September 2016 Newsletter

Hello Jazz Lovers,

I hope you have all had a wonderful summer and are all refreshed and ready for the autumn season of jazz at OJC!

I would like to thank all our supporters for making the 5th anniversary gig in July.  Such a success … it took a lot of organising but I hope you’ll agree it was worth it. Also, Richard and Amy’s charity gig in August was a sell-out and went down a storm… they send huge thanks for your tremendous support!

We’ve some great gigs coming up!

Tuesday 6th September
The Magnificent Seven Jazz Band

Formed in 2013 by a nucleus of musicians from the Chris Barber, Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball bands, the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN jazz band comprises some of the most sought-after and successful musicians on the jazz scene today. Performing a wide range of jazz styles through well crafted arrangements, this band of versatile musicians successfully blends music from every jazz genre into an exciting and approachable package.

Calling on their experience of performing with Europe’s most influential jazz bands of the last sixty years, the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN combines a wealth of experience with youthful exuberance. Paying homage to the great jazz masters of the early jazz period as well as keeping alive the sounds of the swing era, the MAGNIFICENT SEVEN’s repertoire also celebrates the jazz revival of the 1950’s, tipping their hat to the great bands of Barber, Ball and Bilk. This band takes no prisoners!

With compositions and arrangements by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Louis Prima, Errol Garner, Fats Waller, Chucho Valdez, Paquito D’Rivera and many more, The Magnificent Seven will keep you enthralled!

Check out www.amyrobertsjazz.co.uk

Amy Roberts – clarinet, flute and saxophones
Richard Exall – clarinet and saxophones
Ian Bateman – trombone
Ben Cummings – trumpet
Nick Millward – drums
Bill Coleman – bass
Craig Milverton – piano

How do we do it at £12/£10 in advance?!?!
Only a few tickets left from Carlton House Club, High St, Olney 01234 711348 or Phonebox Magazine, Stanley Court, Olney. Book a table to dine from the special Jazz Menu –  two main courses for £12!

Next Up, Tuesday 4th October 
Doc Houlind Revival All-Stars 

Over from Denmark, we are thrilled to welcome back Doc Houlind and his Revival All-Stars during their 2016 UK tour. They went down so well last year, tickets are bound to sell out quickly.

Get your tickets from Carlton House Club, High St, Olney 01234 711348 or Phonebox Magazine, Stanley Court, Olney £12 or £10 in advance. Book a table to dine from the special Jazz Menu –  two main courses for £12!   Check out  www.dochoulind.dk

Tuesday 1st November
Tad Newton’s Jazz Friends

Tad Newton’s Jazzfriends At The Spice of Life

A great, swinging, foot-tapping night guaranteed with Tad and his band.

Tickets now available at £12 or £10 in advance from Carlton House Club, High St, Olney 01234 711348 or Phonebox Magazine, Stanley Court, Olney … Book a table to dine from the special Jazz Menu –  two main courses for £12! Check out www.tadnewtonsjazzfriends.com

Hope to see you soon at OJC,

Cheers,
Alan
Olney Jazz Club

www.olneyjazzclub.com
[email protected]

Lemsford Jazz Club welcomes back the Fenny Stompers!

Founded 1984

Plymouth’s Premier Jazz Venue

PRESENTING JAZZ LIVE AND ALIVE

Jazz&Jazz is delighted to support Plymouth Jazz Club in 
Promoting Live Jazz!

*** *** ***

Sunday, September 4th • 7.00 for 7.30pm  

Martin Dale Quartet
with Roger Marks

Roger Marks

Top Devon trombonist Roger Marks joins Martin Dale’s Quartet for a great evening of
easy listening mainstream jazz.

The Royal British Legion Club, Tailyour Road, Crownhill, Plymouth PL6 5DH

Admission £9, Members £7, Full-Time Students £5 Tickets on the door.
Tel: 01752 721179

*** *** ***

Sunday, September 18th • 7.00 for 7.30pm  

The Pedigree Jazz Band

One of the busiest & most successful traditional jazz bands, formed in 2013 and touring
throughout the UK, comes to Plymouth.

The Royal British Legion Club, Tailyour Road, Crownhill, Plymouth PL6 5DH

Admission £9, Members £7, Full-Time Students £5 Tickets on the door.
Tel: 01752 721179

*** *** ***

Sunday, October 2nd • 7.00 for 7.30pm  

The Sopranos

Andy Leggett Soprano Sax

Quintet headed by the two soprano saxes of Chris Pearce & Andy Leggett playing in the style of
Sidney Bechet, Bob Wilber, Soprano Summit etc.

