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Leon Breckman has written asking: 'Have you heard of The Brothers, which was a pseudo Masonic fraternity run by Dick Charlsworth of 'City Gents' fame of which there were some 500 members of semi-pro musicians from the London area. It would be very interesting to know who are still surviving?"
Clarinettist Alvin Roy, who was amember of The Brothers for a while, remembers the group meeting up at the 100 Club in London once a quarter: "It was a get-together, no instruments, so no playing. When there was a new member, Dick Charlesworth would sprinkle the four corners of the room from his whisky glass which encompassed the new initiates and also the onlooking members."
Trumpeter Digby Fairweather writes about The Brothers in his book Ace Of Clubs : A Celebration Of The 100 Club (more on that next month). 'One of the great institutions of the 100 Club was 'The Brothers' a community of musicians and singers who met at the club on Monday nights once a quarter .... I wasn't very keen to begin with ... There was a real 'initiation' ceremony and the existing brothers used to quite like winding up new members about what they'd have to go through .... there was dear James Asman ... I said "What's the matter Jimmy?" He said "I think I've got to bare me bum!" .... I think It's safe now to reveal that you didn't have to do that; just stand on one leg and turn round in a 360 degree circle and then sing The Brothers' anthem which was 'Benignity - which was pronounced ben-igg-nity - is not beneath your dignity' and so on, to the tune of The Red Flag .... But to be honest I didn't go to The Brothers more than once I don't think ... on my night (trombonist Jim Shepherd) came down in a furious temper: "Some bloody traffic warden's just given me a ticket" and so on. And we had to remind Jim; "Don't forget - ben-igg-nity! Ben-igg-nity! Come on!".
If anyone else has memories of The Brothers please get in touch.
[In his book, Digby also mentions another 'organisation' - The Universal Life Church of Modesto California - more on that next month too - Ed]
2022.10
Leon send this picture taken of a gathering of The Brothers - can anyone tell us more?
Chris Macdonald sends us this picture from the Aldrmarston March of 1960. Chris says: 'The photo of Eric Lister and Tony and Douggie Gray is, I’m almost positive, from the Aldermaston March 1960, as my late wife took the attached photo, which has the Grays in the same outfits, and the same kilted drummer!
From left to right we have Douglas Gray on pocket cornet, Martin Fry (Temps) on helicon, Tony Gray on slide trumpet, Jeff Nuttall (artist and author) on trumpet, and Dave Aspinwall on trombone.'
2021.4
Stranded In New Orleans
Banjo player Eric Webster sends us this picture.
It was 2010, and the New Orleans Times Picaynne / New Orleans Advocate carried the story:
'British jazz musician Brian Carrick should be in Sweden on Friday, performing at the Alingsas Jazz Festival, which features Carrick on this year's poster. Instead, like other musicians who played the French Quarter Festival two weeks ago, Carrick, 67, has been stranded in New Orleans since last week's volcanic eruption in Iceland. Lingering ash clouds also prompted Europeans stranded on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean to cancel their plans to fly to New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage Festival presented by Shell, local hotel and restaurant managers say.
The Jazz Fest lineup required one change: British jazz reed player Sammy Rimington couldn't get a flight to New Orleans for his Sunday-afternoon Economy Hall Tent gig and was replaced by local singer Ingrid Lucia ...... Friday afternoon, when New Orleans trumpeter Leroy Jones plays his Economy Hall Tent gig, his audience will include friends from Denmark and Germany who originally came for French Quarter Fest, said festival spokesman Matthew Goldman, noting that they had worried that they couldn't stay the week in their hotels, which were fully booked for Jazz Fest ... in an odd tradeoff, hotel cancellations by Europeans stuck at home opened rooms for them for the weekend .....
"It's had quite an impact," said Buck, whose traditional jazz restaurant has been a draw for Europeans for 20 years. But the Palm Court has also buzzed for the past few weeks with the European musicians marooned here, from France, Great Britain and Scandinavia, said Buck, who has fed some of them and hired others for short gigs, to help defray hotel bills .... "You feel so sorry for them," he said. "But they're glad to be stuck here instead of in Houston or somewhere else."
Carrick spent part of Thursday jamming on clarinet with another stranded musician, banjoist Eric Webster, in the courtyard of their temporary French Quarter home, the Olivier House Hotel. Then, as he has done for the past week, Carrick spent the rest of his day on the telephone with airlines, where he tried to cajole frazzled airline reps into getting him a flight home as soon as the continent's virtual no-fly zone is lifted. Recently he was told that, because of backed-up airline schedules, the earliest he could fly home was May 29.
"It's a mess," Carrick said Thursday, as the hotel moved him to another room to make space for a Jazz Fest guest. But at least, he said, he's in New Orleans, a city that he has visited often since his first trip here in 1972. Other musicians caught the first leg of flights to Houston before the ash cloud covered Europe. They soon decided they'd rather be stuck in New Orleans instead and caught flights back, he said.......'
Eric Webster writes: 'I went to New Orleans on the 7th April and planned to return on the 30th so the newspaper story was not quite true about me being stuck there. My first week there, I stayed at John Richardson’s house in North Robertson Street and then shared a room with Brian in the hotel until he managed to fly and my final few days were spent in another hotel. That was my last time in New Orleans. I was very lucky this trip and had a gig at the Louisiana Music Factory with John Simmons and also a couple of gigs with a French/Canadian Band at Fritzels and Preservation Hall. It meant so much to me.'
Trombonist John Mason sends us this picture of clarinettist Sandy Brown with the Rigden-Legon band from 1966. John says:
‘Sandy was a regular guest at The Terminus Hotel Jazz Club, Gravesend, playing with the Rigden-Legon Jazz Unit. Sessions were every Sunday evening, 7.45 – 10.30. After a couple of visits Sandy got friendly with Bill French the landlord, from then on Sandy would appear around 6pm to play darts with Bill, along with scotch and bitter, he was always jolly by the time to play!
'I started the jazz club at the Terminus in 1961 with a three band rota; Trevor Jeavon`s Jazzband, The Excell Jazzband and the Rigden-Legon Jazz Unit. By 1964 I booked guests, George Chisholm, Sandy Brown to play with the Jazz Unit and the Tony Coe-John Picard Quartet and Sounds by Nine, led by Eddie Bayfield piano including trumpeter Dave Holdsworth..
'The Rigden-Legon Jazz Unit was a fine mainstream band led by Freddy Legon (ex Humphrey Lyttelton) and Reg Rigden (ex George Webb`s Band) including John Lee on tenor. I handed over the club in 1967 and it went avant garde and downhill.
'By 1969 I formed my own band, John Mason`s Jazzmen, with Bob Whetstone (trumpet), John Lee (tenor sax), Bernie Holden (clarinet), Mike Jeffersion (piano), Freddy Legon (guitar), Doug Confrey (bass) and Phil Franklin drums). This band continued in some form for over 30 years. After Bob Whetstone emigrated to Australia in 1974, Alan Wickham, Digby Fairweather, Mike Cotton or Nick Stevenson played on trumpet.
Alexander Marshall
Alex Marshall now leads the popular Ulysses Jasz Band in Santa Barbara, California, but he remembers back to the time when his interest in jazz started with Sandy Brown:
Alex Marshall
Click here for a video introduction to Alex's Ulysses Jasz Band.
I have been receiving your sandybrownjazz email blog for some months now. I enjoy the items you publish. You may be interested in my jazz history as it does involve Sandy, who figured prominently in my jazz enthusiasm.
I was an architectural student at The Edinburgh College of Art. I think Sandy graduated the year before I enrolled. At an Art College dance I met Valerie Jordan, who took me to hear the Sandy Brown Band. Along with Sandy, there was Al Fairweather (trumpet), Bob ‘Bugsy’ Craig (trombone), Norrie Anderson (banjo), Dizzy Jackson (bass) and Stan Greig or Mike Hart (drums). The venues were Condon Club, West End Cafe and some Sundays at The India Buildings as well as Oddfellows Hall, where they held Jazz Band Balls. Sean, then 'Tam' Connery was 
the bouncer. Valerie and her friend Norma used to jive to the band wherever possible. I eventually became an acquaintance of Sandy's and spent an evening with Flo and him in their London apartment. I also remember visiting Al Fairweather and his wife at their London home.
I took up guitar and banjo and started playing in the Art College trad band. My rhythm playing was later heard with many classic jazz ensembles in Edinburgh and Glasgow, including Edinburgh’s Charlie McNair Band and Glasgow’s George Penman Band. I played many times with Sandy’s old sidemen, Bob Craig, Dizzy Jackson and Mike Hart.
I moved to London and was part of the jazz pub scene with The Earbrass & Franks duo, gradually developing into the seven-piece Howden’s Hotshots who, during a continental tour, played for a party at Salvador Dali’s Atelier in Port Lligat, Spain. I also occasionally subbed in the Alex Welsh Band. Sandy had passed on by then.
Wild Bill Davison
I moved to Santa Barbara, California in 1979, became friends with one of my other jazz heroes, Wild Bill Davison and played some local gigs with him. He had been told to quit whisky or die, so I rehearsed with him every week through the DT’s, for his scheduled gigs all over the world. What 
stories I heard about Eddie Condon, Ed Hall, Pee Wee Russell, Bobby Hackett and the rest of the Condon Mob (The club was Mafia owned).
In 1981, I was a founder-member of a Gypsy Jazz band called Hot Club; played for an early jazz quartet - The Chelsea Players, and started a blues quintet called The Stiff Pickle Orchestra.
