Get down two The Peartree, Welwyn Garden City, this coming Monday, 16th December for a Hootenanny of Christmas Party with Dennis Vick’s Fenny Stompers starring Richard Leach on trombone and Paul Roberts on trumpet.
Click on the image to enlarge
George Buck, Jazzology Founder, Passes Away Aged 84
December 12, 2013 By 1 Comment
I will never forget those magical steps my wife and I took up the staircase from the Palm Court Jazz Café to George Buck’s Jazzology premises back in 2010. It was a brief but impressive visit, surrounded as we were by his lifetime’s work.
So much so that I feel impelled to include on Jazz&Jazz Lars Edegran’s obituary to George posted on JazzNorthWest, along with the touching eulogies.
One passage from the obituary I find especially striking, given, as some would put it, the parlous state of jazz today:
“Very few people get to spend their lives doing what most of us dream about- George Buck was able to make a living from a music most people eke out a living at- no one in his right mind would try to make a living from a music thought to be extinct about the time he started his label. He kept his firm running successfully for over sixty years and had a lot of fun doing it.”
This inspires me all the more in my efforts through Jazz&Jazz to make that essential difference to achieve a New Orleans Jazz revival.
Peter M Butler
Editor & Proprietor, Jazz&Jazz
Introducing Canada’s Incredible “Eighth Street Orchestra”!
December 10, 2013 By 1 Comment
Eight Street Orchestra in Concert
Yesterday I received a wonderful email from Canada about The Eighth Street Orchestra, based in Owen Sound, 220 kilometres north west of Toronto. Ever heard of them? If not, you have now! The email was from Band Leader, Gary Lawrence Murphy. He wrote:
“Your About page didn’t say how you found out about new jazz bands, but on discovering your pages via the Toronto area trad jazz group on Facebook, and in the spirit of “exuberant smaller bands” and especially young players, I thought I might invite you to check out our facebook.com/eighthstreetorchestra page where we post our day-to-day happenings with our band of mostly 15-16 year old players (plus a few others who’ve gravitated to our exuberance). I hope you enjoy it!”
Swinging Along with Happy Jazz
Enjoy it, Gary? You bet I did! The Eighth Street Orchestra fits right in with my “About Jazz&Jazz” declaration to “focus on the vitality of younger, emerging stars and on the inexhaustible exuberance of smaller bands on the jazz circuit.” Under the heading “Jazz Fans” I go on to say: “JazzandJazz aims to become a force for jazz by galvanising jazz fans everywhere into a trad jazz revival and by helping to win over a younger generation of fans to swing along with happy jazz.”
Eighth Street most certainly meets and surpasses all of those criteria! They swing along with happy jazz right out on the peninsular that divides Georgian Bay from Lake Huron. As Gary puts it, “out on the edge of cottage country really”. There is an argument that nowadays the only chance of live jazz surviving is in city zones where there are nuclei of fans. Eighth Street most certainly scuppers that!
Breathing New Life into a Jazz Revival
So thank you, Gary, for introducing me and the increasing number of jazzers following my site, to the 15-16 year old players (plus “those few others who have gravitated to your exuberance”) who form The Eighth Street Orchestra.
This is a breath of fresh air! The kind of fresh air that can breath new life into New Orleans Revivalist Jazz!
I am proud to feature The Eighth Street Orchestra on Jazz&Jazz! So Jazzers, be sure to visit and “like” their Facebook page. For me it is solid evidence that I appear to be achieving what I set out to achieve when I launched Jazz&Jazz.
The photos, courtesy of Eighth Street Orchestra, demonstrate the bands diversity.
Eighth Street Links:
News & Video: facebook.com/eighthstreetorchestra
Blog: EighthStreetOrchestra.blogspot.ca
YouTube: youtube.com/user/8thStreet
Gary Lawrence Murphy
Latest update from Devonshire’s Live Jazz Hotspot!
December 9, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Plymouth Jazz Club’s
January / February 2014 Programme
John Shillito’s Select 6
Tuesday, December 31st at 8.30pm.