The Royal British Legion Club, Tailyour Road, Crownhill, Plymouth PL6 5DH

Admission £9, Members £7, Full-Time Students £5 Tickets on the door.
Tel: 01752 721179

*** *** ***

Sunday, October 16th • 7.00 for 7.30pm  

The Black Cat Jazz Band

Steve Graham

A fine band formed in 2014 to play music in an authentic New Orleans “Dance Hall” style.
Featuring trumpeter Steve Graham.

The Royal British Legion Club, Tailyour Road, Crownhill, Plymouth PL6 5DH

Admission £9, Members £7, Full-Time Students £5 Tickets on the door.
Tel: 01752 721179

*** *** ***

Gig information and general enquiries:

(01752) 721179

www.plymouth-jazz-club.org.uk

email: [email protected]

Robyn Bennett (vocals) ; Ben van Hille (trombone) ; Max Mastella (guitar) ; David Pouradier Duteil (drums) ; Gino Chantoiseau (doublebass) ; Julien Raffin (saxophones)

Robyn Bennet has contacted Jazz&Jazz about her UK Autumn tour with her band
Robyn Bennett & Bang Bang

“I’ve received your information from Al Nicholls who plays sax with Blue Harlem, among other groups. Al has been helping promote my band in the UK over the past year. I am an American singer based in Paris, France, with a five-piece band (guitar, doublebass, drums, trombone and saxophone).

“We tour extensively in France and we toured the UK in August, 2015, playing sold-out shows at Ronnie Scott’s, Boisdale of Canary Wharf and Blues Kitchen Camden.”

To date Robyn Bennett & Bang Bang is booked for two UK gigs:
• Friday, October 28th at Kings Arms, Fulham
• Saturday, October 29th at Boisdale Restaurant, Canary Wharf
• Sunday October 30th Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club

They are also looking for another gig for Thursday, 27th October and possibly for Monday, 31st October and would appreciate any suggestions of venues to contact. 

Take a look at the Robyn Bennett & Bang Bang website. It’s impressive! Then, whether you are a promoter or a fan and would like to see Robyn at your club/venue, contact her at:

[email protected]
Tel: +33 6 63 240 260 or +33 9 82 29 86 48
Website: http://www.robynbennett.com

Or you can send me any messages you may have for Robyn via “Speak Your Mind” below.

Peter M Butler
Editor & Proprietor Jazz&Jazz

“Jazz In The Park”, Bedford, this coming Thursday, 25th August, presents two very special musicians, JazzFm’s 2016 UK Jazz Vocalist of the Year, Lauren Kinsella accompanied
by pianist Matt Robinson.

As always there will be a Q&A session with the artists in the second set.

Irish vocalist and composer Lauren is currently based in London and has become one of the city’s most adventurous artists, performing throughout the UK and Europe as a soloist and bandleader. A passionate educator, Lauren holds a senior lecturing post at Leeds Conservatoire and is the featured vocalist in several recent projects.

Awarded the Young Musicwide Performance Award in 2010, the Kenny Wheeler Prize in 2013, the THSH Birmingham Jazzlines Fellowship in 2015, Lauren has received commissions from
BBC Radio 3 and from Marsden Jazz Festival.

Reviewed worldwide, Lauren regularly features on several radio stations including BBC Radio 3, Jazz FM and BBC Radio Scotland. To date, she has released several critically acclaimed albums.

Born in Dublin, she completed her masters at the Royal Academy of Music, London.

Doors open at 7.40pm and the session starts at 8pm.

Spanish Tapas (£8.95) and Blood Orange & Chocolate Tart (£4.95), along with Jugs of Sangria (£15) will be available to purchase at the Cafe. 

Tickets are now on sale at conscia.org and we look forward to seeing you there!!

Tom Syson
Managing Director, Conscia Jazz
conscia.org

Have you booked  for MK11’s StoryVille Jazz Club September gigs yet?

