody kno w of the existence of a tape of the broadcast, or indeed, have one. - Alwyn Smith 29/01/21 - Following on from Willis Conover and The VOA Jazz Hour, this site, the UNT (University of North Texas) Digital Library has a wealth of recorded music and interviews, some taken from The VOA Jazz Hour, and also episodes of “Harold and Hazel” a sort of comedy sit com from the 1940s featuring Willis and Nathalie Sherman 29/01/21 - "Hi Fred, Good to see you continue to keep your website as active as ever" - Peter Maguire webmaster for jazz-clubs-wprldwide "News from Brussels - Strange times for all concerned. For myself, playing most weeks since I was in my teens, it is all something of an existential crisis. I am sure this is much the same for a large number of active musicians. The Brexit debacle has added another requirement to activate some procedural adjustments. Fortunately nothing too much of a problem. My daughter Laura has full residential rights in Belgium. My son, last year, became a Croatian citizen. The grandchildren have dual nationality, Croatian and British, so they retain their full EU citizenship. If things get back to normal, touring in Europe and UK musicians and bands are going to have all kinds of problems unless a new agreement is reached. The days of a trouble free tour by say The New Orleans Zulus of UK clubs are over and much the same for UK counterparts". 29/01/21 - Found this on Willis Conover https://youtu.be/hd4NmDbzwS4, writes Howard Murray. The story goes:- He wasn't a musician and when he started at VOA, he was a Sports Reporter. His boss called him in and told him that they needed a front man for the VOA jazz hour "and it's going to be you!" Conover said "I know nothing at about jazz." Boss "Well you'll need to find out then.. You start in a week!" It was a stupendous success. There was a 'What's My Line' type of show on American TV called 'Tell The Truth.' (Run by the same team.) 3 people come on stage claiming to be somebody well known and the actual person is one of them. A panel of celebs has to guess which, by questioning the three. I found the show with Conover as one of the three. I knew the moment he spoke which he was. https://youtu.be/QODKfuSTwbs Because Conover only ever broadcast only on SW, it's possible that the bulk of your followers never heard of VOA let alone Jazz Hour and Willis Conover. For that reason, in the last one, I only referred to this anecdote to see if anybody responded. I don't think that Jazz Hour was networked on American Forces Network which was on MW.
29/01/21 -
Look at this for a line-up says
Graham Martindale
https://youtu.be/zfMeoaAFUl0 27/01/21 - It's time we had another in the Lost Tapes series, and once again it's Tony's Trad No.4 with one his programmes. It was listening to these that got me back into enjoying the music once again, and combined with my interest in all things computing, plus discovery of Lake Record Reissues, it got me into creating this web site. If you discover any old cassette tapes of North West bands you no longer want or can't listen to, post them to me and I'll try and add them to the list 27/01/21 - This week's Wednesday Quiz is the second in the Alternative Names questions set by Bert Thompson. Bert, from America, says, "I still feel a sense of immense relief to know that sanity again prevails in Washington, D.C.. No more having to look at the news headlines in dread of what idiocy or illegality has been perpetrated since the previous day".
27/01/21 - Photographs of the
Cotton City Jazz Band are the latest to join
the Lockdown Photos series. 25/01/21 Ah, very co-incidental for Howard to mention Willis Conover’s Voice of America Jazz Hour, I was listening to the very same YouTube clips over the weekend: What memories that brings; Still at school and listening to the transistor radio under the covers in bed very late at night, straining to hear the (for my radio) weak signal,. To hear his voice introducing it and then to say “Tonight: Duke Ellington”, or similar was magical and so exciting. Never to be repeated. - Jon Critchley 25/01/21 - The funeral of Pat Bebby will tale place on Monday 8th February 2021, at Altrincham Crematorium, Full details can be found here 25/01/21 - Some more photographs from Graham Martindale in the Lockdown Pictures series, These include the American jazz drummer, Tommy Benford.
25/01/21 -
Re: Alan Dell’s dance band days 18/01/21, a
Tribute to Sid - Howard Murray says, "Sid Philips was my 1st
hero as a teenager (More were to come! However Mr Dell failed to
announce that the version of "I Got Rhythm", was led in by an
arpeggio (which I recognised instantly. It was the first I ever
learned to play and I was going write in and say that Dell got the
title wrong but before I did Philips, had played the theme of his
Clarinet Cadenza and gone into I Got Rhythm. The arpeggio was a pig
of a thing for a rookie because it's a Bb concert run, starts at the
bottom of the instrument, NOT on the tonic and rattles well into the
upper range, crossing the break in the instrument effectively
changing key to complete it on a high C. Clrts don't have an octave
key like a sax. Of course I didn't know ANY of this at the time,
otherwise I probably would have dared to try ir. My hero worship
betrayed Philips when I also took up a hobby on ShortWave Radio and
heard Willis Conover's Jazz Hour on The Voice Of America. Here I
found B. Goodman, already! Great anecdote about Willis Conover if
anybody remembers him but that's for another time. Amazing
coincidence, really. I went on YouTube to find something to remind
folk of the JAZZ HOUR sign. tune and
the first thing I found was
this. There was the tune, Conover's voice and unbelievably, the
identical radio set which I had purchased ex-WD out of money saved
from my schoolboy paper pound. Must be nearly ten years ago now!!!
25/01/21 -
Ken Ames is the latest musician
to tell us about his starting point in "My
first musical instrument" 24/01/20 - Some lovely tributes have come in for Keith Nichols, including one from Mike Lovell, who gives a a further insight into Keith's talents, stories I have never read or heard before.
24/01/21 -
Lots of birthdays to celebrate
this week, but there will be no family gatherings I'm afraid. Many
Happy Returns to John McCormick today, Paul Blake & Terry Binns
tomorrow, Paul Adams on Tuesday, Taff Lloyd on Thursday and Paul
Speakman on Friday when he reaches the grand young age of 50. Many
Happy Returns to you all, and look on the bright side, you'll be
playing again before your next birthday 23/01/21 - The February issue of Just Jazz is now out. If you can't go out to watch, at least you can read about it 23/01/21 - "I have recently acquired my own private studio space and I shall be holding live Facebook shows every Wednesday evening (if it goes to plan!), 8-9pm. The first one is this coming Wednesday, 27th of January", writes Jack Cotterill. "I have managed to get a great quartet together which will be performing different themes/saluting some of the Jazz greats each week! For all details please visit my website which has all the info, line up etc, or you can visit the Facebook event page. If you’re on Facebook I would be extremely thankful if you could click ‘GOING’ and ‘SHARE’ the event, this helps spread the word… the more the merrier! Hope to see you there!". 23/01/21 - Keith Allcock has written, "It was with great sadness that I learned that Terry Porter passed away peacefully this week, a really fine musician with whom it was always a privilege to play." It was back in August 2012 that Terry emailed me to ask if I could help sell his Elkhart fully curved soprano saxophone, which he said was in as new condition, and which he had owned from new, the only reason for sale, he said was, that he had to stop playing for health reasons. There is a Tribute Page available now.
23/01/21 -
Like all musicians I'm missing
listening & playing", writes Jack Wilson. Probably like a lot of
people I've been hunting through old photos and wonder if you could
help me by putting the attached on your site. I realise it is from
out your area but there are quite a few N. E. musicians living ''out
west '' so hope someone may be able to help. I am wondering if
anyone recognises the musicians in the photo. They operated
around the Denton Burn area of Newcastle. The photograph is
the latest in the Lockdown Photographs
series. 22/01/21 - Julie Flynn has sent me a couple of photographs of Glossop Jazz Festival when she sang accompanied by Humphrey Lyttelton, Tony Foulkes and Dennis Gilmour. 22/01/21 - It's finally arrived, The Wednesday Quiz, and it's the third quiz where you have to guess the Girl's Names. Quizmaster Bert Thompson, who now lives in California says, "The good news is that the stable genius is now in Florida. Long me he stay there, preferably with some duct tape over his mouth. Joe Biden will have a tough job to clear up the messes he was left, but he seems to have made a good start". 21/01/21 - I do, indeed, remember the 'test card' era that John Hill refers to. My aged grey matter doesn't permit recall of any details, but as you know, there were a number of variations over the years - of cards and their accompaniment. The happening that interested me most was when they used it for experimental stereo transmission; the left channel being transmitted on Radio 3 and the right channel with the test card on the TV (only one channel then!). Some of these I've got on tape somewhere, but I remember that they were all somewhat spoiled by an annoying 'whistle'-like tone on the tapes, which I assumed to be a by-product of the frequencies somewhere along the line, but I never understood any of that. I'm sure you do, though! - John Westwood 21/01/21 - I too would tape the test card jazz on my trusty Grundig TK 30.and also wrote to the Beeb with dates and times. I would receive a postcard back with full details of tunes and personnel. Still remember the first they sent it was details of the Savoy Orpheans! - Jeff Roberts 21/01/21 - As you might imagine, responses to the announcement that Keith Nichols has died are coming in and there is a tribute page in his memory. Keith was a regular visitor to the North West from Merseyside to Cumbria. 21/01/21 - I noticed that Jon Critchley mentioned the jazz that was broadcast to accompany the BBC TV test card many moons ago. I remember it well and recorded lots of it on reel-to-reel tape (long lost unfortunately). I wrote to the BBC to ask for details of the bands playing but got a rather unhelpful reply asking for details of the time and date each track was broadcast. I never followed this up but would be interested to know if anyone else remembers these broadcasts. - John Hill 21/01/21 - This item posted on Facebook today by Richard Pite - "Very sad news. Keith Nichols passed away this morning. Keith had gone into London Hospital last Friday with problems relating to a much delayed prostate operation. Whilst in hospital he fell ill with Covid. His wife Eve asked me to let everyone know on Facebook. Keith was a marvellous pianist, singer, multi-instrumentalist, arranger and authority on vintage jazz. He was a delightfully funny presenter and mixed scholarship and wit in a singularly entertaining way. He'll be sorely missed. 21/02/21 - Something that has intrigued me for some time is that musicians have invariably emailed me using the word, "clarinetist" (see below). Each time my spell checker has thrown it up as being incorrect and wanted to spell it as "clarinettist", which I assumed was the American version as surely those who play the instrument would know best! Today I looked it up in the Oxford English Dictionary and it says, "clarinettist (US clarinetist) NOUN - A person who plays the clarinet. There we are then, either change your spelling or change your instrument! 21/01/21 - Vic Williams has emailed and allowed me to reproduce the content which I know many of you will want to know. "Hello, I have just enjoyed reading through your journal of jazz memories. I am the younger brother of Roy Williams and appreciate the kind words written about his recent award from Her Majesty. I spoke with Roy today and although he is in good spirits, he struggles to communicate verbally since his stroke in March 2019. The sad thing is that he knows what he wants to say but has great difficulty getting the words out and he gets frustrated with himself so I try hard not to fire too many questions at him. He is receiving therapy but its a slow job. Hopefully when the Covid restrictions are lifted the Williams family will be able to get together and celebrate Roys MBE". 21/01/21 - Looking at the Deps List, I'm reminded that back in 2017, EE called time on Freeserve, Wanadoo and Orange email accounts. Some of the dep's email addresses also became invalid, and a number still are. Dave Ellis, Ovid, Pete Robinson, Keith Rae, Brian Collins and Phil Lister are names which will be removed from the list in two weeks, unless new contact details are received. 21/01/21 - "For the last 3 or 4 years I’ve been regularly including a couple of numbers on clarinet on most gigs, usually in the shape of a clarinet duet with the regular clarinetist in whichever band I’m with", writes Richard Knock. With all the spare time over the last 10 months I’ve been putting in regular practice on that instrument as well as trying to keep my trumpet/cornet lip in shape, so would you mind putting me in the clarinet list as well as trumpet list for deps?". The Deps list has been updated accordingly. 21/01/21 - There's a delay in publishing the Wednesday Quiz this week, hopefully it will be sorted soon.