Annual New Year’s Eve Party with John Shillito’s Select 6
Derriford United Reform Church Hall, Powisland Drive, Derriford, Plymouth PL6 6AB.
Hot swinging music from 8.30pm until 12.30am, doors open 8.00pm.
Dancing, tea, coffee & mince pies with clotted cream. No bar, bring your own food and drink.
Admission by ticket only. Visitors £12, Members £10, Full-time Students £5.
Tel: 01752 721179
The Sussex Jazz Kings
Sunday, January 19th at 7.30pm
The Sussex Jazz Kings
The Royal British Legion Club, Tailyour Road, Crownhill, Plymouth PL6 5DH
Quality traditional jazz with a touch of fun from a popular long-established band.
Admission £9 (Members £7, Full-Time Students £5)
Tickets on the door.
Tel: 01752 721179 or 01752 774343
The Dave Hankin Big Band
Sunday, February 2nd at 7.30pm
Charity gig in aid of MacMillan Cancer Support
The Dave Hankin Big Band
Probably the finest jazz and swing band in the South-West giving their services free for the charity event.
The Royal British Legion Club, Tailyour Road, Crownhill, Plymouth PL6 5DH
Admission £9 (Members £7, Full-Time Students £5)
All ticket income goes to the Charity
Tickets on the door
Tel: 01752 721179 or 01752 774343
The Savannah Jazz Band
Sunday, February 16th at 7.30pm
Savannah Jazz Band
The Royal British Legion Club, Tailyour Road, Crownhill, Plymouth PL6 5DH
The annual visit of one of Britain’s most popular traditional jazz bands
Admission £10 (Members £8, Full-Time Students £5)
Tickets on the door
Tel: 01752 721179 or 01752 774343
Mellifluous Festive Frollicks at Tad Newton’s Christmas Jazz Party
December 7, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Tad Newton’s JazzFriends
We are pleased to share in the promotion of Tad Newton’s annual Christmas Jazz Party at The Walnut, Blisworth, Northants.
Tad’s motto, “LIVE JAZZ … USE IT OR LOSE IT!” echoes the aims of Jazz&Jazz in reaching out to potential fans of all ages rather than simply sitting at home mulling over youtubes of past glories. So if you are close enough to Blisworth on Sunday, 22nd December, don’t be an armchair fan, get along to Tad’s grand Xmas session of live jazz. Get into the party mood at The Walnut.
Roy Williams
Denise Gordon
Zoltan Sagi
Live Jazz at The Peartree, Catching that Magical Jazz Club Atmosphere
December 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment
If you love real jazz, original jazz from The Crescent City, New Orleans Revivalist Jazz, then you’ll simply revel in this youtube of Brian Carrick’s Algiers Stompers, guesting Trefor Williams on bass, at the Peartree Jazz Club, Welwyn Garden City, on Monday, 18th October.
Just click on this link:
Brian Carrick’s Algiers Stompers with Trefor Williams
Trefor Williams
It’s just one of a full repertoire of New Orleans Classics performed that evening for Peartree fans by one of the UK’s leading jazz bands and it resonates with that magical jazz club atmosphere loved by jazz fans over the years.
Plus this is a new dimension for the site – youtubes of movies discretely videoed at jazz gigs covered by Jazz&Jazz on our travels around the clubs and festivals.
Be sure to watch out for forthcoming events at The Peartree Jazz Club. Especially their Christmas Gig with Dennis Vick’s Fenny Stompers on Monday, 16th December. Be sure to arrive at 6.30 sharp for a party evening of jazz, crackers and fun.
(Photos and YouTube © Peter M Butler, Jazz&Jazz)
Aged Audiences Might Be Dwindling, but Jazz Lives On!
December 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment
I’m sure Fred Burnett won’t mind me cribbing this extract from an item included in his latest JazzNorthWest News Update. It’s highly pertinent to discussions I’ve recently been involved in down south.