The Stiff Pickle Orchestra
Tommy Byrne, who owns a pub called The James Joyce in busy downtown State Street in Santa Barbara wanted to present a ‘Dixieland’ band in his pub, so I put together a Jazz Jam there starting in 1998. We played for tips. It developed into an organised band and ULYSSES Jasz was born.
We are now in our 19th year playing to packed houses every Saturday night. Our lead trumpet is Curt Sletten (Jimmy Dorsey, Harry James, Aretha Franklin). My tenor and clarinet player, 87 year-old Londoner Bob Efford (star of the Ted Heath Orchestra), knocks out the crowd every Saturday with the energy of a twenty five year old, and we are now featured in the annual Jazz Jubilee by the Sea in Pismo Beach.
Click here for Ulysses Jasz featuring their singer, Hanna Ross, performing Deed I Do in May this year.
All started by Sandy Brown.
Ulysses Jasz Band
Alexander Marshall
Brian Cook sent us these pictures of the Eric Silk band playing at the Fishmongers Arms (Wood Green Jazz Club) in the early 1950s.
Brian writes: 'In the early 1950s and living in Islington, friends and myself - in our early teens - would visit the Fishmonger Arms pub / jazz club in Wood Green, North London.'
'Sometimes we would take with us our mouth organs/harmonicas and join in on stage with some of the groups like Sandy Brown and Eric Silk, and having just taken up photography I would take photos while on stage. While recently sorting out old photos, I came across three photos that I had taken in the jazz club, one of Sandy Brown and two of Eric Silk including other players with them. I was looking for the jazz club on the web and your site came up, hence this email. In the picture below, Eric Silk is on banjo, bottom right, wearing glasses.'
Eric Silk's Southern Jazz Band played at the BBC Jazz Club in 1951. Ken Bunce on YouTube writes: 'My Grandad (Norman Bunce) used to play with Eric - Sousaphone .. I know they made a record or two but now lost in family archives somewhere! I was hoping to find a recording somewhere .. any idea if he was on this session anyone?'
and Derek Voller writes : 'I used to belong to the Southern Jazz Club in the early sixties. Eric and his band played in a hall above the Red Lion pub in Leytonstone, East London. We had some great sessions there, with Dennis Field leading the band with his superbly precise cornet. Such a shame Eric died so young. He created one of the very best bands I ever heard.'
Picture © Brian Cook
Click here for our Profile of Eric Silk.
Phil Kent writes:
'Many years ago, in the seventies, I was the bass player with Bob Wallis and his Storyville Jazzmen. Searching in a cupboard recently, I found this photo of Bob Wallis on Trumpet and myself on double bass. I used to play bass with Sandy Brown in the basement of The Hope and Anchor in Islington in 1973.'
These days, bassist Phil Kent works as a DJ on the Jazz Programme at Somerset's community radio station 10Radio. Originally from Cheltenham, in Gloucestershire, Phil became interested in jazz in the early ‘60s after having seen the Dudley Moore/Roy Budd trios. He moved to London where he studied jazz music and improvisation with eminent jazz virtuoso bass player Peter Ind. After two years, he 
decided to go professional, and went on to play with most of Britain’s top jazz musicians, including, saxophonist Tubby Hayes, Acker Bilk, Brian Lemon, Sandy Brown, and drummer Phil Seaman.
He was, for many years, the regular bass player with the Storyville Jazzmen. His main early influences were Pete McGurk, Ron Matthewson, and latterly the superb American bass player Brian Bromberg. Having toured Europe for almost 15 years, Phil decided to slow the pace down a bit, and so he bought a cottage in a small village in Somerset.
These days, he is still very much involved with music by running a fan club for Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, as a result of which he is mentioned in several books about The Rolling Stones. He also runs jazz websites including one in recognition of Dudley Moore and another about Horst Jankowski He still plays double bass, and is now concentrating on solo acoustic bass, and multi-tracking, as well as being part of the team that presents Sounds Like Jazz at the radio station.
2015.5
Tony Freer, who has put together a history of the band, sends us the photographs and pianist Pete Simkins remembers the Art Wood Combo:
I joined the Art Wood Band in the summer of 1958, so far as I can recall. I had started playing jazz in public in 1954, at the tender age of 15, while in the Sixth Form at Ealing Grammar School in West London. My Dad was a fine jazz and swing tenor sax player in the Coleman Hawkins style but my early playing years were spent mostly with a traditional jazz outfit, the Omega Jazz Band. I am still in regular touch with the leader and trumpeter Pete ‘Mitz’ Mitton. The Omega Jazz Band, for a time, had a Sunday night residency at the Viaduct Inn, Hanwell, and the interval group was the Ted Wood Skiffle Group – which is how I first came into contact with the family. The Omega Jazz Band, after a reasonably successful period for a local outfit – including regular Saturday night gigs at the legendary Eel Pie Island venue on the Thames, and a television appearance from the Hammersmith Palais, quietly broke up and most of its members – including me – formed a band with a slightly more mainstream, swing-based style (Basie, Ellington, Eddie Condon, Bobby Hackett, Vic Dickenson, Buck Clayton were among our idols).
On a hot summer night in 1958 I found myself sitting in with the Art Wood band at the Greenford Community Centre – only half a mile from my then home.
It may have been an audition without me knowing it (perhaps following a recommendation from Ted Wood, since, apart from Jim Willis, the
guitarist, I didn’t really know anybody else in the band).
The repertoire was mostly Fats Domino/Joe Turner R&B stuff, with lots of singing from Art (‘Blueberry Hill’ etc) but as much of it was blues-based, I appear to have coped OK and was offered the piano chair. Again so far as I can recall, 
the line-up was by then Art (vocals), Lenny Case (tenor sax), Jim Willis (guitar), Reg Squires (bass) and Reg Dunnage (drums).
That summer my family moved from Greenford to Wealdstone, near Harrow. Little Lenny Case (a very good-looking young chap, who was not much over 5 foot tall) lived with his family in a flat above a shop in Wealdstone High Street, within walking distance of my home – so we quickly became good chums. Reg Dunnage (originally from Ipswich and then still possessing a strong Suffolk dialect) lived in a pre-fab at Northolt and used to give Lenny and I a lift to gigs in his tiny barrel-type Ford 8, a death trap on wheels! I was always in the back seat, behind Reg, usually submerged under a pile of drum cases. Reg could never remember the registration number of the car, which often caused problems when we were stopped by the police on our way home from late-night gigs. I remember one evening when Reg announced to Lenny and I that the car had an electrical fault near the petrol tank and that if a needle on the dashboard reached a certain point, we were to evacuate the vehicle! Being technically dyslexic all my life, I was in no position to question this and I recall bailing out of the car at least once in the middle of the busy Uxbridge Road between Hanwell and Southall!!
The three of us used to rendezvous with Art before gigs at the Wood’s house at Yiewsley.
It was there that I made the acquaintance of a certain Ronnie Wood (then about six or seven?). I remember playing with him on the floor of the living room a few times, though I doubt very much if he still remembers me!
The band’s main residencies, so far as gigs were concerned, were at the Yiewsley Football Club (Saturday evenings). Here a fine and greatly underrated British modern jazz tenor sax player, the late Chas Burchell, sometimes sat in, as did saxist Barry Kerswell, who later joined the outfit. We also had a regular Friday evening at what was either the Ivy Leaf Club or perhaps the British Legion (my memory fails me here) in West Drayton. This could be checked by other means for the interval group was Cliff Bennett and the Rebel Rousers, who achieved some fame in the pop world. Their presence allowed us to get away with a few jazz numbers which might otherwise have gone down like a lead balloon.
Our horizons gradually expanded, as did the band. Somebody got us on to the United States Air Force officers' and sergeants' mess entertainment circuit, and I certainly remember travelling to bases such as Greenham Common, Alconbury, Bentwaters and Woodbridge. These were good gigs – reasonably well paid and usually with a steak supper thrown in. However, they ended late and involved a lot of travelling. Bentwaters and Woodbridge were but a few miles from Ipswich, where Reg Dunnage hailed from and we sometimes stayed overnight at his parents’ house. The downside was that I had to share a bed with Lenny and Reg – not an experience I would care to repeat too often.
The best USAF gig ever was a sergeant’s Saturday afternoon wedding at Third Air Force Headquarters at Ruislip (very near home). The booze (particularly Bourbon) was flowing freely and we were all well and truly ‘at the races’ by the time the gig ended. The problem was that the barman then filled Reg’s drum cases with even more booze before we left and we still had an evening gig at a Netball Club Dance at a school hall in South Harrow to fulfil. Since we were absolutely paralytic by then, I have no idea how we got through the latter gig – but the organisers booked us to come back the following year.
After gigs in the West Drayton area we frequently went to Heathrow airport for a late-night snack in the Grill and Griddle restaurant there. Chinese and Indian restaurants were not as common then (1959) or as well-used by musicians as they later became. We used to look at the departure boards and dream of destinations like Chicago and New York. I finally got to sit in at a New York jazz club in 1975! Once we emerged from the Grill and Griddle into a thick London fog and only got home to Harrow by sitting Lenny on the bonnet of Reg’s car and indicating to Reg by arm movements where the kerb was! Fortunately, we had done the journey so often that, between us, we remembered where all the turnings should be (and were).