21/01/21 -
A photograph of Anthony ‘Tuba Fats’ Lacen, from
the Olympia Brass Band of New Orleans, at the Saturday morning
parade of the Keswick Jazz Festival, May 1994, is the latest in
the lockdown series. This one sent in by
Terry Birkinhead
18/01/20 -
Thanks to you for the YouTube Jazz
Score prog notification. I have the Jazz Score Book, excellent
stuff. I remember way back when BBC TV used to have afternoon breaks
from programmes and it just displayed the test card, sometimes
accompanied by a single tone, think it was a concert A, but often
with Dixieland jazz, band unknown to me, maybe it was Sid Phillips?
(maybe the Trad Lads?) I say all this because, whilst listening to
the Jazz Score, I noticed another Youtube recording:
Alan Dell’s dance band days,
a Tribute to Sid, which I’ll record also. Great stuff available.
- Jon Critchley 17/01/21 - I try not to post too many YouTube videos as we could get swamped with recommendations, however I couldn't miss this one, it's a recording from Radio 2 in 1988. - JAZZ SCORE recorded at Gosport Jazz Club, Hampshire Chairman: Benny Green Veterans: Nat Gonella & Max Jones Youngsters: Digby Fairweather & Alan Elsdon BBC Radio 2 - Tuesday 22nd November 1988. How many questions can you answer? My thanks to John Westwood for this one. 17/01/21 - Many Happy Returns this week to Jeff Roberts on Monday, John Hallam on Tuesday and Mike Smith on Saturday
13/01/21 - The Scotsman newspaper has been running The Scotsman Sessions - a series of video performances recorded by Scottish artists during the Coronavirus pandemic, for which it has won the British journalism innovation award. In the the latest, Portobello-based jazz clarinettist, saxophonist and composer Dick Lee multitracks deftly on clarinet and bass clarinet to perform a composition he entitled Gentleman Jim, as a tribute to a longstanding figure on the Scottish trad jazz scene, cornettist Jim Petrie, who died in August of last year. 13/01/21 - The legendary Johnny Roadhouse would have been 100 today. - Sam Wood. 13/01/21 - Graham Martindale is the next musician to tell us about his first musical instrument, another set of drums. Check out the page 13/01/21 - The funeral of Brenda Canty-Forrest will take place at at Colwyn Bay Chapel at 14:45 on Thursday 14th Jan. I have details of the video feed should anyone be interested. Attendance will be governed by current restrictions of course. 13/01/21 - Wednesday and time for the next quiz which is called, "Sobriquets". Must admit i had to look that one up, a new word to in this house, and one of us does crosswords! 13/01/21 - Barry Aldous writes, "I was prompted to contact you by the loss of a close friend, Dave Robinson. Dave, aged 84, passed away peacefully at his home in Somerset yesterday 11th January following a period of ill health with cancer. You may not have heard of Dave Robinson, but he was the trumpet player with the first band I formed after moving to Bury in 1960. The band was named ‘The Northside Six’ which played at the Fleece Hotel and the Beachcomber in Bolton, also the annual Arts Ball organised by Bolton College of Art at which Dave was a lecturer. We also played at the Stanley Club in Accrington and many other venues until the band folded around 1965. I would love to see if there is a response that I could pass on to the family". You can read more of Barry's memories of Dave along with photographs, on the Dave Robinson Tribute Page". Barry says, "I would love to see if there is a response that I could pass on to the family."
11/01/21 - Just looking through some of my videos of the good old days at the Harp and came across three by Dave Copperwaite's Louisiana Highway on Feb. 17th 2008. They feature Dave, Derek Galloway, Warren Latham, Bill Evans, Tony Sharpe, Noel NIcholls and Dave Donohoe who called in on his way home from a gig at Upton. As I think all of them except Tony are from your neck of the woods I wondered if you might like to put the links on your site. - I'm in the Mood for Love, Let Me Take You To The Mardi Gras and Swanee River. - John and Marie Howell (Thanks John - Fred) 11/01/21 - Another contribution to "My 1st musical instrument", this latest one from Richard Knock. 11/01/21 - There are two new tribute pages, one for Brenda Canty Forrest (Brenda Tomkins) and one for Pat Bebby 11/01/21 - "Dear Fred, It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Pat Bebby on 8th January 2021. She was 91. Pat was well known around the northern jazz scene, managing her own band in the 1950s and 1960s which included her first husband, Jim Percival, on trumpet. Later, until about 2010, she published the Independent Jazz List and sold the listed music on behalf of several jazz bands across the country. She was a regular at festivals and was recognised, and introduced to the crowd, as recently as 2019 at the Newtown National Club, Rochdale. Pat's son, Terry, can be contacted at terryper@sky.com with any memories you may wish to share about her extraordinary life". - Terry Percival.
11/01/21 -
Thanks to Paul Medina and Graham Brook,
for answering the previous news item speedily. Details have been
passed on tp Jane
10/01/21 -
Jane Bevan writes, My ex
husband Nigel Bevan used to play in the Bryan Jones Big Band for
many years. My sons & I are arranging his funeral, we do have both
the albums they did but I’ve lost touch with the band members many
of whom I know are no longer with us. I saw a post on your
site dated 11th November from Ron Darlington who I know, knew Nigel
& myself. I don’t have a contact number for him & wondered if
it was possible for you to put me in touch with him? We are hoping
to use some of Bryan’s music at the funeral".
Unfortunately it was a phone
call and I don't have a record of his phone number, anybody got
contact details? - Fred 08/01/11 - "Just heard the sad news that Tony Pitt passed away today. Rest In Peace Tony". - Pete Lay. Tony 'served his time’ playing banjo over some 50 years in the bands of Alex Welsh, Mike Cotton, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Alan Elsdon, Laurie Chescoe and Terry Lightfoot - FB. 08/01/21 - "I wonder how many musicians on site can remember there first instrument whether it being sax/trumpet/bass etc", writes Peter Eddowes. This is a picture of my first drum kit which was funded by my parents in the mid 1950s. It cost the princely sum of £20, and my first gig in order to try and pay it back was in Fenton Stoke-on-Trent playing for a Ballroom Dancing Class with a pianist. He was a School Teacher who was very encouraging in Music and at the end of the night gave me 5shillings (25p in today's money), which was duly given to my parents to start the pay back. It was later in the 1960s that I was able to by a modern kit which was a Premier Black Pearl". I've started a page on the subject - Fred 08/01/21 - Hi Fred, I found the interview with these young Berlin musicians really encouraging. Whether it would interest your readers is a matter for them to decide…..My thanks to Norman Gibson for his post about Nirek Mokar at Fest Jazz 2021. We have plenty of other young musicians on the bill too including we hope, the Syncopation Society Orchestra from Berlin. The other evening, I watched a live interview with another young band from Berlin, the “Rufus Temple Orchestra”. They were celebrating the release of their new CD. What I found inspiring was not just the music (it’s very good) but even more the enthusiasm and dedication of these young people for unearthing, understanding and appreciating the music of the 1920s masters like Jelly Roll Morton. The Tenement Jazz Band from Scotland I know have a similarly deep appreciation, but I know of no other young UK band that shares this depth of knowledge. It reminds me of my early days in jazz with Phil Probert and John Reade at university and Jon Critchley in the first years of the Blue Mags. - Trevor Stent (It's not all interview, there's some great music in the video as well - FB).
08/01/21 - There is a programme
about Drummers and Drumming on Sky Arts at 9pm tonight (Friday). It's
a 4 part series and might be of interest to all Drummers out there.
- Peter Eddowes. 07/01/21 - Many years (20+) ago I attended a jazz tutor event in Burnley, with our drummer Arthur Taberner, we were split into sections (brass, reeds, guitars drums etc.) and spent a week with our tutors learning a few techniques. It was mostly ‘mainstream’ orientated, but we all learned something. At the end the brass tutor asked us individually if there was anything we needed that hadn’t been covered. I said ‘Yes, I’d like to be able to growl and play glissandos like Henry Red Allen. He said, ‘So would I, Richard, so would I; next question?’ - Richard Knock
07/01/21 -
Re Lil Hardin’s outburst: I’m sorry, Lil, I was
wrong. (Never argue with a woman. As Laurie Cooper says, Women
are wired up differently). Of course, Dave Davis is correct, I knew
I’d be corrected. - Jon Critchley 06/01/21 - W'at yo' all talkin' 'bout, my ol' Louis sure growled all 'time. a' 'ome. Made m' jump outa' ma skin e'ertime wid dat growly voice, ' When ma dinner gonna be reddy Lil gal ?' - Lil Hardin 06/01/21 - Re. Jon Critchley and Louis Armstrong's growls. The 8th bar of the verse of "Come back sweet papa" springs to mind. No doubt Jon will check it out. Regards -Dave Davis. 06/01/21 - Time for the Wednesday Quiz, and the second 'find the hidden instruments' quiz, which I found a little more challenging than the last one. Let me know how many you found. 05/01/21 - As far as I know, Louis got through his entire career with using the growl technique only three times: One note, a C, in bar 48 of “Cornet Chop Suey and two notes in “Livin’ High” with Clarence Williams / Eva Taylor. Maybe you know better? And, although Louis’ idol was the great Joe Oliver, master of any number of mutes, Louis only ever used a straight mute and then only a few times. I’ve got far too much spare time on my hands... If you know more, then so have you. - Jon Critchley
05/01/21 -
Hello Fred, Best New Year Wishes
to you, Barbara and all your readers and writers. Howard Murray’s
reference to crates of bass reminds me of my Dad’s advice on beer:
1) steer clear of mild (he had grown up in the days when the slops
were customarily returned to the mild barrel; 2) when demonstrating
the well known effects on the digestive system of Draught Bass …..
pretend it was the dog. Harmoniously, - John Muskett 04/01/21 - To Norman Gibson, I also like my music with a sensible bit of bass. A couple of crates would be very sensible! Happy New Wotsit! - Howard Murray, 04/01/21 - Unfortunately this email is to confirm the passing of Brenda Canty Forest. Yesterday morning I was advised by her daughter Carol that Brenda was taken ill and had passed away before an ambulance had arrived. Brenda had battled with cancer for a period of three years, but tried to carry on enjoying her extended family - and Jazz. She was very much involved in the jazz scene from the early 50's playing piano in various bands. During the last few years she was a great supporter of Jazz Rag at Betws y Coed. - Morris Jones 04/01/21- Many Happy Returns today to Brian (Sam) Ellis, musical director of the Savannah Jazz Band. Also Happy Birthday to guitar player Jon Moore, who celebrates his birthday on Thursday. Hope it won't be long before you both get gigs again. 04/01/21 - Mike Lovell, now living down in Cornwall, had a booking for Valentines Day with his band The Kernow Swingtet, at Charlie's restaurant in Lostwithiel. Mike now writes on Facebook, "That was wishful thinking wasn’t it !!! Not only can’t we play anywhere (just moved to Tier 3)...CHARLIES was sold, and now, an Indian Restaurant...anyone fancy a Madras? Oh well...things can only get better......