Courtesy of JazzNorthWest
“I’ve always advocated midweek daytime jazz as a way of hanging on to the current clientele at jazz sessions as it becomes more difficult for people to venture out at night as they get older. Although it was pointed out to me that it effectively excluded young people from attending, I have to say I haven’t noticed them falling over each other to get into the current sessions at night. One band that is discovering that a midweek lunchtime jazz session can become increasingly successful is Mike Lovell with his Six in a Bar Classic Jazz Band. The North Euston Hotel in Fleetwood has just extended their residency to June 2014. The next event is on 18th December at 12 noon.”
I would be very interested in any views which fellow Jazzers might have on this, as I’m sure Fred would too.
End of The Road
Another related item in Fred’s News Update, which I’m sure he won’t mind me sharing, concerns the end of the road for Thursday lunchtime jazz at The 100 Club:
“Reading Just Jazz, I see that it’s the end of the line for regular traditional jazz events at The 100 Club in Oxford Street, London. Kay & Tony Leppard have been keeping up a tradition of regular monthly jazz at the club which first started in 1949. On 12th December they have arranged for the last gig there under the guise of the End-of-the-Line Jazz Band and featuring some great names including North West’s own Ged Hone. Doors open at 11.30am and apparently the chairs at the club have been slowly dwindling and if you can’t get there early there’s a suggestion you take you own seats. Could come in useful too if you’re waiting for a bus amongst all the Christmas shoppers! There will of course be benefit nights, tributes and memorials there for years to come.”
New Beginnings
I featured this recently on Jazz&Jazz: “Jazz at The 100 Club Faces Sad Demise” but did conclude with a few words of encouragement: “We are not at the end of the jazz age. There are new beginnings. Jazz lives on and one of my key aims as editor and moderator of Jazz&Jazz along with my Facebook Jazzers Group is to … unify jazz fans, musicians and bands of all ages.”
The Rich Bennett Band is just one of an emerging number of new bands giving hope to those new beginnings. I featured their recent red hot session at The 100 Club: “They Came, They Saw, They Conquered … All in the Nick of Time!” . Several similar bands full of zest and vibrancy of are featured on Jazz&Jazz and I intend to cover more of them as and when the opportunity arrises.
The Rich Bennett Band at The 100 Club (Photo © Peter M Butler, Jazz&Jazz)
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: If older fans love jazz so much why miss out? Why not get along to join in with the younger fans at their venues? And in turn, why not encourage and welcome the younger bands to play at and liven up our staid old clubs?
That would be far better than sitting back and mulling over the past by simply viewing the plethora of YouTubes featuring yesterday’s greats, vital though they are to jazz, featured on various Facebook Jazz Groups including just recently my Jazzers Group. Please forgive my impertinence, but to me that’s little more than burying our heads in the sands of time rather than reaching out for the future of jazz.
“The Old Hat Band” – “Not so old hat but a talented young group – all in their twenties” Just one more of our emerging younger groups. (Photo courtesy of Laurence Cumming)
I cannot conclude this blog without again thanking Kay and Tony Leppard for presenting live jazz at The 100 Club though thick and thin for so long. Don’t forget, they are both still heavily involved in promoting jazz at The Winning Post in Twickenham – including the emerging new era of younger bands.
Peter Mark Butler
Editor and Proprietor of Jazz&Jazz
Note: A message to the musicians and bands I’ve been discussing potentials with recently – bear with me, I’ll get back to you asap on this.
Welcome Back to The Peartree, Barry
November 28, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Barry Palser
If you are in the vicinity of, or even within reasonable reach of Welwyn Garden City next Monday, 2nd December, make a point of joining us at The Peartree Jazz Club. Be there by 8.30pm prompt for an evening of brilliant jazz with Barry Palser’s Savoy Jazz Band.
“Barry Palser is a fine, punchy trombonist who believes that entertainment is a critical factor in jazz and is prepared to back his belief with action.”
This is your chance to join the action. Don’t miss it!