Another venue we frequented was the White Hart at Southall – a very famous West London jazz pub (Chris Barber’s band was 
among the regulars). We were lucky enough to play there a few times and twice the well-known tenor saxist Red Price sat in with the band (remember him from the hit ‘Hoots Mon’ by Lord Rockingham’s Eleven?) – making us sound much better than we actually were!
I can’t recall the date(s) but somewhere around 1959-60 we won a talent competition in West Drayton, the prize being an audition for the Carroll Levis Discoveries programme on the BBC – this being a primitive and early incarnation of ‘The X Factor’ and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’. We got through the audition and duly appeared on a broadcast from the Finsbury Park Empire (I think on a Wednesday evening). We played ‘St Louis Blues’ – one of Art’s big features. Whether or not a tape of this survives in the BBC archives, I’ve no idea, though I doubt it.
This was about as famous as this particular incarnation of the Art Wood band ever got!! By the time of the broadcast we had expanded the front line to four horns, including Barry Kerswell (on alto and baritone saxes), the quiet-mannered and urbane Gerry Waite on trumpet and the slightly wild and
unreliable but very likeable Irish trombonist Johnny O’Donoghue – who had a disconcerting habit of spluttering loudly into his beer every so often.
This is the band depicted in the photo taken at the Blue Circle Club at Ruislip around 1960, where we had a Sunday-night residency for a few months. The band by then was firmly into a jazz, rather than R and B approach – probably driven, if the truth is told, principally by Lenny, Barry and myself. By 1961 the Art Wood Combo, as it was latterly known, had amicably drifted apart. Barry, Lenny and I formed the nucleus of the Barry Kerswell Sextet (playing largely modern jazz), with Dick Bidwell on trumpet, Barry Warwick on bass and Bart Monaghan on drums.
I might add that, throughout these years, I was an undergraduate, reading history at King’s College London, which meant that I could commute daily to University on the Bakerloo Line and live at home! As I had won a State Scholarship and had a generous student grant (those were the days!), I was well-off for a student and actually paid for the grey band uniforms which one or two of the Combo are seen wearing in the Blue Circle photos.
In 1961 I moved to Brighton and my playing days in West London came to an end, though I did attend a reunion of the Art Wood band many years later while Art and Ted and Lenny were still alive. I last saw Ted at the 
Keswick Jazz Festival about eight years ago when he was with Bob Kerr’s Whoopee Band. I have exchanged Christmas cards with Barry Kerswell, who, when I last heard from him, still lived in Yiewsley.
Pete Simkins jamming with the great American reedman Bob Wilber, Chipping Campden, May 2015
I now live in Cheltenham and am still playing at the age of 77 (78 in March 2017) - though gigs here in the classic jazz/mainstream style are infrequent. However, I do occasionally have the pleasure of playing with the great American reedman Bob Wilber, who has a home in Chipping Campden, and earlier in 2016 I backed trombonist Roy Williams and trumpeter Enrico Tomasso at the Bridgnorth Jazz Festival.
Bob Wilber was, of course, the star pupil of the legendary Sidney Bechet in New York in the 1940s. Since then he has appeared on countless recordings, notably with Eddie Condon's band and the World's Greatest Jazz Band of Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart. He also led his own band, the Bechet Legacy, and co-starred with the late Kenny Davern in Soprano Summit. I first got to know him when he (and Kenny) guested with my Dad's band in Sussex in the 1970s. We got reacquainted when he appeared at the Norwich Jazz Party a few years ago.
2017.1
Peter Cook says: Reading with interest re Art Wood, the eldest of The Woods boys, Ted Woods was drummer with Colin Kingswell Jazz Bandits and later formed Ted Woods River Boys and youngest Ronnie Woods now of Rolling Stones fame. I was just browsing past contacts starting with Barry Kerswell and up came the names Jim Willis, Gerry Waite, Mike Waldron and many others, Ray Smith - piano, Eddie Harper - piano, Lenny Hastings - sax, Brian Sidaway - clarinet, Mike Messenger - Sousa, Reg Squires - double bass, Pat Halcox - trumpet etc etc. (I also worked with Bert Fawkes, father of Wally Fawkes). I was known as 'Pete the Jiving barman' from The Viaduct Inn, Hanwell, west London and used to follow the jazz scene including Steve Lane at the Norfolk Arms, Wembley as well as many other jazz club venues at that time. Countless tales but sadly I am not a musician.
2017.3
Chris Duff writes: I was so pleased to see that Pete Simkins is alive and well and still tickling the ivories. He was one of a group of jazz enthusiasts behind the Sussex Jazz Society during those halcyon days in the 1960s when the resident Fourteen Foot Band and others played and accompanied British and American musicians to full houses at the Fox and Hounds, Haywards Heath. For a number of years Pete could be seen and heard with bands in the Brighton area, often with his father, tenor player Benny, and brother, altoist Geoff. Many of these sessions were with leading American musicians and were recorded. The full story of the wonderful jazz heard around Brighton during the latter half of the twentieth century is told by Pete and trombonist Keith Samuels, who co-edited the book 'The Brighton Jazz Line'.
2017.4
Allan Eves sends us this picture of a bar bill from a George Melly recording session at New Merlin's Caves in Clerkenwell.
Allan says that he found it in an album sleeve for the George Melly LP Son Of Nuts that used to belong to his father. The bill, which is for a total of £704 and is signed by producer Derek Taylor covers two rehearsals and the recording. It includes 87 bottles of wine - giant size, three 18 gallon kegs of beer and various items of food and a fish and chip dinner!
There appears to be no date on the bill, but we think Son Of Nuts, if that was the session, was recorded in 1973.
Allan offered the item for sale on Ebay during December but thought we might be interested in it.
2015.2
Photographer Brian O'Connor sends us this photographic memory. Brian says: I’ve always been fascinated with the mechanics of a big band recording session. To be given the opportunity to sit in the middle of the orchestra actually during such a session was an answer to a prayer (there is still a long list of unanswered prayers).
It happened during 1990, at CTS Studios in Wembley. Henry Mancini was recording an album with an orchestra consisting of the best of 
British. There I was, sat in the middle of the musicians, with virtually free reign to photograph at will, only stopping when the red light appeared.
It was then a case of remaining as still as a statue, until at long last the light was switched off. It’s quite frightening how long 3 minutes can seem when you must neither move nor (almost not) breathe. Itches begin to appear almost immediately in places you never imagined coulditch, let alone reach.
It was, however, worth it. One of the most amazing revelations was the incredible ability of the musicians to sight read the arrangements a couple of times, and then do the recording.
The subsequent meeting with Mancini afterwards was also memorable - he was very expansive, the cigar never left his hand, and at times he was slightly prickly. A real character.
Although the session appeared relatively informal (note the cigar in the photo) this was down to the complete professionalism of everyone involved, from the recording engineers through to Mr. Mancini himself. A not to be forgotten afternoon.
I believe the subsequent CD issue was on RCA, Mancini in Surround. Mostly Monsters, Murders & Mysteries. The Mancini Pops Orchestra. A title that was certainly far from succinct. [Photographs © Brian O'Connor].
2014.11
Richard Taylor sent us this poster of Chris Watford's Dallas Dandies to add to the gradual increase of information we are getting about trombonist Mick Clift. Click here for our Profile of Mick. Please let us know if you have any other pictures or information we can include.
Front row left to right - Mick Clift, Dennis Armstrong, Chris Watford.
Back Row left to right- Dennis Mowatt, Jerry Card, Geoff Over.
2014.9
These pictures were taken by photographer Brian O'Connor at the Watermill Jazz Club in Dorking on 17th July 2014. Emily was singing at the Alec Dankworth Spanish Accents gig with Alec Dankworth, Demi Garcia, Chris Garrick and Mark Lockheart. Emily is the granddaughter of Cleo Laine and daughter of Alec, and Brian says: 'Emily has a fine voice 
and doesn’t attempt to sound like her grandmother, or aunt. She sang mainly in Spanish, then finished with one standard in English. Very clear singing and a good range.' Emily has sung in choirs all her life, and in 2011 studied Jazz vocals at the Guildhall School of Music. She sings in the acapella group Vive and has performed in the UK and Europe. She also works with her own group.
2014.8
Photographs © Brian O'Connor, Images Of Jazz
Here's a video of Emily singing an edit of her gig with her Sextet at the Karamel Club in 2012.
Saxophonist Dave Keen wrote from Canada recalling the first time he encountered pianist and vocalist Diana Krall. He also attached this collage, saying: 'Here is a collage I made up years ago (40 at least!) from old jazz mag photos of my heroes. The square looking, young guy with hair, in the middle of the picture playing tenor is me. You’ll note Sandy Brown strategically placed on either side of me.
That pic of me was taken at Malasapina College up in Naniamo, about a couple of hours north of Victoria, where I, 
along with the remaining guys in the quartet at the time (Neil Swainson and John Bartrum ), were auditioning piano players. They had a Jazz program at the college and my piano player at the time, Richard Whitehouse, had left town for greener pastures in the big smoke, Toronto. So I took Neil Swainson and John Bartrum up there with me to help me audition some of the piano players in the college program. None of which, lamentably, could cut the book.
Brian Stovel, a local high school band teacher, brought his kids down to hear the auditions. One of his kids was Diana Krall who was 14 at the time and had no aspirations of being a singer. It was suggested I give her a shot. I called “Dolphin Dance” which to my amazement she nailed; so then I called “Lester Left Town” which she also nailed. I don’t mean just nailed. I mean like Herbie Hancock nailed. There was a sorta audible ensemble gasp. We were all just amazed at how well developed she was as a player and at such a young age. I hired her to play in the band. We had a gig in Victoria at the time. Her parents would bring her down for the gig and then take her back. Regrettably, as with most “jazz” clubs the gig only lasted six weeks and then the club shut down.