04/01/21 -
Lang may your lum reek, means "long may your
chimney smoke" and refers to First Footing. Where the first dark
haired man through the door after New Year brings a lump of coal.
Hope this clears it up for you. My father was Scottish hence I know
what lt means. Hope this helps to sort things out - Dot Massey 04/01/21 - Martin Snow writes, " I have just heard that Brenda Canty-Forest has died this morning at home (3rd Jan). Apparently she was taken ill at home and died before the ambulance arrived. Her daughter Carole was with her at her home in Colwyn Bay." Brenda, who was living in North Wales, was a regular visitor to this page and once wrote, "I have to say that through your site I have been in touch with at least 4 musicians from 50 years ago... you certainly have deserved recognition for services to trad jazz. When I was in Pete Haslam's Collegians band we played Wrought Iron Rag on a live "People and Places" programme on Granada TV around 1959/60. I remember we had to keep on practising it to get it exactly in time with the slot we had in the programme. We were in the studios all day and the men had to change their shirts into more colourful ones to show up on black and white TV and I then had very dark hair and had to have gold spray on it to show curls! It was a very popular tune for us in clubs so that was probably why we chose it for TV. I also have an LP we did with this on which we recorded in the Free Trade Hall one cold Sunday morning by TH Adkins, Rendezvous records. Thinking about it,... When we did the TV show, we may have been called The Crescent Jazz band as we obviously didn't have our colourful striped jackets we had when Paddy McKiernan took us on and changed our name."
04/01/21 -
The growl technique on brass (previous messages)
can all be controlled by the tongue. Tip of the tongue on roof of
the mouth (fairly rigid), middle of the tongue (relaxed) for
'flutter' effect and far back of the tongue (rigid again) for a
'Cootie' effect. In the absence of gigs I'll be training guard dogs
how to growl next week. Well -it's minimum rate and a couple of cans
for next doors hound. Best for the New Year and more power to your
elbow on this great site. - Ian Royle 01/01/21 - Norman Gibson writes, "For Christmas I treated myself to the latest Amazon Echo Studio Smart Speaker, and gave my 3rd. generation Echo to my daughter. I hit lucky not buying from Amazon at £189.99 and getting it from QVC about £50 less. I like my music with a sensible bit of bass, and although the other Echo was good, a 5 inch woofer against the three inch was more attractive. I should add that I have had a number of hi fi systems over the years, even built a few bass speakers up myself, but many bass speakers were just not up to the job without spending mega money. The acid test I've always used is the solo by Hank Marvin on the Shadows LP track 'NIVRAM, which Alexa kindly put on for me. And bingo my Echo Studio can hack it". You can also do it the poor man's way like I do - An echo dot for £13.99 has an audio output. If you have a Hi-Fi, you can connect it to the Aux socket with a lead for about £1 and get all the music and radio stations you want at your usual quality. 01/01/21 - Regarding Pam Woosey's view on the BBC, she is 100% correct. Radio 2 is now a joke of a station. Where has all the brass band and Jazz music disappeared to? I drive a truck all night and am tired of listening to 10 to 20 year old repeats of rubbish. I once feared digital radio taking over, now I don't care as the radio is now never on. Best wishes to you and all jazz fans. KEEP BUYING CD,s !! - Rob Lamble. 01/01/21 - A new year and new hope for the future. Here's hoping you all get the vaccine soon, and here's hoping that in 2021 we can all get back to enjoying the live music that we have been able to enjoy in the past.
December 2020
30/12/20 - The reply to the toast "Lang may yer lum reek!" is usually "Aye. Wi' other folk's coal!". I can't work out who wrote that...Bert? - Howard Murray 30/12/20 - I've just added a link to Syncopated Times, which 'Explores the world of Hot Jazz, Ragtime and Swing
30/12/20
- Time for the
Wednesday Quiz, Bert says, "Well, Fred, we got through Christmas Zooming and
now we'll do the same for New Year's. At least we can approach Hogmanay with a
good single malt in hand, COVID be damned. In my household it is a double
celebration - New Year and my natal day. As we used to say in Scotland, "Lang
may yer lum reek"--although in these ecologically sensitive times, it is not
politically correct to say that".
29/12/20
- Another lockdown photograph
from Peter Swensson, once again it's the Savoy's 30th anniversary, but this time
some different faces.
28/12/20
- Anybody see Chris Langford guesting
on the Morecambe and Wise Show on Boxing Day? I remember backing and recording
with her, with John Taylor's Wolverines in the 60s. She was a lovely lady and a
great singer and always sang with a great jazz feel and had good dots! She also
sang quite a bit with the NDO. - Dave Moore 27/12/20 - I am devastated by the news of the demise of yet another big band and jazz programme together with Bill Kenwrights. The BBC is not only politically biased but age biased. Over many years whenever the presenter of a jazz or big band programme has died or become ill the programme has been axed. We oldies are one or the most vulnerable age group in this pandemic - we are unable to venture out or our interests have been curtailed and we have been made to pay for a tv licence. Personally with Roy now being in care and I have to pay all household bills and any extras for him, I am finding it hard financially. My savings which are comprise mainly my superannuation from Bury council over 23 years ago are for my care. Just what are we supposed to do to relieve the isolation and monotony? I thought I would never wish the BBC to lose the taxpayer's contribution but I certainly do now with all the drivel and repeats. Lord Reith would turn in his grave. Good job I have about 200 CD's to play. Hopefully a better 2021 - Pam Woosey 27/12/20 - Mustn't be many Boogie Woogie fans out there ? Maybe we should have a look at the New Orleans 'Master of Stride Piano' Jim Hession playing a bit of Boogie Woogie, then those not keen can follow with a visit to some of his stride on You Tube. Of course seeing him live is always best! - Norman Gibson 27/12/20 - Someone who was a regular visitor to Keswick for the Jazz Festival was pianist Neville Dickie. Neville will be celebrating his 84th birthday on New Years Day. Many Happy Returns.
27/12/20
-
The January edition of
Just Jazz magazine is now available, and Andrew
Liddle's evaluation and write-up on the survey results
is published so thanks Andrew, saved me a job, it may also bring some new
visitors to the web site. It will be interesting to see what comments emerge, if
any. I also realised that a previous "survey" was also on the site about,
"what makes a jazz evening successful. By coincidence
John Howell recently sent me an email about Jazz Club 90 and what they were
doing to keep it together. His comments are added to the
original survey
26/12/20 -
I've just come
across a photograph amongst the 1000s on my PC, It brought back some happy
memories of the Merseysippi Jazz Band. I've added to the lockdown Photographs,
and quick off the mark, Pete Darwin comes back with an answer to my question.
24/12/20
- Jon Critchley has sent me
a copy of a letter he received from the National Jazz
Archive. He says, "Maybe some will be interested in this and supporting the NJA".
23/12/20 -
Many Happy Returns today to
Bernard Burke (tbn), to Pete Darwin (dms) on Thursday, The Revd Allan Wilcox
(bs) on Friday and to Mick Unthank (clt) on Saturday. 22/12/20 - I’m really pleased for Ed (19/12), that he’s got a gig next September. I just hope it’s not because everyone else was booked up. Happy Christmas Ed! - Jon Critchley 22/12/20 - Just read the Guardian article. Why do people have to analyse everything! Have they lost the ability to just enjoy! - Bryan Yates 22/12/20 - Bert Thompson has sent me this week's quiz No. 40 called "colours". Bert says, "Although we have a killer pandemic surge going in the U.S. at the moment, at least there is light at the end of the tunnel with two vaccines now approved and more on the way. But the tunnel is still pretty long!".
22/12/20 -
Two more photographs for the lockdown pictures,
this time featuring Carole Oldham. Submitted by Peter Swensson, they were taken
by Terry Birkenhead. 21/12/20 - If Boogie Woogie is your thing, you'll love these 5 performances. Me? I enjoyed them as long as I had a rest every few minutes, I felt exhausted. Norman Gibson started me off on the trail when he sent me this email, "Players don't come much better than this young guy from Paris, and only 17. He's listed to be appearing at FestJazz next July hopefully". 21/12/20 - Many Happy Returns this week to Bernard Burke (tbn) on Wednesday, Pete Darwin (dms) on Thursday, Allan Wilcox (bs) on Friday, and Mick Unthank (clt) on Saturday.
21/12/20
-
Derek Brown emailed to pass on the sad news
that Eric Hammond had passed away. Derek says, "He was a legend in the jazz
field in and around Preston, and Lancashire and many areas of this country. In
fact the most well known drummer in town. With countless named bands to his
credit, today many a drummer that he taught must be gratefully thankful for his
teachings. Eric died very sadly after losing his wife Anne of many years. The
news is spreading wildly through the area of his sad loss. I'm sure many of
your readers will have comments to make on this sad news. 19/12/20 - Diane Davies writes, "I want to personally thank all the musicians that Alan played with, too numerous to mention, for all their help and friendship over the past few years, and to all the musicians who wrote such kind words, it is a great comfort to me". You can read Diane's email in full on Alan's Tribute Page 19/12/20 - Re your various texts on the 100 club in London. I recall when we loaded up the band van at the back of the club after the session the cardboard boxes stored out there would move and the occupants sleeping in them would complain. This was my first experience of homelessness. - Peter Sumner
19/12/20
- I've got a gig! A proper cash money paid gig......