Peartree Jazz Club
The Peartree, Hollybush Lane,
Welwyn Garden City, Herts, AL7 4JJ
Admission £8 • Members £7
Brian Smith (“Smiffy”) Jazz Promotions
Tel: 01707 880569 • Email: [email protected]
www.facebook.com/peartreejazz.club
Best Jazz in Town! Live!
Join the Club!
(Photos © Peter M Butler, Jazz&Jazz)
BBC Jazz Club, 1960. Just Reminiscing!
November 24, 2013 By 13 Comments
It’s my birthday today! Or, to be more precise, by the time you read this it will have been my birthday today. This time last year I gave my age away but this time this year that’s taboo!
One of my closest friends back in the 1950s/1960s era emigrated to Australia in 1968. Before that, along with our other chums, we spent hours together doing what teenagers did back then. Partying, pub crawling, club crawling, Young Conservatives crawling! Saturday nights started out at The Miramar Hotel in Beltinge, where Alfie challenged us to the “double or nothing” chance of free entry, and ended up either at The Marie Celeste Night Club in Herne Bay or at Sarre Court Country Club – all in East Kent.
Jazz Too!
Jazz too played large in the picture. I remember especially one late night party thrown by Bertie in his grand old Georgian Terrace house on Herne Bay sea front. Two jazz hits played over and over again that night still haunt me – Miles Davis’s “Lift To The Scaffold” and Lonnie Donegan’s “Seven Golden Daffodils”.
That too was the era of Acker’s “Stranger on the Shore” and Kenny’s “Midnight in Moscow” – bringing back, dare I say it, memories of my first “real” girlfriend. Sammy Rimington did the East Kent Jazz Circuit in those days and still does so this day, touring with his International Jazz Band’s Autumn tours. But his was and still is pure New Orleans Revivalist Jazz dating back to the era of his mentor, the legendary George Lewis.
But getting back to my “emigrated to Aussie” Chum, Roger and I stay in touch and I was delighted when he visited us for a very pleasant afternoon a couple of years ago. And again this Autumn when I got together with him during his latest visit to the UK.
Where is The BBC Today?
What’s the point of these reminiscences? Just that recently he emailed me a wonderful YouTube bringing memories of those days flooding back. So much so that I couldn’t resist sharing it with you all on Jazz&Jazz. And note it’s title, BBC Jazz Club, 1960. To view it, hit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKbi2OCAHvQ
So just where is the media – BBCand ITV included – today when it comes to jazz? I’ll get back to that very soon.
Meanwhile I couldn’t resist signing off my **birthday with this catchy, highly pertinent blues number a friend in LA just sent me: “Weary Blues”: http://youtu.be/aOWz3-QXY6M
Jessie Fuller starred on BBC Jazz Club back then!
Over in the Gloryland
November 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Sammy Rimington, Frederic John and Keith Minter, performing in a concert of hymns and spirituals at The United Reform Church, Folkestone, Kent (Photo © Peter M Butler, Jazz&Jazz, 2009)
Hymns and Spirituals form a considerable part of the jazz repertoire. It goes back to the times of slavery, especially in the Southern States of the USA, including the Louisiana plantations. Christianity proved a major respite for black slave workers and their families. Sabbath church assemblies not only helped lift them from their drudgery but also provided an opportunity for entire families to relax and fellowship.
“We discovered the history of the slave songs and African rhythms, the spirituals and folk songs, ragtime, the blues, church music and dance music. These were all important contributors to the mix that emerged in the early 20th Century as jazz.” (God, Church and All That Jazz)
This was especially so in Louisiana and New Orleans where the early jazz musicians found inspiration in church music and either adapted hymns and spirituals for their bands or composed their own numbers. Perhaps this is why, for the most part, those early musicians were so smartly attired. The music lifted them above slave status enabling them to forgo slave rags for their glad rags and appear on stage or at their gigs in “the white man’s” attire. And the more popular jazz became, the more they could proudly claim their place in society.
Duke Ellington
Sadly, during the era of UK and European “traditional jazz”, this dress code went by the board. Bands and musicians switched to more easy going, individualist fashions, if they could be called fashions! Duke Ellington would not have been pleased.