So there ya go - there’s my claim ta fame. I hired Diana Krall for her first pro paying jazz gig and of course Neil Swainson, who wasn’t much more than 16 at the time either.
Dave also remembers Ken Colyer:
'Ken was a real character. I remember overhearing a conversation at the bar of the pub just down the road from his club where we’d all dash to on the break ta get a pint ( Youngers Scotch Ale ). Can’t remember the name of the Boozer?? Ken was telling his companion at the bar how ya couldn’t play jazz on the flute???'
2014.6
Pianist Jamie Evans was in Dusseldorf, Germany, doing a European tour with clarinettist, Alan Cooper, when they bumped into keyboards man, Johnny Parker (both pictured).
Jamie says: 'Even then (1985) Johnny was finding it difficult to get around without his sticks although the three of us spent a hilarious afternoon enjoying the taste of excellent German beer and scoffing sausage of all shapes and hues. Johnny was doing a solo spot at a Dusseldorf club and we stayed as long as we could for the session so Coops could catch up on gossip with his old crony, Parks. A very agreeable day was enjoyed by us all although how Coops and I got back to our base in Eindhoven, Holland, just over the border is a little vague!'
Johnny Parker sadly passed through the Departure Lounge in 2010, but we were fortunate to be able to talk to him and put together a profile that you will find by clicking here. Please contact us if you have any memories of Johnny.
2014.6
Boots Baker sends us these pictures from a programme of a gig by Acker Bilk and Mike Daniels.
Boots says: Since the mid-90s I've been playing trombone with Mike Daniels' Delta Jazzmen, attempting to fill the illustrious shoes of Gordon Blundy and later Jeff Williams.
Mike has now sadly finished with running a band. Some years ago a fan at a club 
(I think it might have been Colchester) gave me this old programme. It might be of interest to your readers.
We have just selected the Mike Daniels part of the programme, the Acker Bilk part we will save for another time.
It is always interesting to see that many old programmes never carried details of the year, and often not the date when gigs or concerts took place. This is probably because the printing costs did not run to individual programmes for every gig.
This concert carried the title New Orleans Parade and was presented by Jazzshows Ltd, a well known jazz promoter, back in the day. Where and when the concert(s) took place is unknown.
2014.5
Following up Boots Baker's pictures of the Mike Daniels Band , drummer John Westwood sends us these photographs of Mike. John says: 'I very 
much liked the Mike Daniels article. These pictures were taken outside St George's Hall where the Hot Club of London concerts were held:
Left to Right: Gerry Haim, Doug Whitton, Charlie Galbraith and Mike Daniels. We were all playing there that day, but I didn't record the actual date. Sorry! Doug Whitton wasn't only an avid disc-collector, but played a mean trumpet.
'This photograph is of Mike and I. I know the photographs were taken the year after the picture on the Chris Barber site (click here) which shows the Stanmore Stompers in Mike's family garden'.
2014.6
Artist and Caricaturist Jimmy Thomson sent us this interesting photograph of American clarinettist Pee Wee Russell. Jimmy says: 'This was taken in Manchester in October 1964 when Pee Wee played at the Sports Guild. Pee (second left) is pictured with Doug Dobell, George Ellis and G E Lambert (both jazz writers at that time). I knew Doug Dobell quite well as I drew his Christmas cards for a number of years, and John Kendall. I met Jeff Atterton at 77 Charing Cross Road. It was he who introduced me to Pee Wee through one of my caricatures. That led me to a ten-year exchange of letters with Pee Wee, and Jeff got my drawing of Condon into The Eddie Condon Scrapbook of Jazz. Jack Hutton was also at the Pee Wee gig in Manchester - and Steve Voce. All misty history now'.
Doug Dobell was, of course, the owner of Dobell's, the famous London record shop. George Ellis wrote for Jazz Beat (Jazz News) amongst other publications. G E Lambert was an author as well as a jazz critic and his Kings of Jazz books are available as free downloads Kings of Jazz : Johnny Dodds (click here); Kings of Jazz : Duke Ellington (click here).
2014.4
Trumpeter and pianist Dave Burman who has played regularly in Poland as well as here in the UK sent this photograph. Dave says: 'This picture is from a session in Warsaw with Johnny Parker and Jim Bray from the Bruce Turner outfit. The Polish trumpet player looking suitably impressed.'
Dave says:
The crowds were terrifying. Tiger Rag was our first number at the Festival. What happened was that none of the band wanted, or were unable, to travel behind the Iron Curtain, so I had to put together a pickup band at short notice.
I had a lot of trouble with our repertoire in Poland. The trombonist could not, or would not, play anything I wanted to play. He also 
liked very fast tempos! Sadly, most of those guys are dead now. Just Laurie Chescoe and Alan Tuelon are still around. Laurie still plays. Alan is somewhat disabled.
I had previously gone to Warsaw in 1955 on one of the Festivals of Peace and Friendship. I took my trumpet with me and Bruce Turner was also there with a small group. I sat in on a jam session with his musicians and Pinokio trumpet player Bohdan Styzynski also played with us. Bohdan and I became good friends and we corresponded when I got back to England. In 1956 I was invited to take my band to the first ever Polish Jazz Festival.
In Warsaw publicising the band.
Photograph © Dave Burman
In your page on A History Of Jazz In Poland (click here) I was surprised by Jan Wroblewski's omission of our British band in his account of Sopot '56. This was possibly the Party line. A review of the recordings we made then was quite hostile. When I raised this with Jan in 2012 he told me that the party line was to laud Polish players! These were studio recordings made by Polish Radio and we never got copies of them. When I met Jan in 2012 at Sopot where I played with Peter Shade and Martin Guy, they put on a series of films and he told me I must see them. I watched, wondering what was coming and there we were on film in 1956. It was a very nice gesture and a complete surprise!
Below is a video of Dave playing Shine with the Detko band in Poland on a wet day in 2012. Dave is still very active and playing regularly in Highgate. His compositions have been used for the play Dreams Of Anne Frank and orchestral sequences for a Richard Williams film.
2014.1&2
This picture comes from trombonist Mike Hogh. The musicians in the picture are
L-R: Ron Humphries, Eddie ? (bass), Mike Hogh, Willie Garnett, Dennis Ogden, Alan Stuart and, behind Willie Garnett, the pianist is possibly Alan West.
The question is who from the Octet (presumably the drummer) is missing? The picture comes from the 1970s. Mike played with Denny through the 1960s, 70s and 80s until Denny became ill and the band was taken over by Alan Stuart. We have been able to find very little information about Denny who was clearly a presence on the UK jazz scene during those years. Can anyone tell us any more about him? Click here for our profile of Mike Hogh.
© Mike Hogh
2013.12
Dave Burman's picture of Colin Kingwell's Jazz Bandits shows Left to Right: Stan Darlington (piano), Dave Burman (alto sax), Clarinet player unknown (*see below), Steve Lane (cornet), Colin Kingwell (trombone) and Peter Lovell (banjo) - drums and sousaphone players unknown.
© Dave Burman
Dave says:
The key to the origin of the Kingwell band is Steve Lane's Southern Stompers, a Morton styled band that played every Friday night at the Fox and Goose, Hanger Lane just off the North Circular Road. Colin Kingwell was trombonist with the Southern Stompers.
I first met him somewhere around the early 1950s. when I replaced Steve's pianist Ian McDonald. In Steve Lane's band were Colin Kingwell (trombone), The Grey Brothers (sousaphone and something), Drummer ??, Johnny Milton (clarinet and alto sax), Cyril Davis (banjo/guitar and known as 'Squirrel', and later a big name in the R&B circle (which used to meet at, I think, the Marquee) and myself (piano). I believe that Colin Kingwell also began to play with the Barbary Coast Rhythmn Kings, a Watters style group that was formed by the Sherlock brothers, who both played trumpet. This band used to play at the Viaduct Inn.
Colin Kingwell eventually formed his own band, the Jazz Bandits. I believe they were still going up to the last year or two. The Sherlock brothers diversed in opposite directions with Mike Sherlock taking to the Bop! and his brother Paul to Main Stream. The heart of bands such as Kingwell's Jazz Bandits lies with Steve Lane's coaching, example and influence, although the Kingwell Band was just another good Trad band. Steve Lane imposed high standards on his players. He played very nice George Mitchell-style cornet and used painstakingly to transcribe Jelly Roll Morton's Peppers recordings for his band. It was truly a Classic band, musically very tight with very clean voicings and textures, and he always selected good musicians. Everything had to be as Steve wanted! The photo is most likely of a "sitting in" session which, as you know, was current practice at Jazz Clubs. Many London based players have passed throught the ranks of the Steven Lane band.
I can remember that I was succeeded on piano by, among others, pianists Ray Smith, Stan Darlington, Martin Litton and, Fergus Read, a phenominal classical pianist, somewhat eccentric, even for a jazz musician. Sadly he died from a brain clot at a young age, which may explain much of his behaviour! An appreciation of Steve Lane is long overdue.