It is a while in the future I admit, Sept 4th 2021, but nevertheless an entry in
my MU diary. I'm available for more by the way...... - Ed Lloyd Hughes
18/12/20
- "An
interesting article about Louis Armstrong", says Mike Feltham, and he's
right! It's called, "Not a wonderful world: why Louis Armstrong was hated by so
many", and it was in The Guardian. 17/12/20 - The growl is achieved simply by growling with the vocal cords (now known as folds) into the mouthpiece and having that low frequency note, unrelated to the music being played, modulate the actual note. Never gave me a sore throat but I wouldn't for one minute quarrel with anyone to whom it did. It's a bit of an attack on the throat! Maybe I didn't overdo it or had adequate pints of MSG No 3 to ease its passage. In electronics, it's known as mixing as our illustrious Fred, Pro Electronics Engineer can confirm. Some Easten Eu & Asian countries have developed a technique, throat singing whereby they mix the fundamental note of their voice with high order overtones/harmonics to produce totally unrelated but quite tuneful notes! No instrument necessary. (You can leave your trombone at home as the old joke goes!) (Well! busk something!) You want nodules on your larynx? This must be a good way. When I taught kids in school, I had to tell the boys that raucous growling would only come after their voices had broken and girls never! In the present environment that may no longer be altogether true! Maybe Miss Ketchen is spherically endowed? But don't do It In The School Orchestra! They will throw you through the window without opening it! - Howard Murray 16/12/20 - The Tribute Page for Alan Davies is now complete with several contributions. There's room for more if you remember Alan
16/12/20 - Time for the
Wednesday Quiz from Bert Thompson. This week it's
about tunes and their composers 14/12/20 - The growl is produced by basically doing what you do when you gargle with any liquid, as a trumpet player, I was able to do it very young but found I was getting a lot of sore throats, I had an operation to remove part of my epiglottis, and after that I was unable to growl ever again. - Derek Dalton
13/12/20 - Dave Mott replies, "Hi Fred. It's not me in the 100 Club footage I'm afraid. In fact the last time I was there was in the excellent company of Pete Darwin himself - I was depping with the Merseysippi".
13/12/20 - An abundance of birthdays
coming up this week - Tomorrow it's Birthday Greetings to Alex Clarke and Barry
Quilliam, and on Tuesday to Richard Knock, and Keith Garner (who celebrates a
special one this week). On Wednesday it's Sam Woods Birthday and on Thursday Harry Swinburne's birthday. Norman
Gibson has asked, "As I enjoyed a number of his weekend jazz events, perhaps I
could be permitted to wish him a great festive birthday
with this video"? Finally it's the
turn of someone nearer home, bass player Derek Brown, here in Preston, who will
be celebrating his birthday on Saturday. Many Happy Returns to you all. 12/12/20 - John Muskett has advised me - "Meryl and I learned today in a ’phone call from Diane that drummer Alan Davies had died last night. He had been suffering from a worsening heart condition for some time. Alan was born (in 1939) and brought up in Liverpool, but had lived, we found out, for a while in West Kirby, Wirral, where I was raised. He played in a number of Merseyside bands and was well-known in the region, but our paths did not cross until he joined the Milenberg Boys in (I think) the late 1990’s. At that time he and Diane were living in St Asaph, North Wales. About ten years ago they removed to Cornwall, to live in a park home on a site in St Ann’s Chapel near Callington. We visited them there a couple of times. Meryl joins me in saying farewell to a true friend and sending condolences to Diane". A tribute page will appear here shortly.
12/12/20 -
As good a clarinettist as she is, I find Doreen Ketchen's growl
effects misplaced and as such unnecessary, adding nothing. I've heard trumpeters
use the effect equally indiscriminately, just because " they can". Secret is
knowing when to leave out1 - Jon Critchley
10/12/20 - Clarinet players may be interested
to learn how Doreen Ketchens plays the 'growl' which is common in her style.
Check out this lesson from Doreen
which finishes with 'House of the Rising Sun'. It just went online in October
2020. - Norman Gibson
09/12/20 - Wednesday and
time for another quiz from Bert Thompson.
Quiz No. 38. Bert writes, " Here in the U.S. we
are in the midst of the worst surge yet of the virus. Tonight in my part of the
world we go into a partial lockdown through Christmas. We're not making it easy
for Mr. Claus. Hope things are not as bad your way; and we hear that a vaccine
is available to U.K. citizens. Apparently Mr. Trump is quite upset that Britain
seems to be ahead of the U.S. in that regard". 08/12/20 - Re Bob Metcalf’s query. Check this out, it looks like it was 1969. - Alwyn Smith.
06/12/20 - Many Happy Returns on Friday to Moe Green. 05/12/20 - "So once again, at last, our once-was-beloved 100 Club gets some Royal patronage" writes John Westwood. Apparently there was an item one day on Channel 5 news. No mention of that four letter word ending in z though. So John says, here's one from happier times.
03/12//20 - Sorry to read about Andrew’s
father: He was a nice chap, always pleasant to chat to. He was invariably there
at the Hand Hotel in Llangollen when the Deeside Dixies played on Sundays, and
at other gigs. I well remember years and years ago when The Original Panama had
a residency at The Hotel Victoria in New Brighton, Andrew and his dad were usually
there in the audience. These were the days when we would invite young Andrew (as
he was then) to come up and do a number with the band, probably “Mood Indigo”.
He could barely string four notes together then. I like to think that we were
responsible for him doubling that number. Cheers! - Jon Critchley 02/12/20 - Time for the Wednesday Quiz No. 37 from Bert Thompson, and this one should sort the men from the boys. If you enjoy doing these quizzes, you are going to see a new look this time. Hope it's an improvement. 02/12/20 - The latest edition of Jazz Rag has a feature on Alex Clarke and Roy Williams 02/12/20 - I came across this LP the other day, recorded live at the now gone Doctor Johnson pub in Ilford; closed in 2010 and, after a fire in 2018, transformed into the Co-op. This is a great band, super ensemble playing, with Ken Sims at his fiery best: What an atmosphere there must have been at these sessions. I would like to know when it was recorded though, no indication anywhere that I can find. Anyone know? Some of the band are sadly departed, but maybe others may know? - Jon Critchley 02/12/20 - I noticed that I'm sitting on the far left of the front row of the picture of the Savoy and Beryl Brydon, and my Dad is slap bang in the middle. My Dad died at the end of last month, by the way. You might like to mention that on the site if you wouldn't mind, as he was well known on the local jazz scene. - Andrew MacKenzie 01/12/20 - The latest edition of Just Jazz has arrived through the letterbox, you can view the list of contents here November 2020 30/11/20 - Re the email 17/11/20. That viewing of 9 Sporting House Strings at Bude 2002 with Spats and Paul Degville was terrific. I was down to play there at The Globe this year but Covid put paid to that. Re the email 20/10/20 Trad Mad by Brian Matthew I’ve got that book and it certainly does make scant mention of Ken Colyer. I’m 85 and I remember playing at Ken’s club till about 6 am when I was banjoist with Bill Nile’s Delta Jazz Band. Ive got a signed copy of Ken’s “book” which makes interesting reading .Love your site. Stay safe. - Peter Sumner 30/11/20 - I've just made my Christmas talk into a video file and thought it might brighten up some time during the present Lockdown. You can see/download it by clicking here. With all best wishes and Stay Safe. - Chris Walker
29/11/30 - Here's one band that has never cropped up on this site before. A message from Allan Walsh - "Hi I'm doing some research on my wife's dad. He was in a jazz band from Manchester called Glen Glen in late 40s and 50s. Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you". 29/11/30 - The Panama Jazz Band at The Black Horse, West Kirby in the 1970s, is the latest photograph to join the Lockdown Photos
29/11/20 - Many Happy
Returns to ex-pat and ex NW musician Tony West. On Tuesday 1st Dec, it's
birthday wishes to Paul Marks, and on Thursday to Howard Murray.
28/11/20 - Frank says £3000 to book the Alex
Welsh band today. Still worth every penny, Frank. Wish we could! - Cheers, Jon
Critchley 27/11/20 - It is good to see the lockdown articles and pictures.I was interested to see Jon Critchley's comment about the Blue Mags hiring the Alex Welsh Band for the bargain price of £175 in 1970 (ish) Out of interest. I put the figure into the Bank of England inflation calculator and it would have cost him nearly £3,000 in 2020.I don't recall an admission charge at the Coffee House, so you will have had to pass the tray around a few times to cover the cost. - Frank Whitehead
27/11/20 -
An interesting site playing Dixieland jazz comes nominated by
Graham Martindale.
http://radcap.ru/dixieland.html is a Russian Web Site, but don't worry the
site is coming up as safe when checked out with
a security site 26/11/20 - I was interested to read about the Harlem Hot Stompers LP and am pleased to fill in some of the blanks. Although the label refers to a recording date of October, 1971, it was in fact earlier than that because by that time I was playing trumpet with the Vintage Syncopators. It was actually recorded by an acquaintance of Tony Foulkes. I recall that it was recorded in a back room of the Gloucester Arms, off Regent Road in Salford. I remember it being freezing cold and seem to recall that it was about November/December 1970. I know that the drummer on that recording was Bob Coulson and I see from the log I kept at the time that he replaced Brian Ellwood on the 19th November that year. Nothing was ever done with the recording so I borrowed the master tape and had John R. T. Davies transfer it on to an LP. Sadly, I lost the LP when my record collection disappeared under 2' 6" of River Irwell on Boxing Day, 2015. The reference on the label to Eroica recording services is strange, as it was Eroica who recorded an LP for the Mick Burns Rhythm Kings (precursor of the Stompers) on the 21st June, 1969 (also lost in the flood). At the time of the recording the Harlem Hot Stompers consisted of Murray Smith (trumpet), John Ronan (trombone), Tony Foulkes and Howard Murray (reeds), John Reade (piano), Jim Lias (banjo), myself (sousaphone) and the aforementioned Bob Coulson on drums. We also recorded "Deep Henderson" that evening but it wasn't considered up to scratch! - Colin Turner 26/11/20 - Two pictures added to Brian Legan's request for memories of visiting musicans to the NW - Cy Laurie and John Barnes 26/11/20 - Some more photographs from Barrie Marshall added to the Lockdown Pictures one taken in Dumfries and one taken in Ireland 26/11/20 - I agree entirely with Jon Critchley's comments about Young Jazz Musician of the Year. I thought 20 year old Alex Clarke's playing was tremendous and I keep replaying her performance which seems to get better with each hearing. my only concern is whether these accomplished musicians will be able to earn a living playing jazz. I certainly hope so. - Moe Green. 25/11/20 - Re: The LP by The Harlem Hot Stompers. That would be by the original band formed when Mick Burns of the M.B Rhythm Kings moved to London taking his band name with him. I'm interested because I'm on the LP. That astounding multi instrumentalist, Willie Entwistle had been with Mick but pulled out when Mick went sarf! For the life of me, I cannot remember where it was recorded.. In all probability it was the MSG.. (Not mono sodium glutamate) but Manchester Sports Guild...a leading, 2 floor venue for International Jazz. Five founder members survive today, Colin Turner Wind Bass,, John Reade Pno, John Ronan Tbn, Brian Elwood Drms (Mr Caesium Atomic Clock time keeper) and yours truly on Clrt/Tenor. It was the few local bands, to have a regular 4 piece front line and that caused the band to need some tight, repeatable arrangements for almost everything, arranged largely by John Reade and co-operatively with the band. - Howard Murray 25/11/20 - "Quiz 36 is Bert’s best yet: ingenious, keep going Bert!" - Jon Critchley. "Finding all ten instruments quite quickly in Quiz 36. Full marks to Bert, a good bit of 'concocting'". - Norman Gibson. First time i got them all right - Fred 25/11/20 - Received this email today - I’m writing from Guildhall School of Music & Drama to let you know about a new online course that may be of interest to your members: Jazz History, Part 1: From its Roots to Bebop.