But to this day, hymns and spirituals remain a core influence on jazz with numbers such as “Over in the Gloryland”, “The Old Rugged Cross”, “Down by the Riverside” and “Does Jesus Care” regularly performed at jazz festivals and clubs and sometimes at jazz concerts in churches.
Jazz: A Theology of Different Tones
No wonder, then, that I was especially drawn to an article entitled “Jazz: A Theology of Different Tones”, sent to me by a good friend and jazz fan in Monrovia, LA.
Here are a few extracts from the article:
Wynton Marsalis (Courtesy Fanpix.net)
“Jazz, like other art expressions, offers a theology of differing tones, a language of sophisticated splendour and complexity; a source of varied contemplation. Jazz is music the church should take greater notice of, giving audience and emphasis to its musical-theologians, those that play with great skill, humanity, and inspiration, a gift given to them by the Master of Creativity.”
“So what is it about jazz that is intriguing, particularly from a Christian standpoint? What makes jazz an art form of beauty and
cerebral gymnastics, pointing to the intricate nature of God? These are hard questions to answer. Many have written about the theology, influence, and ideology found within Jazz.”
Thelonious Monk (Courtesy eil.com)
“What’s interesting to note is that many Christians have taken a keen interest inJazz, a once taboo form of music for the church. Even many of the composers, be it Duke Ellington, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Eric Dolphy, or Wynton Marsalis, have integrated Christian themes within their music.”
“Anabaptist theologian, James McClendon writes, ‘It is jazz with its partner the bluesthat constitutes a distinctly American music, thereby offering American culture (and increasingly, world culture) a fresh art.’ McClendon goes on to summarise the interchange of jazz and worship as, “Participation, improvisation, cooperation, recognition, inclusion.”
“Dutch theologian and historian, Hans Rookmaaker, asks a question concerning the importance of jazz: “Why did we [the church] reject…jazz years ago, without ever bothering to listen and ask ourselves whether it might help rejuvenate Christian music?”
You can read the full article online at: ASSIST News Service (ANS)
Jazz: Sinful or Spiritual?
Next I read in an article entitled: Jazz: Sinful or Spiritual? by David Arivett.
“A careful study of the history of jazz reveals many moments where jazz music has become a very expressive and powerful vehicle that points to a spiritual dimension in life. Whether it’s been jazz funerals in New Orleans, Duke Ellington’s beautiful sacred jazz compositions, or John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”, jazz music has been created and played for spiritual purposes. In fact, many of its musicians and fans understand both jazz and improvisation to be of a spiritual nature. Dizzy Gillepsie once shared that…”the church had a deep significance for me musically…I first learned there how music could transport people spiritually”. Many of those considered founding fathers of jazz music from New Orleans, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Louis Armstrong were all brought up in church and church music played a very important roll in their musical development. The Negro spirituals also played a most important role in the birth of the music we today call “jazz”.” (http://songsofdavid.com/JazzSinfulOrSpiritual.htm)
“Jazz: A Theology of Different Tones” also quoted The Reverend Alan Kershaw’s poignant statement, “ …jazz played with feeling and inspiration seems to me more truly an act of worship than singing some of the religious songs I learned back in Sunday School…life is so big and wide and deep that you just have to go beyond what’s superficial, and banal, and what’s phony. Faith rises above the streets, above the slime and the suffering men, to the source of goodness Himself. In this sense, jazz becomes a glorious anthem of praise”.
Jazz in Caistor Church
Caistor Church in Norfolk periodically hosts jazz concerts and is currently announcing:
“Following another successful concert, we hope to bring New Orlean’s Heat back to Caistor in 2014.”
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New Orleans Heat (here seen at The Peartree Jazz Club, Welwyn Garden City) are a popular band at jazz weekends at Hemsby, Caistor’s neighbouring village, and have recently released a new CD featuring hymns and spirituals appropriately named “Over in the Gloryland”. (Photo © Peter M Butler, Jazz&Jazz)