Alan Bond writes:
'I was looking closely at the comments with the photo of the Steve Lane band with Colin Kingwell on trombone and I have to agree with Dave Burman's comments regarding Steve's bands. They were always well-ordered and played great arrangements, mostly by Steve but some were layed down by others such as John Wurr and the late Bob Beardsworth. Steve certainly doesn't get the recognition he deserves. I think he is about 91 or 92, but sadly he is housebound and being looked after by a young relative. Another thing that Steve doesn't get credit for is the number of excellent tunes that he composed. A friend of mine, the late Brian Chadwick, was the drummer in Steve's band in the late 1980s and I last saw Colin Kingwell at a friend's funeral at Ruislip in August. Colin had put together a quartet to play at the funeral which was a humanist, secular affair and it was very well attended.'
11.2013
Roger Trobridge adds:
'There is a large discography of his (Steve's) recordings. There
is not a lot on VJM Records although I have been helping to pull some of it
together.
Colin is very active with his band with a regular night in Uxbridge as well
as other gigs'.
11.2013
*John Mumford tells us that the clarinet player is Ian Mackerrow.
2014.6
Behind these tickets for 'concerts gone by' lies a host af memories for Jim Lowe.
Lionel Hampton at the Free Trade Hall, Manchester in 1974; Gil Evans and Stan Tracey at that same venue in 1978; Louie Bellson at Lockley Grand Hall, Preston; Benny Goodman at the Royal Albert Hall in 1971; George Lewis again in Manchester in 1957 and Count Basie at Blighty's in Farnworth in 1972 are just a few events recalled here.
Jim says: 'My favourite is Ken Colyer's Jazz Band at a club named Brahms and Liszt 
(Cockney rhyming slang for 'pissed') in Brown Street, Manchester. I had not heard of that venue before.'
The second image from Jim Lowe is this 1952 'New Orleans Double-Up' gig card from the Lancashire Society of Jazz Music. It is interesting on several counts. Two bands, Chris Barber's and The Saints with The Angel (?) were both billed under the heading of 'New Orleans Jazz'. The event took place upstairs and downstairs in the Clubroom and Ballroom of the Grosvenor Hotel, Deansgate ('the North's jazz mecca') with each band taking turns to play in each room. There was a jazz dancing competition, and unusually for that period, a licensed bar in each room. The event started at 7.30 pm with Douglas 'Jazz-time Enefer' as the compère. Tickets were 4/6d. The back of the ticket says the ballroom is 'beautifully and tastefully appointed ....we anticipate the finest night of jazz that Manchester has experienced for a long time.'
Many thanks to all those who wrote in to say that The Angel was 'the wonderful Doreen Beatty later with and married to Mike Daniels'.
2013.10
Another picture from Dave Burman, this one of the London Vintage Jazz Orchestra from the 1970s.
Taken at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, the musicians are, Left to Right: Pip Baker (banjo), Bruce Talbot (tenor sax, clarinet), Quentin Bryar (alto sax, clarinet), Alan Barnes (alto sax, clarinet), Sinclair Lewis (violin), Ray Smith (piano), Pete March (bass sax), Sing Ling (bass), Princess Sara (second trombone), Jim Sheperd (first trombone), John Strangman (second trumpet), Paul Lacey (third trumpet), Dave Burman (first trumpet and leader).
Dave says:
The London Vintage Orchestra started around 1972 as an Inner London Education Authority evening institute course which I set up as a Jazz / Big Band course. The course was so well attended that I had to run sessions.. An orchestra emerged from the two classes which became the London Vintage Orchestra. This band ran for some years and played in the UK and abroad, also appearing weekly at the 100 Club's Sunday lunchtime sessions.
The band moved to the Tufnell Park Tavern doing alternate Tuesdays. We then moved to the Torrington Arms in Finchley, again playing on alternate Tuesdays. That venue then became a Starbucks coffee house, so we moved to The Star in Highgate, again playing alternate Tuesdays. Those sessions ceased when the manager left and bought the Southampton Arms in Highgate, taking me with him as solo pianist. I 'mothballed' the London Vintage Jazz Orchestra about two years ago, working on the idea - get the gig - do a rehearsal for it.
The LVJO last appeared at the Spiro Institute in 2010 as 'The Broadway Syncopators' with myself (piano, trumpet, director), Malcolm Warton (trumpet), Dave Chandler (trombone), Peter Shade (piano, piano accordion), Martin Guy (drums), Mike Savage (guitar), John Baine (bass sax), Quentin Bryar (tenor sax, clarinet), Keith Blackburn (alto sax, clarinet), Dave Eastham (alto sax, clarinet), Sara Manasseh (vocals, piano).
Subsequently, Paul Geeson wrote to us. Paul was a member of the LVJO and we have been able to put him in touch with Dave Burman again. Paul says: 'When I was with them they were rehearsing on Wednesday evening in the Stanhope Institute in Queens Square nr Russel Sq. I do remember playing with some of the other names you list on your website... I was an original member of the house band at Googlies Jazz Supper Club when it started in 2002, and therefore backed artists such as the late Campbell Burnap, Bruce Adams, Alan Barnes, Digby Fairweather etc (I won’t go through the whole list as it will just seem as though I’m name dropping). I was a very lucky guy having had the chance to play with these great players!'
Ken Fletcher sends us these pictures from a leaflet advertising a Riverboat Shuffle in 1958. Just looking at the line up of bands shows how popular these events were. Organised by Jazzshows Limited, they said: 'Following the tremendous success of our 
second Floating Festival of Jazz, we have pleasure in announcing that we have again chartered both the 'Royal Daffodil' and the 'Royal Sovereign' for this year's event, which will be held on Sunday, 15th June. As last year, we shall be sailing from Tower Pier to Margate and back. To ensure that there will be plenty of room we are restricting the number of passengers so that everyone will be comfortable. Each boat is designed to give the maximum protection and you can be sure of a 
wonderful outing whatever the weather.'
'The artistes who travel down on the 'Royal Daffodil' will return on the 'Royal Sovereign' and vice versa so that you will be able to see and hear all the bands and artistes at some time during the day.'
'Throughout the cruise the ships' bars will be open and drinks and food can be obtained all day. Luncheons, dinners and high teas will be served in the dining saloons but if you prefer to bring your own food you are quite at liberty to do so.'
The ships were scheduled to leave Tower Pier around 9.30 am, returning twelve hours later, allowing two hours ashore at Margate. '... the actual time of arrival back cannot be guaranteed owing to the tidal conditions in the Estuary.'
The price of tickets was £2 each and it was possible to pay by instalments. Under that plan, people could send 10/- deposit with the balance paid 'when you like, provided that all the money is in our hands by 1st June.'
Ken Fletcher says: 'Having mis-spent my youth in the North London Jazz clubs of the 1950s, I always enjoy people's recollections of those times.'
The other Riverboat Shuffle photograph above comes from clarinettist Alex Revell who says: 'Thought you might like to include this one in your next 
issue. Taken on a riverboat shuffle. Don’t remember the date, but sometime in the late forties, or very early fifties, certainly before 1953. Left to right: it’s Owen Maddox (I think), Chris Barber, me, Humph, unknown (I think a trombonist), Owen Bryce. Just to the right of Owen B is his wife.'
Riverboat Shuffles are still organised although I doubt that they are the same as they were in the 1950s (click here).
The term 'Riverboat Shuffle' was presumably based on the bands that played for people on the Mississippi riverboats, but was probably coined by Hoagy Carmichael when he gave one of his compositions the name. Apparently, in the spring of 1924, Bix Beiderbecke came to Indiana University where Hoagy booked him to play a series of ten fraternity dances, and the two became fast friends. It was for Beiderbecke that Carmichael wrote his first piece, calling it Free Wheeling. Beiderbecke took it with him to Richmond, Indiana (100 miles to the East), home of the early record company, Gennett Records, waxed it with his seven-piece band, “The Wolverines” and changed the name to Riverboat Shuffle.
2017.1
Click here to listen to Bix playing Riverboat Shuffle.
Hoagy's lyrics for the song said:
Good people, you're invited tonight
To the riverboat shuffle
Good people, we got rhythm tonight
At the riverboat shuffle
They tell me that slide-pipe tooter is grand
Best in Louisiana
So bring your freighter, come and alligator that band
Mister Hawkins on the tenor
Good people, you'll hear Millenberg Joys
In a special orchestration
Even mama Dinah will be there to strut for the boys
In a room full of noise
She'll teach you to shuffle it right
So, bring your baby
I'll be seeing you at the riverboat shuffle tonight
Chris Watford clarinettist and bandleader sent us this photograph of the Sandy Brown Band playing a Riverboat Shuffle and wonders if anyone recognises themselves or can remember the event?
Chris says that the event was back in the 1950s. 'It was from Westminster that we started, travelling up river, possibly as far as Maidenhead. I believe this was a 2-band session shared with the Dave Carey jazz band. If a piano solo was in progress when the boat passed under a bridge, the band would grab their instruments and join in, with a wonderful ensemble sound bouncing off the underneath of the bridge arches!
I recognise Sandy on clarinet and Al Fairweather on trumpet, despite being stripped to the waist - it was a sweltering hot day! The stern of the boat was crammed with beer-guzzling youngsters - happy days! I think this was the summer of 1955, but it could have been the previous summer'.
Were you there?
2013.9
If you have memories of a Riverboat Shuffle - please let us know.
We now have a page about Riverboat Shuffles - click here.