25/11/20 - "That time of week again", says Bert
Thompson. "I had some fun concocting this week's quiz No.
36. It was a slight challenge to compose sentences that didn't sound stilted
or unidiomatic and that would encapsulate the several instruments. Some,
however, may just sound a little awkward, so I hope everyone will cut me some
slack. 24/11/20 - A message from Lynne Whittaker, "Hi Fred, I am contacting you regarding the recent peaceful passing of our mum, Pamela Gerrard, of Chester, on the 16th November. She was the widow of Hugh Keith Gerrard (d. Mar 2005), former trumpet player of 'New Orleans Express Jazz Band', and amongst others of the North West's finest, including 'The Savoy Jazzmen' and 'Tuxedo Jazz Band'. Both mum and dad, had made so many friends and acquaintances in the Jazz world, throughout their lifetime together, and I thought it would be an impossible task to let them all know. I remembered you had very kindly created a Memoriam page for our dad Hugh, when he passed in 2005, and was hoping that you could possibly announce the news of mums passing and her funeral details via your website, to your Jazz followers who may remember her. Funeral will be held at Chester (Blacon) Crematorium, Blacon Avenue, Blacon, Chester, CH1 5BB, on Monday 30th November 2020 at 11.20 am. There will be a live webcast for any friends who would have liked to attend, which I can supply the necessary details for via email". 24/11/20 - Dr Jo Ashbourn, Senior Tutor (Academic Affairs & Programmes) at St Cross College, Oxford has offered an online invite. She says "I thought you and colleagues might be interested in the online live jazz-style 'a capella' Christmas song medley that I've arranged for some festive cheer. It's on Friday 11th December 2020 at 7 pm GMT live via YouTube. There's a booking form to complete if you want the link. 24/11/20 - Watched BBC Young Jazz Musician on BBC4 the other night: All brilliant musicians, technically and wonderful to have got to the final. Someone said on the programme that it’s possible to over-think the music. Well, I thought four of them did. One of them really looked like she was having a ball, and, unlike the others, swung like the clappers. Really difficult under such clinical conditions. Alex Clarke will get the gigs and fill the rooms for those reasons. I also thought that Josie d’Arby overdid the grinning. - Jon Critchley. She was congratulated by John Howell, and Alex replied, "Thank you so much! It was one of those lovely things where losing didn't feel like losing at all! Everyone was so friendly and non-competitive, and it was simply a brilliant experience".
24/11/20 - Barrie Marshall has sent me a picture of The Mahogany Hall Stompers, taken in the mid 80’s, when the band was playing at Dumfries Jazz club. It's on the Lockdown Picture Page
24/11/20 - Another photograph in the "Guest
Musicians with NW Bands series. This time Wild Bill Davidson with the
Red River Jazzmen kindly sent in by Bernard Selby
22/11/20 - Many Happy
Returns today to John Meehan, leader of the Savannah Jazz Band. On Thursday it
will be Dave Berry's birthday and on Saturday Mike Pearson. Best wishes to you
both 21/11/20 - I think it's great Fred when people respond to queries like Allan raised re- Laurie Gold. Thanks David, I'm sure Allan was pleased, and I, and perhaps quite a few others, learned some more about The Pieces of Eight we had seen' and enjoyed' often on our black & white TV's. - Norman Gibson 21/11/20 - "Here is a drawing from my sketchbook when I was at Manchester College of Art and singing with The Southside Stompers at The Black Lion in Salford every Saturday night. It’s of Eric ‘ Ulysses’ Newton who was the bass player at that time". - Sheila Collier. It's on the lockdown pictures page
21/11/20 - Re: Allan Wilcox's enquiry,
Laurie Gold was Harry's tenor sax playing brother. - David Davies.
20/11/20 - Following on
from the photo of Harry Gold, when I was a lad - in the late fifties or early
sixties - I had a smashing EP, probably bought from Woolworths on their Embassy
label, of Laurie Gold and his Pieces of Eight [sic]. It was a few years before I
came across Harry, and then I assumed that my record was of the same man
'moonlighting' under an assumed name to avoid breaking his regular recording
contract. Can anyone throw any further light on this? (If anyone has a copy of
the EP, I'd love to hear it again.) - Allan Wilcox, 19/11/20 - Another lockdown photograph, this time from Terry Birkinhead, and it's a picture of the great Harry Gold 19/11/20 - Lynda writes, "Colin's funeral will be at 12noon on Tuesday 24th November at Stockport crematorium. Anyone who wishes can view it live by going to www.wesleymedia.co.uk/webcast-view and using the Order ID - 57272 and password ctpbqgsj". Thank you again to everyone for their kind words and lovely tributes". If you have a problem reading that, here it is phonetically charlie tango papa bravo quebec golf sierra juliet - Fred 19/11/20 - Join us today for a collection of Big Band, Swing and Trad Jazz music that spans the period 1920–50. You’ll hear the Charleston to Glenn Miller and everything in between, with both instrumental and vocal selections. In addition we’ve thrown in a few period novelty songs for your amusement. Today’s programme features a mixture of original period* and modern recordings. - radioriel.org
19/11/20 - On the 17th
one of your writers mentioned the "Sporting House Strings" at Bude and said he
hadn't heard anything about guitarist Paul Degville for a long time....sadly
Paul died on Jan 6th 2013, I think he was 65 or 66. Paul was a great
friend of Tommy Burton and a long time member of Tom's Sporting House Quartet,
there are quite a few videos of Paul and Tom on YouTube. - John and Marie
Howell, Jazz Club 90
18/11/20 - Time for the
Wednesday Quiz from Bert Thompson once again, this time Quiz No. 35 is
called, "Down by the Riverside". You have to
fill the blanks in the song lyrics with the names of the rivers. After the fires
in California which burned a stunning 3.8 million acres this year, Bert
writes," We got a sprinkle of rain this past week--not a deluge, by any means,.
but enough moisture to end the fire season, they say. I'll take it! And some
more is forecast for mid week. We'll see". 17/11/20 - "Being as there's not a lot of news", says one site visitor, "This YouTube video might be worth watching - 9 Sporting House Strings at Bude 2002. It was put on last year and only 174 views so far. Paul Degville is playing guitar and he's a guy I haven't heard of for a long time". 16/11/20 - Ian Royle's comment (13/11), about 'San Quentin', reminds me of my own similar mistake. In the early fifties, at about the age of twelve, I first heard traditional jazz at the Brighton Hippodrome in one of the variety acts. Full of enthusiasm, I arrived home and told my parents about it and said the band had played 'Twelfth Street Rag' and 'Basingstoke Blues'! It was some time before I discovered the correct title! - David Lawrence
16/11/20 - Another
photograph from the lockdown pictures. This time it comes from Peter Boswell,
and he'd like to know more about Dave Stansfield 15/11/20 - Tributes to Colin Smith are continuing to pour in. It's lovely to read them all.
14/11/20 - It is quite
some time since Pete Beaumont collapsed whilst on stage playing piano on his
last performance with New Orleans Wiggle and it has been some weeks between his
death and the funeral which is now next Monday 16th November at 11am on the
northern edge of Sheffield. Sadly due to Covid no live music is allowed at
the crematorium but a small group of musicians agreed to play at the funeral
home in Holmfirth as the hearse left but due to the even tighter restrictions
this also is sadly no longer feasible. Just one more quiet funeral amongst many
taking place during these very dark times. - Richard Lord.
The
funeral service will be available on line, and I have the details should anyone
want them. - Fred 13/11/20 - The Yorkshire Ripper died today and your readers might find it interesting to learn how I once met him in a Jazz club. Click here to read an article published today. I still shudder at the thought. - Andrew Liddle 13/11/20 - There is now a tribute page for Colin Smith, please send in any memories you would like to share. 13/11/20 - I had a lovely chat with Linda Smith this afternoon, even though she was ringing to tell me the sad news that Colin had passed away. She wasn't sure if I'd received the following email. We chewed over the old times and it was really nice. Colin always seemed to be pleased to see me whenever our paths crossed, as was Linda, and I think Colin will be particularly remembered in these parts for the lovely tune he wrote, "I believe in Rainbows", which Mart & Colin always played so beautifully. This message from Linda - ""Dear Fred, sadly yesterday evening my lovely husband Colin left this world and went to join the Big Jazz Band in the sky. He's probably best remembered as bass player with Mart Rodger Manchester Jazz but in the 60 something years he played he also got to play with plenty of other bands . His last gig was 2yrs ago at the age of 87. He was admitted to hospital 9 weeks ago having been ill for a few days with what was subsequently confirmed as COVID. After 3 wks he appeared to be recovering but the damage done by the COVID took it's toll and finally took his life. His son Justin and myself were allowed to be by his bedside for his last 3 days and nights, but sadly his other son Jason lives in Berlin and was unable to get here. Colin was a lovely man and a talented musician and I am left with some wonderful memories of the places we've been and all the lovely people we have met in the "jazz community ".
13/11/20 - I played with
Bryan's Band for quite a few years and here are a couple of stories for you. -
An agent in Ireland phoned Bryan asking whether he'd take the band out to Cork
for a ludicrously low fee. Bryan turned it down out of hand. "But it'd be great
exposure for the band" insisted the agent. "Captain Scott died of exposure" said
Bryan. Then there was the gig at Nantwich Vagrants and a young lady in the
audience was talking about her preferences on the big band scene. "Oh I like
them all except one" she gushed. "I don't like that San Quentin". And that's the
TRUTH !! - Ian. Royle 12/11/20 - A blast from the past sent in by Des Hopkins - A photograph taken at Hyde Jazz Club 14th July 1961. Check it out in the Lockdown Pictures
12/11/20 - The composer
of the week commencing 9th.November at 12 am. on Radio 3 is James P. Johnson.
The programmes are still
available online and are a fascinating in-depth study of his life and music.
