JAZZ PORTRAIT OF GRAND MARSHALL JIMBO HEADING THE BROLLY PARADE

Many jazz festivals just wouldn’t be the same without the imposing presence of Grand Marshall Jimbo heading the Brolly Parades. Come rain or shine, Jim Pack never fails to set the pace for the musicians in his wake. In this jazz painting Jimbo is stepping out at the head of the bands and fans at anAutumn Jazz Parade in Hemsby, Norfolk.

FINE ART PRINT OF JAZZ PORTRAIT OF GRAND MARSHALL JIMBO

Good Time Jazz

Skipping to the rhythm
Dapper and trim
Grand Marshall Jimbo
Leads the parade
Dazzling with gusto.
New Orleans Jazz
And brollies on show.

Braced against a cool October breeze, sprightly Grand Marshal Jimbo leads the Umbrella Parade at the Ken Colyer Trust 2008 Jazz Festival in Hemsby, Norfolk, where Good Time Jazz was enjoyed by one and all.

Art & Verse’ Copyright © 2009 Peter M Butler. All rights reserved

Fine Art Giclée Prints of this portrait are available, with or without my descriptive poem. Simply email: [email protected] to place your order and help support jazz.

ACRYLIC PORTRAIT OF SINGER/SONGWRITER ESTHER O’CONNOR

Forget Simon Cowell and the X Factor. Scottish singer/songwriter Esther O’Connor has done it her way, and these days that’s a breath of fresh air. The daughter of Graeme Duffin, bassist with Wet, Wet, Wet, Esther has her own band, Ashton Lane.

It’s been said that Esther has a “hard to classify style”. Yet she’s equally at home with pop, country, rock and folk. The Sunday Times said of her “She is a talent that harks back to the great singer songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s.

So why not Jazz, Esther?

JAZZ&JAZZ PORTRAIT OF ESTHER

Esther Enthrals Her Fans

Hail the new kid on the block,
No chip, but pure golden rock.
A musical queen and songstress supreme,
Thrillingly fulfilling her dream.

I mulled over painting a portrait of Esther for some time, wanting to be sure I could capture her in enraptured performance. Then, watching and listening to her, discovering her values and following her rise to stardom as both singer and song writer, I could resist no longer.

Art & Verse’ Copyright © 2010 Peter M Butler. All rights reserved

Fine Art Giclée Prints of this portrait are available, with or without my descriptive poem. Simply email: [email protected] to place your order and help support jazz.

JAZZ PORTRAIT OF EMILE VAN PELT AND ERIC WEBSTER

Jazz Painting of Emile Van Pelt and Eric Webster putting on the style at a Ken Colyer Trust Jazz Parade. Emile and Eric regularly tour the UK with Sammy Rimington’s International Jazz Band. Emile also stars with The New Orleans Z’hulus and Eric with Barbara Widmer’s New Revival Band. Eric has a knack of conjuring up his very own spontaneous
rapport with jazz fans.

FINE ART PRINT OF JAZZ PAINTING OF EMILE AND ERIC

Honky Tonk Time

Eric on banjo,
Strumming on strings,
Emile on piano,
Tickling the pins.
Honky Tonk time
With a glass of fine wine!

Eric Webster, banjo, and Emile van Pelt, piano, performing at the Ken Colyer Trust 2008 Jazz Parade. Emile plays piano in the style of the great US Southern States jazz musicians. Of Eric, a critic stated: ‘Mention should be made of his unobtrusive but essential banjo.’

Art & Verse’ Copyright © 2009 Peter M Butler. All rights reserved

Fine Art Giclée Prints of this portrait are available, with or without my descriptive poem. Simply email: [email protected] to place your order and help support jazz.

JAZZ PORTRAIT: DOM PIPKIN PUMPS PIANO

Dom Pipkin is said to “flay the organ within a millimetre” of the great Jazz organist Jimmy Smith. He writes and sings his own songs “like a ring tailed racoon”, referencing New Orleans favourites such as Professor Longhair, Huey “Piano” Smith, Lee Dorsey
and James Booker.

Dom leads his own group, The Ikos. In this jazz painting he is on keyboard with The Fallen Heroes at a Jazz in the  Barn concert in Throwley, Kent. The Fallen Heroes are famed for their  high energy performances of blues, funky jazz and contemporary New Orleans street beat.
Right down Dom’s street!

More recently Dom was pianist and musical director with Paloma Faith but always intended to get back to his beloved jazz and Ikos sooner rather than later.