This photographic memory comes from Johnny Johnstone, pictured below with Sandy Brown. Johnny was twenty in 1957 when Sandy's band played in Nottingham. Johnny says: 'The photograph below is of Sandy and myself taken by Al Fairweather in the dressing room of the Regents Hall, the night they played there. Sandy sent the other photograph to me. It was probably a publicity picture, and the very attractive blonde must remain a mystery as far as I'm concerened. It might be worth asking if anyone can identify her?' utting it in the webpage,and asking the question,as to who she is/was, in the hope that Sandy used it,more 
than once,and identified her?
Why the picture of Sandy and the blonde was taken in front of a memorial to John Nash is also a mystery. John Nash was an architect responsible for most of the layout of Regency London, but he designed many other buildings in England, Wales and Ireland. This memorial could, presumably, be anywhere.
The other interesting feature is that in this picture, Sandy is holding a bass clarinet, rather than the clarinet he carries in most other pictures. Contact us if you have any ideas.
Sandy's acoustic engineering colleague David Binns subsequently wrote saying:
'I think that I can shed some light on the photo of Sandy with the mystery blond. If my memory serves me right, The memorial to John Nash, is in the portico of All Souls Church, Langham Place, next to the BBC. Sandy was working as their chief Acoustic Architect for the BBC at the time and would have popped out for a publicity? Photo. Being an Architect he would have selected the spot.'
2013.8
See our page about Sandy Brown for more - click here.
Digging around in a box under his bed, Johnny Johnstone came across a programme from a gig he went to at the Dancing Slipper in Nottingham in 1963.
The cover photograph is of Alex Welsh, and the programme gives the date as April - May 1963.
The back of the programme lists other bands appearing. We have not heard of the Spree City Stompers nor the Cave Stompers - does anyone else remember them?
The Orchestra of the Dutch Swing College was very popular. It is also interesting to note that impressario Bill Kinnell had other venues at the time in Derby, Leicester and Coventry.
2013.7
Hugo Strötbaum in Holland sent us these pictures and says: 'I came 
across some stuff I thought you might be interested in.
Apart from seeing Sandy Bown and Al Fairweather at the Six Bells, Chelsea, I also attended the Richmond Festival in 1965 (entry 5/-) and took a picture of Ken Colyer and Kenny Ball (not my cup of tea)parading around the grounds.' (It is Pat Halcox nearest the camera).
'Seeing that Terry Lightfoot had shuffled off to the Departure Lounge saddened me. He made a terrific LP (New Orleans houses on the sleeve). Green for Danger?'
2013.6
Our thanks to Roger Kinsey who sent us the picture of this poster and gives us permission to share it on the site.
Roger says: ‘I was reading the item about Big Joe Turner, Buck Clayton with the Humphrey Lyttelton Band doing the Kansas City Jazz Tour in 1965. I thought you would like to see a copy of the poster we had designed and silk screen printed for the gig they did at Chelsea College of Science and Technology on May 21st, supported by the New Jazz Orchestra when Ian Carr was a trumpeter with the NJO.’
‘I was Deputy Entertainments Chairman for the academic year 65/66 and if I remember correctly, this gig was billed as Jazz Goes To College by the BBC who came and recorded this concert that was subsequently aired, it even could have gone out live? So perhaps someone else out there will be able to add more flesh on the bones of this nugget?’
‘This poster is just one from a unique collection which I have from the years I was at Chelsea and I know lots of people would love to see these posters some day in the flesh. But I need an appropriate gallery space and curator who appreciates and understands the validity and social history of what I have amassed from those years.’
2013.5
Left to Right: Dave Cutting (trombone); Bob Sinclair (bass); Ches Chesterman (trumpet); Geoff Blackwell (drums); Jim Waghorn (banjo); Alex Revell (clarinet); Alan Thomas (piano).
Photographs courtesy of Alex Revell
We received a message from Barry Elson asking whether anyone could give him details or photographs about his step-brother, trombonist Dave Cutting. We are very grateful to Ron Drakeford who gave Barry some avenues to pursue, and to Alex Revell who sent Barry a number of photographs of Dave, including these. We thought if other people remembered Dave Cutting 
they might like to see them.
Barry had written: 'I am currently searching the internet regarding my trombonist brother, Dave Cutting, who passed away at his home in Northampton, and I noted mention of him amongst your 'Ron's Reflection' page (click here). Dave never had any photographs of his band days, and so far I have only come across 1 on the internet, that taken with 'kid' Shillito's band, and I have been in touch with John Shillito, who is going to have a rummage round to see if he has any others. I was fortunate to have been taken during my youth by my brother to quite a few sessions with him, and at the time was dropped off back home by banjo player Greg Potter or drummer Don McMurray, but this was all 50 odd years ago, and I appreciate that those who knew Dave are getting thin on the ground now. Are you aware of any photo's of him that may be still in existance, or anyone that may be able to help? Apart from John Shillito, the only other person I have managed to ask is Colin Bowden, which was back in 2008 whilst Dave was still alive, but he couldn't come up with any of him in the Colyer line-up unfortunately. I realise this is a shot in the dark here, but thought it was worth asking'.
Alex Revell says: 'I was sorry to hear that Dave had died, when was
that? I always thought of him as the 'baby' of the band when he was in my band
in the late 1960s. Here are the all photos I have of him. I think the venue was at the
Dancing Slipper at Nottingham, but I can't be sure'. (Click here for our profile of Alex Revell).
2013.4
David Stevens sends us this photograph of John Haim's Jelly Roll Kings band in 1948. The picture was sent to him by Gerry Haim who now lives in Spain. Dave says: 'It shows John on cornet (he died aged 19), his brother Gerry on tuba, Eric Silk on banjo, Charlie Conner on clarinet and me on piano.'
'I can remember the Dance Band Contests which were popular at the time. A number of amateur bands would be hired, for a pittance, to play in front of a few "expert" judges (I remember Steve Race was on one of them), and of course the punters were charged an entrance fee to come along and dance to the bands - pretty difficult in many cases. Somehow, John managed to get us on several of these contests, and we killed the audiences by comparison with the other pallid Victor Sylvester-like contestants. The judges were scared that by not giving us a place (which they would like to have done), they would risk a hostile reaction from the crowd. So when the top three winners were announced, we always came third.'
Drummer John Westwood recalls his days with the Jelly Roll Kings on the Chris Barber website: 'By this time I had been playing the drums with John Haim's Jellyroll Kings for a couple of years. Then, virtually no-one had cars: transport was by bus or train, and instruments were deposited at left-luggage offices at stations between performances (they weren't called 'gigs' then!). But John's brother Gerald had somehow persuaded his parents to buy him a 125cc motor bike. And it was on that bike that he often used to travel, with his sousaphone, in two parts, slung around his person. (Click here to read John's memories, including his meeting and time with Chris Barber).
You can also listen to the Jelly Roll Kings playing That's-A-Plenty (click here) with various other pictures of the band. (David Stevens tells us that it was him playing on That's A Plenty rather than Pat Hawes who played in the band before David joined).
2013.3 / 2016.11
Jari Salo in Finland writes saying:
'My dad won this record back in the 1960s. He was a bandleader and a vocalist and he must have won a prize for being Best Vocalist in some competition. I don't know anything about this band, do you?'
Jari then discovered a copy of the EP for sale on the internet. The advertisement gave him the information that the EP was on the Sonet label (Sonet SXP 2025) and the tunes on the record were: Cushion Foot Stomp / Accent On Swing / Gone With What Draft / How Long Blues. There was, unfortunately, no information about the musicians playing. He then discovered a Bruce Turner CD by Lake Records called Accent On Swing, but only the title track is on Jari's EP.
Prizewinner Jorma Salo (1969)
Jari went on searching and found a Bruce Turner compilation on the CD Universe site which included all the tracks on the EP (click here to sample it). The CD was also released on the Lake label but still without the details of the musicians. He went on searching and discovered that the line-up for the track Accent On Swing was: John Chilton (trumpet) , John Mumford (trombone) , Bruce Turner (alto sax, clarinet) , Stan Greig (piano) , Tony Goffe (bass) , Johnny Armatage (drums).
Fortunately, we were able to share with Jari this video of the Bruce Turner Jump Band playing 'Swing Tune' in 1961. The information with the video says:
'In a 1961 clip from a movie series "Living Jazz" following the Bruce Turner Band on tour we see a swing tune of which I don't know the title. In the band are John Chilton trumpet, John Mumford trombone, Colin Bates piano, Jim Bray bass and John Armitage drums.'
'Bruce came to prominence in the late 1940s playing Dixieland clarinet in Freddy Randall''s band. In 1953 Humphrey Lyttelton was changing direction from his very traditional style and moving towards a mainstream style. When trombonist Keith Christie left the Lyttelton band Humph did not immediately replace him with another trombonist, but eventually brought in Bruce on alto to join the front line of Humph and Wally Fawkes. The move infuriated the traditional fans and resulted in a banner with the slogan "Go Home Dirty Bopper" emblazoned on it, being raised at a concert in Birmingham. Bruce, though, was there to stay and despite odd forays into band leading and
freelancing, his association with Humph was to last until his death from cancer in 1993. Stylistically Carter and Johnny Hodges are often alluded to when appraising his playing. His "Jump" style owes much to Pete Brown and you can detect his teacher, Lee Konitz, in there, but like all true jazzmen he has listened and borrowed and finally evolved something which is pure Bruce Turner.'
Jari then called his father, Jorma Salo, who remembered winning a 'best vocalist' prize. The judge had been Erkki Liikanen, one of Finland’s most famous jazz drummers and pop singers, and the record has his signature on it. Jari says: ‘Dad's band was the most popular in our area in early 60s. It was the Tango boom here, so they mostly played tangos etc. but as jazz fans, they included jazz standards, hiding them as tangos!’