There are recordings by James P. himself, of course, and also Fats Waller,
various bands led by Dick Hyman, one of my favourites, Marty Grosz and even
Doris Day singing One Hour – If I Could be With You One Hour Tonight. In the
1960s I went to the Free Trade Hall in Manchester one afternoon to pick up
some tickets for that night's performance by Duke Ellington. On hearing music
coming from the concert hall, I looked in and there was Duke Ellington on piano
playing James P. Johnson's Carolina Shout which he used for a time as the
introduction to Rocking in Rhythm. - Jim Heap 11/11/20 - Just had a phone call from Ron Darlington to say he had received an email from Paul Medina, and he has a copy of the CD of the Bryan Jones big band which someone was after for a funeral. Ian Royle also had a video of the band. So nice to be able to help people out and so nice to be able to find so many helpful people. I've given a contact phone number to Ron. 11/11/20 - Mention of Nellie Lutcher reminded me of an incident many many years ago. A local jazz fan who was working on a building site got back late from his lunch break after going to buy tickets for her appearance in Hanley. The foreman challenged him and he explained that he'd been to buy tickets for Nellie Lutcher. "Next time let her buy her own expletive tickets" chastised the foreman, - clearly not a fan. - Keith Garner
11/11/20 - Time for the Wednesday Quiz from
Bert Thompson, number 34. A different kind of heat this week from Bert as he moves from
forest fires to a bigger fire, one from the White House, but he thinks it won't
be a quiet affair. 10/11/20 - I've had this request in - "Can you help me, I’m trying to track down any recordings by Bryan Jones, more specifically ‘Spring can really hang you up the most’. This is a request from my step-dad who was a keen Jazz fan of the 40’s and 50’s and a regular attendee at the Jazz night in St Georges, Telford, my request is unfortunately a little sombre as he has requested this to be be played at his funeral (hopefully not too imminent!)". I can see the Bryan Jones Big Band was on a playlist on BBC Radio Stoke, but not found it elsewhere - Fred 10/11/20 - Having my morning coffee just now, thinking back to my early jazz learning, and as I have a couple of old LPs of Nellie Lutcher, I thought I would re-acquaint myself with her through YouTube. Quite a bit of old film of her on there ! Anyone not familiar with Nellie might watch her in glorious black and white of course. Norman Gibson 10/11/20 - Brian Legan writes, "In October, I was lying on my back on a bed in the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital with a newly fitted defibrillator counting the ceiling tiles when Terry Birkinhead rang me. We chatted for a while exchanging stories about guest musicians with North West bands we had encountered over the years, some humorous some serious. When he rang off I got to thinking there is a vast store of untold stories about these events and time's getting short! There are already lots of reminiscences on your site but very few are concerned with visiting guest musicians, especially international stars". Brian's recalls some of the top names that have played in the North West, an interesting read, and he invites others to do the same. I've started the page here. 10/11/20 - I had a phone call tonight from Paul Broomhead who asked me to let people know that bass player Harry Mouat, a well known musician in Cheshire who was a regular dep at Keel University events, had passed away.
10/11/20 - Just noticed
that the film 'Ronnie's', celebrating the legacy of Ronnie Scott and his
world-famous jazz club, is showing on BBC4 on Sunday 15th November at 9.00pm.
This is a great surprise as it was only released into selected UK cinemas in
October, and I couldn't get to see it before lockdown 2. Should be a great
watch. Barry Pryme.
09/11/20 - I am inclined to agree with Chris
Massey. I think the bass player at the Black Lion is Geoff Ford and the banjo
player alongside Tony Dunleavy in the penultimate photo is Mike Dexter. - Paul
Medina. The banjo player next to Tony Dunleavy is Mike Dexter. - Graham Brook.
See Lockdown Photographs 08/11/20 - Bob Lamb has sent a couple of photographs for the lockdown gallery. We need yet another identity. 08/11/20 - l have had a look at the photograph at The Black Lion .Could the Bass player be Geoff Ford before he joined the Zenith Six. I started going to the Black Lion in 1965 and Geoff was on the bass then with the Zenith. - Chris. Massey. What does anybody else think? - Fred 08/11/20 - I'm told that the Young Musician of the Year Final is a two hour programme on BBC 4 starting 7.00 pm on November 22nd
08/11/20 -
Today is the birthday of trumpet player, Peter Brown, and on
Tuesday, Graham Martindale and Terry Brunt. Next Saturday it's the turn of Ken
Parkinson to celebrate years of jazz. Many Happy Returns to you all. 07/11/20 - Those of you with access to Netflix, will be able to watch Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom after December 17th. - "Chicago, 1927. A recording session. Tensions rise between Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), her ambitious horn player (Chadwick Boseman), and the white management determined to control the legendary “Mother of the Blues.” Based on Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson's play. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by George C. Wolfe. Starring Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Glynn Turman, Dusan Brown and Taylour Paige" 06/11/20 - Well done Alex, knock 'em dead! Cheers - Jon Critchley : That's great Alex, keep swingin' - Bill Buck 06/11/20 - A couple of lovely photographs and a fitting tribute to George Galway have been sent in by vocalist Julie Flynn 06/11/20 - "I've been sitting on this news for quite some time now, but I'm so excited to be able to announce that I've managed to make it through to this year's BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year Final In what has been a truly dreadful year, it's so nice to have some good news, an incentive to practise, and the wonderful opportunity to surround myself with some top-notch musicians". - Alex Clarke. .
05/11/20 - I'm a bit miffed that my good friend Trevor has beaten me to the post with his Jazz Promoting experiences. I am having some difficulty in getting down to producing my effort, for various reasons, but I have made a fair start and will get there this side of Christmas. Trevor and his Fest Jazz have been a revelation to me, a real inspiration and I agree with every word he has written. I just sincerely hope that UK bands and Festival promoters finally take some notice of Trevor's advice freely given. It's not too late, but it's a close thing. - Norman Gibson 05/11/20 - Don't miss any of the news, you can always have it emailed to you twice weekly, just let me know - Fred 05/11/20 - Bravo to Jon Critchley for unearthing the video of Chris Barber and Ottilie Patterson (“Mama, he treats your daughter mean”). Sensational ! I’d forgotten just how good they were at that time. Thank you both! - Trevor Stent.
05/11/20 - I'm
delighted to have persuaded Trevor Stent to send me an account of his
experiences organising and promoting jazz events, moving from band leader with
the Blue Mags to international jazz event promoter in
France, for which he now has a team of young people -
Fest Jazz 03/11/20 - As the election chaos swirls around us here in the U.S., I'm finally getting to this week's quiz: States' names in song titles! Although we probably won't know tomorrow if the stable genius has been served an eviction notice, I'll keep my fingers crossed that such will be the final outcome and that he will not have to be hauled kicking and screaming back to Trump Tower. It sure has seemed as if the old Chinese curse has been coming true these past several weeks (months? years?): "May you live in interesting times." And I believe the U.K. is teetering on the edge of another lockdown. Are you also being visited by the Chinese curse? Stay safe and well. - Bert Thompson 03/11/20 - The November edition of Just Jazz Magazine is now out. Check out the front page for the contents
03/11/20 -
Some great responses to the survey
results. "This was an excellent report, well presented; better than most of
the COVID reports I read and certainly much better than some of the BBC’s
mumbling weather presenters" - Barry Aldous. "Very informative" - Pete Darwin.
"Thank you for conducting your survey and for your report on the results!
It's heart-warming to learn that there's a 'majority' with an optimistic view of
the future for Jazz. In recent months I've found great consolation in......
'YouTube', not only because (I've discovered) it's a truly limitless source of
Jazz performance ,often on film or video, but also because everything is
contributed by Jazz fans and musicians, from around the World , often for no
apparent advantage than to entertain, inform, encourage, educate, or 'advertise'
availability! That may be of little financial benefit to unemployed
musicians but at least it's a ' resource' that can help to sustain the interest
of an audience in Jazz , of any style, past or present, and for that reason, it
has my recommendation, even with the intrusion of commercial 'ads' that are
totally irrelevant to the chosen subject! For without an audience, what
would become of us all?". - Roy Cansdale 02/11/20 - Back in late October I asked musicians to complete a survey as an indication as to how they felt about the future considering the gigs had dried up and there was no end in site until possibly next year. As i said previously, once the answers came in, I began to realise how I could have worded it better and the answers would have been easier to analyse if they had been yes/no/maybe, rather than "not very much", "I hope so", "possibly", "depends", "unsure" etc., but thankfully Andrew Liddle came to the rescue and analysed them for me with a view to publishing them in Just Jazz magazine. Normally Andrew's articles for Just Jazz appear on this site by permission of that magazine when they have a North West connection. In this instance his article on my poll is now posted on this site first and an extended version Is scheduled to appear in Just Jazz’s January edition". 02/11/20 - Two more photographs join the lockdown photographs, sent in by Terry Birkinhead, It's the big names this time. 02/11/20 - A while ago there was a request for any recommendations regarding internet radio. Well, for anyone who likes a mix of different types of jazz, as I do, I recommend Radio Swiss Jazz. It's a mix of trad, gypsy, big band, mainstream, vocal, modern. Some tracks are the original recordings, and some are new interpretations by today's musicians (many, but not all, are Swiss). Best of all, there are no commercials! You can download the app to your phone or tablet. Better still, if you have an Amazon Echo ('Alexa') then do this: 1. Say 'Alexa, enable Simple Radio'. : 2. Say 'Alexa, ask Simple Radio to play Radio Swiss Jazz'. : Happy listening! - Alan Jeffs 02/11/20 - "John Hallam played the flute sometimes with Smoky City at the Grant Arms Ramsbottom then sold it I have an LP of Sheila Collier's Smoky City which features Terry Brunt playing Jackass Blues on euphonium. The sleeve notes are by George Melly who says that Smoky City was one of the first to offer him a guest spot out of London when the tide was turning before he went back fulltime to John Chilton. Thanks are given to Royal Northern College of music, sponsors Stan Cross and Harry Hallam (John's Dad?) and John Featherstone (another name from the past) I do not have a record player anymore so if any keen collector would like this LP they may have it on collection". - Pam Woosey (Ramsbottom) 02/11/20 - "It has finally happened....after months of uncertainty regarding the future of Jazz Club 90 at the Albrighton Social Club a date has been set for the closure and demolition of the club.", writes John Howell. "This will be November 20th 2020 and with the new lockdown we can't continue our little get-togethers on Sunday lunchtime (just for a drink and a chat, no jazz!) so Jazz Club 90's address is now "No Fixed Abode", Albrighton! It will be a great wrench to leave the club as we have had a superb 5 years there, Robin Giles the chairman and Pete Jordan the steward could not have been more helpful and encouraging....we will miss them. Marie and I would like to thank all the fans who have supported us and the musicians, many from the North West who have provided such wonderful jazz over the years. This does not mean the end of Jazz Club 90 as we have made provisional arrangements to move to the Royal (the old British Legion club) in Albrighton as and when this blasted virus lets us. Hopefully Jazz Club 90 has many more years left to provide jazz and continue to be successful for both fans and musicians". 01/11/20 - When looking back there's always one name that escapes your memory, and so it is with the latest crop of photographs for the Lockdown Pictures page. Sent in by Dr. Alan Brown from Manchester there's one photo of a single musician whose name nobody will have forgotten, but can you name the bass player in the band photo? It was taken at the Black Lion in Salford around 1956/57. 01/11/20 - Thanks to Pete Lay for pointing out it wasn't African Waltz, but "Revival" that Chris Barber band played. African Waltz was indeed a hit for Johnny Dankworth and his Orchestra, Memory didn't serve me correct it seems, but still both tunes kept going round in my head in their time. African Waltz was also played by the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band. 01/11/20 - More photographs added to the lockdown photographs, the latest from Sheila Collier and John Brunton's son Gary. 01/11/20 - It's a week for trumpet players. Many Happy Returns today to Peter Brown, on Monday, Danny Riley, and Friday Harry Roberts. Time for a fanfare? 01/11/20 - Yesterday was to be the last day for musicians to fill in the musician questionnaire about how they have been coping with the lack of gigs and how they see the future. As I forgot to warn everybody at the start of yesterday, I've extended it until tonight. 135 musicians have so far contributed, and many thanks to those who have. If you are a musician, and you haven't yet done it, you can fill in the form here preferably with yes/no answers if possible, and as it is totally anonymous, I've asked Andrew Liddle if he would analyse the results for me, and he may eventually submit them for publishing in Just Jazz magazine. October 2020 31/12/20 - Sheila Collier has sent me a photograph of an LP by the Smoky City Jazz Band recorded in 1978, so I've managed to extract the sleeve notes which tell me that John Hallam played flute and Terry Brunt played euphonium on the LP, I must admit I've never seen either of those musicians play those instruments! I've included the information on the Smoky City Jazz Page 31/10/20 - Make-up wise this is maybe one for today, Halloween. The brilliant Angela and her 'Mama Shakers' band from Paris. Only a couple of thousand have viewed this video - 'Shake the Devil's Hand', on YouTube - Norman Gibson
30/10/20 - Hi Fred:
Check this out: (Has
it been on the site before?). I don’t think there’s anyone in Britain or
even further afield who can equal Ottilie’s voice, dynamism and sheer ability.