Wednesday September 14th
The Last Chance Ragtime Band

“The Last Chance Ragtime Band is a group dedicated to putting jazz on the dance floor. Taking their inspiration from the New Orleans Jazz Bands of Frenchman Street, LCRB plays music especially crafted for swing dancers from greats such as Jelly Roll Morton, Ella, Benny Goodman, Louis Prima, Louis Armstrong and Hoagy Carmichael. We cater for Lindy Hop, Blues and Balboa dancers.”
Ross Anderson, Ric Carson, Flo Flowers, Chris Marron, Tony Morton and Stephen Pagano.

Collaboration with Swing Dance MK for an evening of dance and music.

Gig starts at 20:30, finishes at 23:00

Tickets £6 in advance, £10 on the door or via See Tickets

***  ***  ***

Wednesday, September 21st
Nigel Price with The StoryVille House Band

“One of the most highly regarded and in demand guitarists on the UK jazz scene today.”

“Nigel placed third in the 2014 British Jazz Awards for best guitarist and is
also a regular performer at Ronnie Scott’s, where he has played over 400 times.
His blend of flowing bebop lines, deep blues feeling and mastery of
chording has made him instantly accessible and popular with jazz audiences.”

Before Nigel amazes you on stage at Storyville he’ll be giving a 90 minutes Masterclass on playing Jazz guitar. You simply won’t want to miss this!

“There’s an exhilarating tight-loose swing and old-school honestly about Price’s brand of soul-bop that leaves you panting” – Mojo

“Very few players could manage playing as fluent, imaginative and technically impeccable guitar as Price does here” – Evening Standard

“Nigel Price is a blazing guitar player. He has serious chops and is able to demonstrate them wonderfully in the context of the standard repertoire.” Just Jazz Guitar

Gig Tickets Only
Tickets £6 in advance, £10 on the door

Masterclass Tickets Only
£6 under 18s
£10 over 18s

Combined Tickets
£10 under 18s
£14 over 18s

Masterclass starts at 18:30, finishes at 20:00.
Gig starts at 20:30, finishes at 23:00
Tickets can be bought from the MK11 bar or See Tickets or email [email protected]

Ian Wallis

e: [email protected]
m: 07984012643

Hot off the press in Just Jazz magazine’s August editorial came this statement:

“As a follow up to our Editorial in July we would like to publish a notification from a band that was due to play in the UK this month:

“Unfortunately, two days ago, it turned out that the festival was not able to pay us properly and of all the gigs we were depending on we needed at least one well paid gig. That’s why we decided not to come to the UK in August. Playing underpaid gigs here and there is fine and certainly necessary to establish the band in new countries, but not a whole tour, where also no one provides proper accommodation … It’s too risky and we might even end up being out of pocket. I’m sorry – we really wanted to come too … I hope that we’ll have the opportunity to come to the UK in the future.”

“How much longer do we on the jazz scene have to continue bemoaning the fact that if you want something you are not going to get it for nothing? The penny pinching attitude is not going to rejuvenate the beleaguered situation. For new faces, new audiences and new bands, especially the younger bands, we have to put our hands in our pockets. The notification from this particular group just about sums up the response that bands get from a lot of jazz promoters in this country.

“Just Jazz is very disappointed to hear that a touring band has had to cry off – maybe a few more folk will now understand why Tuba Skinny didn’t accept an offer to tour the UK in 2015.”

Jazz&Jazz Involvement
The band in question approached me via Jazz&Jazz / Jazzers regarding their intended UK tour asking if I could possibly help arrange gigs for them. And I did – two, plus offers of accommodation. But sadly due to their let down with the festival my efforts and the genuine offers received were to no avail. I met the band at Fest Jazz just a week ago and the band leader thanked me for my efforts. We will definitely stay in touch.

Tuba Skinny at Fest Jazz, Brittany in 2014. Why not yet in the UK?

Two years ago I met Erica Lewis and Robin Rapuzzi – also at Fest Jazz – along with two UK promoters – to discuss a potential Tuba Skinny UK tour. (I feature several of my YouTubes of their Fest Jazz performances on this site). Again “negotiations” drew a blank, for the very reasons stated in the Just Jazz editorial. I myself do not organise jazz events or book bands but, along with Pete Lay, I did strive to make further approaches to Tuba Skinny, but I fear the damage was done, the die was cast!

As the Just Jazz editorial states: “We have to put our hands in our pockets. The notification from this particular group just about sums up the response that bands get from a lot of jazz promoters in this country.”