Jari sends us these photos from 1960 / 1961 of Jorma’s band, saying: ‘Hey! Look at the style – tailored suits – maybe made in Sweden. Dad is the second from the left. The first guy is the drummer Veikko, then Dad, then bass player, Sauli, 
and the accordionist Reino’.
Other well known Finnish jazz musicians played in Jorma Salo’s band, says Jari: ‘Seppo Lemponen played sometimes in Dad's band and one of our area's jazz accordion legends, Reino Hietamaki played there also. He made many arrangements. Many local "jazz heroes" also played with his band, and Dad had been singing with various bands before his own band. He started in the mid 50s and sang Rock too. So my dad was the singer and the band had his name. 'Jorma Salon yhtye' aka Jorma Salo's band. Many people still remember Dad and his band and how popular they were.’
For readers with fluent Finnish, the writing beneath the photo above says: 'Jorma Salon maineikas yhtye voitti 60-luvulla mm. kaksi kertaa Kauhajjoen Kasinolla järjestety. Vasemmalla mikrofonin takana maestro itse, rummuissa Juha Söder, saxofonisss. Terho Kemppi, basson varresse Tapio Kuusisto ja hanurissa Reiska Hietamäki.'
2013.2
Trombonist Bob Jackson sent us this photographic memory of Bruce Turner guesting with the Spicy Jazz band at the Cork and Fork Club in Leamington Spa on 2nd November 1990.
The front line from left to right - Zoltan Sagi is on saxophone, Tony Pipkin on trumpet, Bruce Turner, clarinet and Bob Jackson, trombone.
With another hat on, Professor Bob Jackson is Director of Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit at Warwick University in Coventry. You can read about him if you go to his website www.robertjackson.co.uk (click here), but his website also carries details of his activities as a jazz musician (click on the link at the bottom of his website page where you will also find links to music by Spicy Jazz including Sandy Brown's African Queen and Al Fairweather's The Card and Scales, and other photographs of the band.
2013.1
Peter Maguire writes: 'When I was in the R.A.F. at Yatesbury in Wiltshire, I was a member of my first band. This would be circa 1958. I dreamt up the name 'The Stonehenge City Jazz Band' and we were pretty active around the Calne - Swindon area'.
'The cornet player was Tony Pringle; he moved to the USA and is still very active with The Black Eagles. On clarinet - John Flynn. Tony met him again when his band was performing in Dublin. Pianist Peter Kedney went on to 
study at the Royal College of Surgeons. I think the drummer was called Tyson and the banjo player, Tongue - he was from Manchester. I can't remember the rest of the names.'
'There would be regular visits to Yatesbury by London bands and I remember we were once the support band to Mick Mulligan whose band included a young George Melly and Gerry Salisbury on bass. We won the annual talent contest in Calne - the Mayor was not amused!' (The photograph says it all! Ed.)
2012.12
Sheila Vine has written to us to say:
I found your very interesting site while researching information on Django Reinhardt. As you know Django, as part of his UK tour in 1938, played at the Gig Club which I believe was held in the Bourne Hall/Fishmongers Arms, Wood Green on the 10th July 1938 and presented a Cup to the winner of the Quintet competition which ardent followers of Django came and competed for.
My father’s Quartette won the competition which was judged by Django and Stephane Grappelly as nearest to their own group and Django actually presented the cup and also gave Dad his autograph at that time.
The name on the cup is H. Lloyd’s Quartette. I have included photographs and still have this cup displayed in my study. (Note the spelling of Stéphane Grappelli 
with a 'y' on the cup - Ed.).
My father’s name was Harry Lloyd and he was an ardent follower of Django. Our dog was even called Django!! Sadly Dad died last year at the grand old age of 96 but he never lost his love of the guitar. Dad also won two medals from the Melody Maker in 1948. I still have one of them but the other one mysteriously went missing when he became very elderly. I also still have Django’s autograph from the 1938 gig. I believe he was illiterate but Dad had kept the scrap of paper all those years. Dad loved chatting about Django, and it was a shame really that he didn’t go professional, although he did play semi professionally all his life in bands in the South East.
When I was a child I remember Dad teaching several young men how to play Django’s music on their guitars. They would fill the house on their jamming sessions! He taught himself how to play and inherited his love of music from his father, who played classical piano, again self-taught.
I hope this may be of interest and you like seeing the photo of the cup.
2012.11
Bunny Austin has sent us this poster, a memento of a concert held at Central Hall, Westminster on 1st May 1964. Red Allen would have been fifty-six at the time of this concert. Note the all-stars - they would have been worth hearing on their own as a group, sadly some are no longer with us. Note too the prices - top price seats were 15/- (0.75p) that was probably quite expensive in 1964. The souvenir programme cost 2/6d, half the price of the cheapest seats.
Bunny has sent us a copy of the programme and the pages include ads for Acker Bilk playing at the 100 Club; 'England's Oldest and Best Jazz Club - Wood Green' (membership 6p per year); Jim Godbolt presenting 'Jazz For The Connoisseur' every Friday and Saturday at the Six Bells Jazz Club in Chelsea, and the Bristol Chinese Jazz Club at the Corn Exchange (what was all that about?).
And the All-Stars: Mac Duncan (trombone); Sandy Brown (clarinet); Johnny Parker (piano); Diz Disley (guitar); Jim Bray (bass) and Terry Cox (playing Trixon drums supplied by Drum City in Shaftesbury Avenue).
2012.10
These photographs come from Johnny Johnstone's memories of a Jazz All-Nighter held at the Royal Albert Hall in London from 10.00 pm on January 18th to 6.00 am on January 19th, 1957.
The pictures are from Johnny's Souvenir Programme that
cost him the exorbitant sum of 2/-, but at least it put something in his hand on which to collect autographs.
Johnny points out that when guitarist Diz Disley signed his name, Diz the musician / cartoonist inevitably added the curled moustache.
The second autograph from the same programme is of drummer Graham Burbidge who we think was playing with Sandy Brown until November 1957 when he joined the Chris Barber band.
The Jazz All-Nighters were still a bit of a novelty at the time (didn't they start at the Cy Laurie club?).
We should like to hear from anyone who has attended a Jazz All-Nighter from those times and can tell us more about them. Please contact us if you can.
2012.9
Jean Wilson, a cousin of trombonist Roy Crimmins, sent us this photograph saying:
'It was taken in October 1980 at the Towngate Theatre, Basildon. Roy is on the far left, then George Chisholm, Alex Welsh and Digby Fairweather.
My favourite part was when they played It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing and Roy sang it. I really went to meet up with Roy, but enjoyed the concert very much. It had been recorded to play back on Radio Essex and when they did, I had the tape recorder ready and have still got the tape I made, which included Roy singing.'
'I have taught myself to play keyboard over the last 30 years. I have played at a retirement home a couple of years ago; one afternoon they had booked a couple of men that play in a jazz band and when they arrived, they saw I was playing and asked me to play on and they did a session with me. It made my day to do a gig with proper musicians!.'
2012.8
Brian Hills (clarinet/alto with Spencer's Nighthawks and the Vintage Hot Five) sends us these pictures of The Original Downtown Syncopators. They were Dave Davis (cornet), Barry Dunning (trombone), Brian Hills (clarinet), Ron Geesin (piano) and Geoff Daly (drums).
Brian says that Dave Davis sadly passed away some time ago. Brian was in New Orleans recently where he discovered that the Nick LaRocca archive at Tulane University has letters from Terry Parmenter, who also played cornet with the Syncopators, to Nick LaRocca.
Brian replaced Bob Gordon Walker (clarinet) in the band which re-created a lot of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band repertoire back in the1960's and he is trying to track down any recordings they made, '... maybe live club recordings I may have been on! you never know'.
Please contact Brian at brian@bhills.orangehome.co.uk if you know of any, or if you have any memories of the band.
2012.7
Mike Hogh sends us this photographic memory of the Mike Martin Band. Mike is pretty sure that Mike Martin's was the first band to play upstairs in the Six Bells and says that Phil Addison confirms that they started there in 1960 and had a write-up (he thinks it was in the Telegraph), which alerted other bands - after which Fairweather-Brown etc. moved in!
Photograph: L-R: Pat Adams (vocals), Robin Walton (bass), Mike Martin (clarinet and alto), Maurice Wrixton (tenor), Phil Addison (trumpet), Mike Hogh (trombone). The drummer was Gerry Green and the pianist Derek Gilby.
We have not been able to find out anything about Mike Martin - does anyone remember him?
2012.6
Trumpeter Seppo Lemponen in Finland sent us this photographic memory:
'In 1970, the City of Vaasa decided to arrange a youth festival 'Vaasan kesä' (Vaasa summer festival). It was a success artistically, but not financially. We didn't realise until now that it managed to get together the cream of those Finnish musicians who rose to fame much later. Vaasa Jazz Club (founded 1968) helped to organise the occasion. Someone knew that both Griffin and Gordon were then staying in Europe (Dexter Gordon in Copenhagen). They were contacted, but because Dex was much cheaper and agreed to have a local (Helsinki) rhythm section, a deal was made with him. I was asked to act in different roles with Dex. The picture shows me (chairman of the club) on the left, and the late Timo Lappalainen (secretary) on the right as Dex's 'bodyguards' - I think we were about 36 and 24 respectively at the time. The picture was taken by Harry Swanljung, a club member, in Hietasaari ('Sandisle') a mile off the city centre.'