She was unique. - Jon Critchley. Can't recall ever having
seen that before Jon, odd really because it's part of the Jazz 625 series.
Digging around I came across
https://youtu.be/uKmM-W7psOc
29/10/20 - Referencing Fraser McCombe and New Orleans it is worth looking in the direction of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band ( check Wiki ). I saw them at St George's Hall , Liverpool. A revelation. Undoubtedly NO but with a striking difference. They played very few, if any, 'standards' but we're excitingly N.O. And when the mic'd amplification distorted their sound they called a halt and played ' au naturel ' acoustically. The Hall is big and cavernous and they sounded terrific. Mind you they were very, very, loud. If you haven't heard them then check them out. - Bob Lamb 29/10/20 - Referring to practice whilst the virus continues I can vouch for the New Orleans Jambook where there are close to one thousand easy tunes for Bb and and chords for both Bb and C instruments free to download/print. - Malcolm Holland 29/10/20 - John Howell (JazzClub 90) emailed to say, "Just had this link from one of our jazzers, if you like skiffle it's great and very amusing - Jive Aces - Mama Don’t Allow 28/10/20 - Time for another quiz, and it nearly didn't make it when Bert Thompson emailed on Monday to say, "I can’t send a quiz - no internet as our power has been turned off for fire danger and I can’t access my hard drive". Tuesday came the good news, "We are back! Seems a couple of new fires came to life in Northern California during the outage, but at least they seem to be minor conflagrations, fortunately. Hope all is well with you. I know that the U,.K. is having some difficulty with the COVID-19 situation and don't know how it is affecting you folks up north. We seem to be having a modicum of success here in California, but that could change at any time. The bigger success I am looking for is potential - the current occupant of the White House will get his eviction notice next week. I do hope they don't have to send in the National Guard to remove him should the election not go his way, but that might well be the final embarrassment he inflicts upon us. Click here for the quizzes, The latest is Quiz 32 26/10/20 - Another Lockdown Photograph from Peter Swensson, taken by Terry Birkenhead in October 1995 26/10/20 - It seems Pontins have pulled the plug and shut down their holiday resorts from November 2nd until February 12th (not Britannia Hotels), which is bad news for those people booked to go to Pete & Heather Lay's Winter Jazz Party 15-18 Jan 2021. Pete says, "Customers already booked don’t need to worry about ‘balance payment day’. I’m expecting Sand Bay to make contact about ‘monies’ – they will be offering repayment or transfer of monies to January 14th 2022. I was persuaded to undertake another in 2022 – I did that because Sand Bay asked me, not Pontins. In working for Sand Bay Holiday Village I have very little to do with the parent company Pontins". 26/10/20 - There's a a wealth of information on Sandy Brown Jazz put together by Ian Maund. It just happens that today is Ian's birthday, Many Happy Returns Ian 26/10/20 - Hi Fred, It is sad that we are losing so many great players with this virus. In Australia Victoria seems to be the worst affected, and here in South Australia we have been mostly safe because people are really trying to do the right thing and getting tested, socially distancing themselves and using the hand sanitisers at the entrance to shopping centres. I am still playing at gigs a little under very strict conditions also practising heaps trying to keep my lip in, in some ways I have felt all the practice I have been doing has really helped but there are many players I know who rely on gigs to keep their skills up. They will really feel it when the Gigs come back (as they will), so all the best to everyone over there and remember this will pass and they have to be ready to start again, don’t give up. Cheers - Derek Dalton 26/10/20 - “Style rather than repertoire “, how right Dave Donohoe is , “You never can tell” pays homage to EmmyLou Harris and my wife, Melanie’s favourite tune, is again by Dave , singing the Arlo Guthrie number, “City of New Orleans”. Dave certainly widened my horizons of what tunes were acceptable in the New Orleans idiom. New Orleans jazz has always had the reputation of being functional music and as such, bands that played for local dances etc Were expected to play the latest popular tunes . So, Dave is to be applauded for carrying on the tradition. How much better is it to hear an unusual tune played in the style rather than an overworked tune from the repertoire? - Fraser McCombe
26/10/20 -
More
tributes have come in for Pete Beaumont, which have been added to his
Tribute Page 24/10/20 - 109 returns to the survey have come in so far, which will close on 31st October. Now the answers are coming in, I realise the questions I should have asked! Most are yes and no, but some are "possibly", "occasionally", "now and again", "it depends" and "hope so", so it's going to be quite a job analysing them. On the whole the results are quite positive. 24/10/20 - When this site began, 25 years ago, few bands had their own web site and so I created pages for them. As time went by and bands started to have their own sites, I continued to keep my pages going. It soon emerged that mine were becoming out of date as the bands were just understandably updating their own, so I made a decision to remove my pages and simply provide a window into their sites. Of course when some bands decided to delete their own web sites, possibly because they had decided to disband, I was left with an empty page, which I then deleted. It was as a result of Peter Beaumont's death, that I realised I no longer had a record of the Dave Donohoe Band page, if only for the Whatever Happened To section, which I feel is a valuable historical record. Thankfully I kept a copy of some of them, and so I have been able to resurrect the original Dave Donohoe Band page as well as the Dennis Browne Band, page, albeit a little dated. 23/10/20 - Richard Lord has emailed to say, "I received a phone call yesterday from one of Pete’s sons telling me that his father, pianist Pete Beaumont from Holmfirth, West Yorkshire, had just quietly passed away in Huddersfield Royal Infirmary". Richard has written about Pete and I've added it to the Peter Beaumont tribute page. 23/10/20 - The 29th Bohém Ragtime & Jazz Festival Live Streaming - Starts today until Oct 25th. Check out http://www.bohemragtime.com/online, you can see the program details here, although you'll need to work out the times especially as the clocks go back this weekend.
23/10/20 - The
results of the survey are pouring in, many thanks if you filled one in, because
I don't know who you are. What I can tell you is that so far at lunchtime today,
88 people had completed it, out of which just two people said they had tested
positive for Corona virus. Two too many unfortunately. I'll keep it open
for a week and then publish the results. 22/10/20 - There's no doubting that Covid 19 is having a serious effect on musicians, and I hear some are wondering whether or not to call it a day, and sad to say some bands may not even re-emerge. I thought it might be interesting to carry out a survey anonymously and so emailed the following questions to musicians. 1. Have you continued to practice? : 2. Do you see yourself playing in public again once you are allowed to? : 3. Do you think your band will survive the virus? : 4. Have you been tested positive for the virus? and 5. Do you think you have, or may have had the virus? It was sent out today and so far 72 people have responded. If you are a musician, you can fill in the form here. I'll publish the results in due course - Fred 22/10/20 - Updated - Here's your chance to watch a live piano concert, now on YouTube rather than Zoom. Acclaimed jazz pianist Peter Edwards will play a one-hour concert with a programme that celebrates Black composers and their huge contributions to the history of jazz music at St Cross College Jazz Concert on Friday 23rd October 2020 at 7.30 pm BST via YouTube at https://youtu.be/l5OtTL4FrM4. 21/10/20 - You can read jazz musician Jim Petrie's obituary in the Scottish Herald 21/10/20 - Jon Critchley says, "Got this from a perfectly legitimate company in USA I’ve dealt with before. It’s extraordinary!". 21/10/20 - Re: Peter Swensson's photograph, the chap with the vibes is likely to be Vic Blackwell - Jon Critchley.
21/10/20 - It's
Wednesday again, and today's quiz will sort the men from the boys. How good is
your jazz history knowledge? Now is the time to find out with
Quiz 31 - Venues, by our quizmaster Bert Thompson.
20/10/20 -
Some
time ago, I was handed a book by a non jazzer called, "Trad Mad" written by
Brian Matthew in 1962 (remember him?), price three shillings and sixpence. I started to scan it with a view to
putting it on the site for you to read, albeit it may be copyright infringement.