FINE ART PRINT OF DOM PIPKIN JAZZ PAINTING

Dom Pipkin Pumps Piano

Jazz on the Farm
In deepest Kent,
Dominic on piano
Giving vocals full vent.
A Fallen Hero
Raising the roof of the barn.

Fine Art Giclée Prints of this portrait are available, with or without my descriptive poem. Simply email: [email protected] to place your order and help support jazz.

Amy Roberts (Jazz&Jazz Portrait)

Amy Roberts is an incredibly talented young lady and as a rising star she quickly  made her mark on the jazz world.

I first met Amy at the 2008 Ken Colyer Autumn Jazz Parade in Hemsby, Norfolk, where Sammy Rimington invited her to join him in a saxophone duet. Afterwards I overheard Sammy saying: “Amy’s got a natural talent and feel for the music. She’s got rhythm. She’s got swing. She’s the future of jazz.”

When she starred again at Hemsby in 2010, I simply had to paint this jazz portrait of her in acrylics as well as a portrait of her in duet with Adrian Cox, also displayed in Jazz Art & Film.

Voted winner of the British Jazz Awards Rising Star Category in 2009, Amy also placed second in the 2010 awards. Just into her 20s, she joined the Big Chris Barber Band early in 2011 and has since gone on to co-form the Amy Roberts Richard Exall Quintet which was presented with the  “Harry Cameron Trophy” for Best Band of the Year in 2013/2104.

As an ardent jazz fan said to me not so long ago at the 100 Club, “Who said jazz musicians are all oldies!” But jazz oldies by far outnumber the youngsters and if New Orleans style jazz is to make that long awaited comeback we need to applaud it’s rising stars.

Fine Art Print of Jazz Portrait of Amy Roberts

Amy’s Got Rhythm

 Hail a new generation,
With rhythmic syncopation,
Sax in crescendo,
As cadences flow
From the star of the show.

Amy Roberts steals the show at the 2010 Autumn Jazz Parade in Hemsby, Norfolk. When she was just 19, Sammy Rimington said of Amy,
“She’s got rhythm, she’s got swing. She’s the future of jazz!”

Art & Verse’ Copyright © 2011 Peter M Butler. All rights reserved

Fine Art Giclée Prints of this portrait are available, with or without my descriptive poem. Simply email: [email protected] to place your order and help support jazz.

Christine is band leader of Christine and the Stackyard Stompers. In this jazz painting commissioned by Christine I have captured her on trombone at a 2011 Peartree Monday Jazz Club gig in Welwyn Garden City. But I admit to a modicum of artistic licence in the backdrop.

The Stackyard Stompers play authentic jazz arrangements by greats including King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Johnny Dodds, Clarence Williams, Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong
and Duke Ellington.

Below is my fine art print of the jazz portrait of Christine along with my poem which conjures up the aura of mystery with which she surrounds herself. Or perhaps that’s just my imagination.

Mysterious Lady

Mysterious lady,
Trombone Aflame,
Dazzling her fans
To fulsome acclaim.

 The lady prefers to be know to her fans simply as Christine, band leader of Christine and the Stackyard Stompers. Hence her aura of mystery. My portrait captures her on trombone in typically flamboyant style at a Peartree Monday Jazz Club gig in Welwyn Garden City, with a little artistic licence to highlight her stunning performance.

 Art & Verse’ Copyright © 2012 Peter M Butler. All rights reserved.

Fine Art Giclée Prints of this portrait are available, with or without my descriptive poem. Simply email: [email protected] to place your order and help support jazz.

All too  often the drummer is hidden back of stage behind the brass and the reeds, yet he carries the entire band with his beat. So when the Fenny Stompers opened ranks to give Dave Arnold centre stage I seized the opportunity to capture just the image I needed for my jazz painting of him in one of his full power drum solos. This is reflected in my Dave Arnold Jazz Portrait poem.

Jazz portrait of Dave Arnold setting the session on fire as he takes centre stage for a dazzling drum solo with Dennis Vick’s Bletchley based Fenny Stompers at the Peartree Monday Jazz Club in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

Art & Verse Fine Art Print of Dave Arnold on Drums

The Clash of the Cymbals
The Beat of the Drums
Clear the stage for the drummer,
Make way for his beat.
Cymbals ablaze,
His drum rolls amaze,
As he turns up the heat,
Lifting fans to a fervour
Of spontaneous praise.

Fine Art Giclée Prints of this portrait are available, with or without my descriptive poem. Simply email: [email protected] to place your order and help support jazz.