Facing an Increasing Workload
Come to that, its time for me to be very frank. I launched Jazz&Jazz back in 2010 with the aim of doing what little I could to give something back by helping promote jazz and give it a boost. Since then this site along with my associated Facebook Jazzers Group and YouTubes has burgeoned with more friends and followers joining by the day. But now such is the increasing work load due to requests for promotions and coverage of events from all quarters that I’m finding it costly and difficult time wise and to keep up with it all.

Here are a few pointers to my achievements to date:

Jazz&Jazz Website Stats just for July this year:

That’s Unique Visitors: 5,514; Number of Visits: 10,728; Pages Visited: 25,580; Hits: 156,609

FACE BOOK FRIENDS:
Peter Mark Butler Personal Page: To date 1,130 friends
Jazzers Group: To date 1,009 friends
YouTubes: To date 476 YouTubes; 262 Subscribers; 180,400 Views
Twitter: 1,286 Tweets; 258 Followers
LinkedIn: 310 Published Jazz Articles; 155 Followers
(Due to time constraints I place less emphasis on Twitter and Linkedin)

I also run Facebook Pages for Lemsford Jazz Club and Ramsgate Seaside Shuffle / Peter Mark Butler RSS Shuffle, both of which I have been heavily associated and involved with over the past six years.

Quite frankly, at this pace I will very soon have to consider curtailing or rationing my efforts unless I can obtain financial support to cover costs and enlist some form of help to avoid burn out.

Martin Bennett with John Finch

Moral and Financial Support on Behalf of Jazz
I am currently discussing this situation with several jazz friends who are giving me much needed moral support and encouragement – in fact just this weekend Martin Bennett urged me to mention that he had offered financial support on a regular basis but that I wasn’t prepared to accept it until others too came on board. I also want to thank those who have already helped with the occasional donation.

Please donate as much as you can via the PayPal button to the right of this post or contact me on [email protected] if you would prefer to donate by other means. Such is the magnitude of the task to support jazz that others including Martin have also suggested exploring other ways to raise funds in support of Jazz&Jazz which are entirely transparent and honest.

Who knows, it might even become possible to raise sufficient funds to help sponsor events and even visiting bands.

Fest Jazz YouTubes
I am currently producing a quantity of YouTubes from movies taken at Fest Jazz the last weekend in July. It’s a fantastic festival as I understand are others in European countries. The YouTubes will be posted on Jazz&Jazz and the related sites as soon as possible and I expect that to boost my ratings considerably.

Peter M Butler
Editor & Proprietor Jazz&Jazz

Lemsford welcomes back Martin Bennett and The Old Green River
during their 2016 Summer Tour. 

Fest Jazz, 2014: Joan Chamorro and the Sant Andreu Jazz Band

Fest Jazz 2016 promises “The most exciting programme in the twelve years of the festival”,
Angelina Beauvir, Festival President.

Headline acts include the Sant Andreu Jazz Band, the youth band from Barcelona, Spain, featuring youngsters and teenagers from 7 to 17 plus, led by Joan Chamorro, their inspirational mentor. Andrea Motis, their young international trumpet star, will be with them throughout the weekend.

Probably the most famous youth band in the world, The Sant Andreu Band rarely performs outside their Barcelona home but following their incredibly successful involvement in Fest Jazz 2014, they are returning to Châteauneuf-du-Faou for Fest Jazz 2016 to celebrate a very special occasion, their 10th Anniversary.

In the words of  Fest Jazz President Angelina Beauvir: “We are delighted and proud that this brilliant band of 30 young musicians from the Municipal School of Music in Barcelona has chosen to come back to Fest Jazz in 2016 to celebrate their 10th Anniversary.  Their impact on the jazz world is already international with young stars emerging.  They will play in small groups throughout the weekend and The Big Band will finish the festival on Sunday evening alongside the Andrea Motis and Joan Chamorro Quintet. It will be a great tribute to the unique ambiance of Fest Jazz and a Joan Chamorro “Youth in Jazz Masterclass”.

I was hugely privileged to film the Sant Andreu Jazz Band at Fest Jazz in 2014 so to capture the ambiance, here is a selection of YouTube extracts of my footage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvfmGtp0zmo

Plus The Andrea Motis and Joan Chamorro Quintet at Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, London:

Ginny and I hope to meet up with as many jazz fans and jazz friends as possible over Fest Jazz Weekend 29th- 31st July!

Peter M Butler
Editor & Proprietor Jazz&Jazz

(Photos & YouTubes © Peter M Butler, Jazz&Jazz)