That is still an ongoing job, but no doubt some of you have already read it. In
which case you will be interested to read this article from Jazz Rag, written by
Andrew Liddle. It's called It's Trad Grandad and is
reproduced by kind permission of
Jazz Rag Publication 18/10/20 - Re: Peter Swensson's photograph, Bill Buck confirms that the bass player is Malcolm Pendry: We were all in The Wall City Jazzmen at the same time. Maybe the others are early Wall City members also?. Jon Critchley
18/10/20 -
Many
Happy Returns tomorrow to Suzanne Mott, jazz vocalist and daughter of Dave Mott. 17/10/20 - Another lockdown photograph from Peter Swensson, but just one problem, he only knows one of the musicians - Billy Edwards. Do you know who the other four are, or where it was taken? 16/10/20 - I've just added a track from Tom Culbert's CD - "From Rags to Stride", to his tribute page
15/10/20 -
Hi
Fred, regarding Roy Williams I thought some of your readers may appreciate his
technical prowess on this
YouTube link - Malcolm Holland
15/10/20 -
If Roy Williams had been a Civil Servant instead of a world class trombonist,
he'd have had that MBE twenty years ago. Wonder why he never thought about
retraining! - Ian Royle 14/10/20 - It is with a heavy heart that I have to report that founder of The Quayside Hot Stompers, pianist Tom Culbert, passed away earlier this week. I spoke to Tom a while back when I asked for his permission to reprint his life story which he had written for Just Jazz. Hopefully I will get more details later, but for someone devoted to the music of New Orleans Jazz, it is so disheartening that he won't be getting the traditional send-off due to Covid restrictions. Tom was a lovely person, and of late he was a full time carer for his wife Et, who was wheelchair bound. He always seemed delighted to hear from me whenever I rang, and I was touched when he invited Barbara and myself to his 80th birthday celebration at The Union Exchange in Colne, home of The Forest Jazz Band. There is now a Tribute Page for Tom
14/10/20 -
Time for the Wednesday
Quiz, and this week it's an easy one, well it must be because I got them all
except one. This week, Number 30, is all about Faraway
Places. Quizmaster Bert Thompson says, "We are certainly enjoying better air
quality of late, but of course this virus isn't letting up here or anywhere
else, it seems. And that means continuing to have to breathe through a mask,
which I'm sure no one enjoys, no matter where". 12/10/20 - It was nice to read Sheila Collier’s message about Roy Williams receiving the MBE in the Queens honours list. I used to see him with Eric Batty’s Jazz aces at The Thatched House, Manchester in the 50’s, and didn’t know then that he was related to me. We shared the same great grandparents, and My mother and his mother Lily were friends (Small world). I do hope he is well as think it was last year that he was quite ill in hospital. He is a great trombonist. Congratulations Roy! - Brenda Canty-Forrest (Tomkins) 12/10/20 - Information passed on by Paul Medina - "George Galway passed away peacefully at home on October 4th 2020 aged 79 years. Beloved Husband of the late Muriel, much loved Dad of Martin and Brian and a loved Brother of Sir James and his wife Lady Jeanne. George will be sadly missed by nieces Jacqueline and Lorraine and friends Sue, Jenny and Sylvie. The funeral will be a private family service. All enquiries to Eamonn A. Kennedy Funeral Directors, Northenden tel 0161 945 2097.'' 12/10/20 - Thank you for the story about Harry. It is very interesting. Both my husband and I went to three Jazzweekends at Llandudno, which were most enjoyable and they were very reasonably priced too. We were fans of The Chicago Teds and used to go to Lymm to see them. I continued to see them after my husband died in 2003, but eventually gave up because I didn't like travelling alone in the Winter evenings. I have most of their CDs. Thank you for all your hard work in keeping jazz fans in touch with what is going on. - Kind regards, Mildred Finney 12/10/20 - I very much enjoyed, and appreciated, the story of Harry Swinburne and his Herculean efforts on the Merseyside jazz scene. Too often, the work and talent of characters like Harry are forgotten and unrecognised, not only by the spectators but even by the musicians who benefit so much from the hours people like him put in behind the scenes. Just as the Chicago Teds had Harry, the Blue Mags in the 70s and 80s had Frank Hudston and the band would never have been so successful without his untiring efforts and organising genius. It’s great that your website is now inviting these “forgotten men” to take a bow! - Trevor Stent 12/10/20 - Hi Fred, just to let you know that the Sammy Rimington video playing Ice Cream with the December Band is also on Youtube via this link 12/10/20 - "Please take a look at our updated website at www.pedigreejazzband.co.uk", writes Chris Walker, "we have our latest news and some recent videos of the band that might be of interest to your members during this present lockdown and starvation from any decent LIVE music
12/10/20 -
"Dear
Fred ,did you see that the great Trombonist Roy Williams has been given an MBE
in the Queens Birthday honours list for services to Jazz? He is from
Bolton . Good news !" -- Sheila Collier. Missed
that Sheila, but great news indeed. Still waiting for mine lol.
11/10/20 -
Many Happy Returns this week to Gerry Clayton
on Monday, and to Dave Bateman next Saturday.
10/10/20 -
Browsing through your videos Fred, I was delighted to see my old friend Peter
Curtis and his New Orleans Echoes at the Tunbridge Wells Jazz Club, with Bruce
Turner guesting among them. When we were still teenagers a few centuries ago, my
brother John (trombone), me (trumpet) and Pete (then on banjo, the reeds came
later) recorded three pieces on my Grundig TK20 tape recorder in Pete’s back (or
maybe front) room; Bill Bailey, Strutting with some barbecue, and Tishomingo
blues. I still have those recordings, now transcribed onto CD. When my brother
died in 2015, after the funeral, among the large number of guests celebrating
John’s life were at least a dozen musicians from the bands he had played with,
including of course, Peter, and I had the pleasure of joining in the session on
trumpet. I’m browsing through the videos, some submitted by another old friend
and sometime drummer with my own band, Graham Martindale, we also keep in touch
via internet. Thanks for these videos, Fred, I’m slowly but surely working my
way through them. - Richard Knock. 09/10/20 - There will be many people reading this news who have been to the Chatsworth House Hotel in Llandudno for one of Harry Swinburne's jazz weekends, as well as those who have been to Maghull British Legion or the Town Hall for his jazz or big band nights, again put on by Harry. Of those, how many people knew how Harry got round to starting it all? Well in one of my regular chats with him, I managed to get Harry to put it all down on paper and let me have it for the site. So in the latest addition to the series of Jazz Promoters, you can now read about someone I can truthfully call a dear friend - Harry Swinburne.
09/10/20 -
An old 1989 photograph of the Chicago Teds has
been sent to me by Harry Swinburne, and is now on the Lockdown Pictures page. 08/10/20 - I was delighted to receive a hand written letter from Bert Lamb in Ulverston, who tells me he doesn't really do computers. However he told me that he played with the elusive Ralph Bryson (4/10/20), when he was 17, between 1959-60. He joined a band on piano called, "Buddy Halpman's Jazzmen (or jazzband), in which Ralph Bryson was playing bass, and which renamed to 'The Crescent City Stompers'. He says, "It was under this name that we played regularly at the Iron Door club in Liverpool 08/10/20 - I've just updated the Video's page with a link to 'hoffmmanjazz' who has uploaded what appears to be thousands of classic videos. Norman Gibson suggested I might like to watch Sammy Rimmington playing Ice Cream with Kid Thomas, John Handy and Jim Robinson in 1965. You'll need to scroll a long way down to find it. 08/10/20 - Annie Cousins writes, "A friend who organises practices for an orchestra (he plays flute) around Macclesfield sent me this government guidance regulation. They now practice (about 25 at a time), in several churches, . Annie's Saints and Sinners practiced last Sunday in Christ Church which no longer has services It welcomes groups for a small fee which goes towards the upkeep. It was so nice to have a blow (play) again. I thought you might be able to pass this as some people don't seem to know this is possible. I believe halls as well as churches can be used". Annie kindly sent me this paragraph, but you should maybe read the whole of the "Guidance for people who work in performing arts, including arts organisations, venue operators and participants", before turning up - Fred.
08/10/20 -
The Tribute Page to George Galway has been updated
over the last two days
07/10/20 -
Another lockdown photo
supplied by Peter Swensson. This time it's it's John Petters' New Orleans
All Stars taken on the Lady Diana in Chester, June 1996 06/10/20 - Bert Thompson writes, "Attached is the latest quiz - Alternate Titles. The air is a good bit better in these parts right now, but we are not out of the woods yet (no pun intended). Can you believe that according to this morning's San Francisco newspaper, a record FOUR MILLION ACRES of California has burned this year? I trust that record won't be broken - in my lifetime, at least". You can see all set of 29 questions here.
06/10/20 -
One thing that has been missing from this site for long enough, is the other
side of the jazz club scene,the people who organise the clubs and without whom
we wouldn't have any, and that's The Promoters. So
far I've published two background stories, and now it's time for the third one.
Jazz Promoter Alec Crow has run the very successful
Bedale & Northallerton jazz club for the last 17 years, unfortunately it's not
quite in the North West, but we can't win them all. 05/10/20 - There is now a tribute page for George Galway, and if you have any fond memories of listening to him or playing with him, please email me and and I'll add them to the page for current and future jazz fans to read.
05/10/20 -
I had a phone call today just as I was about to
leave the house, from Tony Dunleavy, who had rung to tell me that George Galway
had passed away peacefully with his son by his side. Arriving home and there was
an email from Laurie Cooper to confirm that George had died on Sunday.
"He'll be sadly missed, he was a great player & he touched many peoples lives"
said Laurie. Funeral details when I get them. 04/10/20 - Aaron, who never knew his granddad, but knew he was a musician, is looking for anybody who may have come across him or knows anything about him. He says, "If you could help in the search for any information regarding ‘Ralph Bryson’, who I believe was a part of ‘5 and a penny jazz band’ and ‘new Brighton tower ballroom jazz band’ that would be a great help". Allan Wilcox asked if he was a bass player and Aaron replied, "My granddad did indeed play double bass!! He also played bass guitar! I believe the person Allan is referring to may well be my granddad! This, I hope, is brilliant news".
04/10/20 -
Many Happy Returns today to musician and all
round entertainer from the Fylde Coast, Pete Lindup. Also Many Happy Returns on
Friday to Alsager born drummer, Jack Cotterill, who describes himself as Event
Promoter, Musician & Booking Agent. 01/10/20 - Due out in cinemas this month, RONNIE'S is a film about the life of Ronnie Scott. Written & Directed by Oliver Murray, it's due for release in the UK on 22nd October in Everyman Cinemas - Jon Critchley 01/10/20 - I heard a story recently about someone who posted on Facebook that he refused to give Track and Trace information on the basis that he didn't want the Government to know where he had been. Someone took a snapshot of his Facebook profile which was showing all the places he'd been, and posted it to demonstrate his double standards. Someone who definitely isn't worried about his Facebook friends knowing his life story, is today's birthday boy and ex Mancunian, Brian Ellwood, now living in Penzance. I was looking at it today and there's no stone unturned, I didn't realise Brian had played for Savannah Jazz Band, Blue Lotus Jazzmen, Harlem Hot Stompers, Louiseville Jazzband, Dave Donohoe New Orleans Jazz Band, Colin Smith Jazzmen, Pete Haslem/Denis Gilmour Jazz Band to name a few. Happy Birthday Brian, I for one thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Good to know someone who isn't living life looking over his shoulder. 01/10/20 - My thanks to John Richardson who has sent in photographs of the Ken Colyer Jazzmen event and the poster for the 3rd Annual Lake District Festival in July 1983. I've added them to the Ken Colyer lost tape page 01/10/20 - Tony Baylis, double bass, sousaphone, vocals, born London, 1935 passed away last Thursday 24th September. Tony played with many top bands, notably including Lennie Felix, Bruce Turner, Mick Mulligan, Acker Bilk, Al Fairweather, the Temperance Seven, the highlight being the Alex Welsh Band at the Newport Jazz Festival, USA. Moving to Bristol, he joined the Wurzels from 1969 to 1984 and was in the Pete Allen Jazz Band in 1987. He appeared regularly at the Old Duke with the Dukes of Swing, Groove Juice Special and the Avon Cities Jazz Band. In the late 1990s he moved to Spain to practice physiotherapy and around 2000 he joined the New Zealand jazz scene. He returned to Bristol in recent years, but sadly failing health prevented him from playing there again. |
29/10/20 -
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