Click here for our page on Jazz in Finland. Rehearsal spaces are always a challenge, but Seppo seems to have found a solution: 'I have started cycling with my pocket trumpet,' he says. 'The activity will continue, at least, I hope, until October. You see, one must reserve rehearsal territories early enough. Birds, hares and squirrels at least seem to like sharing them!'
2012.5
Gerry Salisbury sent us this picture of himself on bass and Monty Sunshine on clarinet, probably from the late 1950s early 1960s. The text reads:
CURVE & COLOUR for suits. You've seen the coats, the co-ordinates ... and now the whole lovely line is summed up in these gay and girlish spring suits. The curve comes in a hollow front and the mere indication of a Will o' the Wisp waist. Skirts take the A-line ... there's not a straight one in sight. Instead, there's the trumpet curve, pleats or full swirly flares. And, when it comes to colour - snap out of that grey-brown winter feeling! Persuade yourself into Sweet Apple green, or softly flavoured Melon Cocktail, Turquoise Truffle, pretty Iced Strawberry or frothy Blue Meringue.
Quite what that has to do with a jazz bass and clarinet player, who knows, although the braces are probably in Iced Strawberry and Soft Yellow Lemon.
In an attempt to ban ultra-skinny models and fight the spread of eating disorders, in March, Israel passed a law specifying that models can no longer have a Body Mass Index of less than 18.5. Gerry and Monty should be O.K.
2012.4
David Bissell has sent us this photograph of Graeme Bell and his Australian Jazz Band. David says: ' I was looking through a box of my father's old photos the other day and came across this signed photo of Graeme Bell and his band, albeit in fairly tatty condition. My father was a big Trad jazz fan and he probably went to see them early in the 1950s. I have checked and the signatures seem to tally with the personnel of the time. Graeme Bell is seemingly still with us at the age of 97.'
As far as we can make out, the signatures are: Pixie Roberts (clarinet), Kanga Bentley (trombone), Ade Monsbourgh (trombone), Johnny Sangster (drums), Bud Baker (guitar, banjo), Roger Bell (trumpet) and Graeme Bell (piano and leader). There does not seem to be a signature for the bass player who we assume was Baron Silbereisen.
Graeme Bell was born in Victoria, Australia in 1914 and has been one of the leading promoters of jazz in Australia. By 1999, he had made over 1,500 recordings! He toured Europe with his band at the end of the 1940s and during the 1950s. Graeme has written that whilst touring through Germany, he encountered fans in the tour bus: 'In the band bus, girls, German girls, would hide in the band bus behind the seats, and when the band would take off, in the middle of the snow, on these long journeys, they'd reveal themselves ... some of them would wear wedding rings so that they could get into the hotels with the members of the band and pose as their wives, and they'd purposely speak bad German (Graeme Bell, 21 August 2006).
Listen to Graeme Bell and Australian Jazz Band playing the When The Saints Go Marching Home in 1951.
2012.3
Photograph © Gerry Salisbury
Click on the photograph for a larger, clearer image.
Gerry Salisbury also sent us this photograph taken in France in 1955. Micky Bryan is on piano, Gerry Salisbury (valve trombone), Harry Bryan (trumpet), Lennie Hastings (drums) and Tony Coe (clarinet). Gerry says: 'I cannot remember the name of the singer with the bass. The vibes were mine with shrapnel marks on the keys from when my dad was working at the Café Du Paris, or was it the Café Anglais?, when it was bombed.
Each of the cafe's that Gerry mentions has an interesting history. There was a Café Anglais in Paris which was closed in 1913, and there are several references to Café Anglais in London. The Hôtel Métropole had a Café Anglais where in 1928 Mantovani made his first recording on the Regal label. Gerry's dad was probably playing at the Café De Paris in London that was bombed on March 8th, 1941 when eighty people were killed. It re-opened in 1948. In its former life it featured bands such as those of Harry Gold, Harry Roy and Snakehips Johnson, and it was there that Louise Brooks introduced the Charleston dance to London in 1924. The Prince of Wales and Cole Porter were both 'regulars' there. After it re-opened, it featured Sinatra, Noel Coward and Marlene Dietrich amongst others. It is now a popular London establishment and has been used as a setting for several films including Absolute Beginners and The Krays. It also features a cabaret that has brought Burlesque back to the capitol. You can get a glimpse of the Café in the video for I Think We're Alone Now by the group Girls Aloud - different vibes, methinks.
For more about the Café De Paris click here. For more about the Café Anglais in Paris click here.
2012.2
This is not strictly a 'photographic memory', but just as good. Jim Lowe sent it to us saying: 'As an old 'traddie' I enjoyed the article on Johnny Bastable and would like to send the enclosed cartoon to June Bastable. I'm sure that she would remember the cartoonist Diz Disley. Keep swingin'. June was delighted to receive the cartoon. She says that she and Johnny had a copy somewhere, but did not know what had happened to it, she thinks it was 'from around 1959 when Ian and Mac were still in the band'. Jim also said that he would be happy for us to share it on What's New - so here it is. (Click here for our profile of banjo and guitar player Johnny Bastable if you missed it last month).
Diz Disley was a great cartoonist of course, as were a number of other jazz people, Wally Fawkes (Trog) and Al Fairweather to name but two. We are not aware whether there has ever been a printed collection of Dis Dizley's cartoons and would be pleased hear about it if you know. We are not sure either whether his cartoons are located in one place. We are sure that a published collection would be of interest to many people.
2012.1, 2011.12
Jamie Evans discovered these photographs in an old envelope in his desk and says:
'It was a great privilege to be asked to play piano in the band of drummer Lennie Hastings in 1973. Lennie had left the Alex Welsh band through ill health and decided to have a go with his own group.'
'The two pictures show the band in action at Hampton Court Jazz Club. The ensemble picture shows (from left): Martin Taylor (yes, the Martin Taylor aged 15) (guitar), Malcolm Everson (clarinet), Lennie himself, doing his Oo-yah routine, Chris Haskins (bass guitar), Nick Stevenson (trumpet) and Ron 
Brown (trombone). I am hidden behind Nick and Ron but can be seen in the other picture, resplendent with mutton chop whiskers.'
Guitarist Martin Taylor says: 'I just noticed that the two guys sitting in the front in this photo are my dad (wearing a blue jacket) and my uncle Steve sitting to his left. I'll email this photo to my mum, she will enjoy it.'
photographs © Jamie Evans
'The band got a great reception to start, but petered out after a few months as Lennie found it all a bit too much for him to organise. Sadly he died in 1978 at the early age of 53 and he was one of the finest percussionists I ever played with'.
2011.11
Mike Brocking sends this picture taken at the Bun Shop pub in Surbiton. Austin Hill ran the Bun Shop before he set up jazz at the Fighting Cocks with John Fowler. Mick Brocking was part of the scene and at the time was employed at Doug Dobells record shop in London, and got to know a lot of the musicians of that era. Correspondent Ron Drakeford adds that: 'Mike also started to learn the guitar being a Django Rhienhart fan, and by a mere coincidence purchased the 3rd prototype of the Palace Peacock 14 fret Macaferri replica (with original Selmar parts). Prototype 1 went to Pedlar White and prototype 2 was mine. I think we paid around £30 each for them at the time!'
Photo courtesy of Austin Hill
However, our information about the Bun Shop is limited, so perhaps you can help? We understand that the Bun Shop in Berrylands Road, Surbiton eventually changed its name to 'The Brave New World', but people still remember the Oven Club in the Bun Shop's back room (click here for a memory blog). It appears that a number of comedians played early gigs in their careers there too, including Lee Mack, Tim Vine and Jo Brand, and one person has written on another site saying that it was at the Bun Shop that they first saw George Melly.
So, is it you dancing in this photo? And who are the musicians ?
Chris Mitchell tells us that the trumpeter is Bill Brunskill who usually had Bob Dawbarn on trombone - 'looks like Bob from the angle of the trombone,' Chris says.
However, Mike Hogh thinks the trombone player is Jeremy French: 'I played there with Mike Peters' band, and Jeremy, who I believe lived locally, often came to sit in,' says Mike. 'One of the dancers looks a lot like the excellent pianist Johnny Parker, but I really don't think he was the dancing type ....!'
Mick Brocking has spoken to his friends Yvonne Fowler and Austin Hill and we thank them for the following memories:
'Yvonne says that she and her friend Sylvia went to the opening night of jazz at the Bun Shop, which was started by Ian Lichtenfeld (son of Lichtenfeld's Gents Outfitters in Eden Street, Kingston) and his cousin (?) Bernie Jackson. Sylvia lived in a cottage behind Lichtenfelds and Ian's father was her landlord. Yvonne was nervous because she was under-age and they had to go through a bar to get to the back room where the band was playing. This would have been circa 1950-51. Chairs were set out in rows (unlike in the picture). She remembers talking to Denny Coffey, the bass player and thinks that the band was the Christie Brothers Stompers.'
'Austin told me that he, Mick Atkins and Freddie Taylor had been friends since childhood. When called up, Austin and Fred served in the Army overseas but Mike was in the RAF at Hendon and was able to visit all the London Jazz Clubs. On de-mob (Austin in September 1952) Mick introduced them to the fellows running the Bun Shop who wanted out. So in early 1953 the three of them took over, Mick booking the bands. Austin recalls that entrance was half a crown (2s 6p) and that the Mick Mulligan (Magnolia?) band with George Melly charged £8.00 for their appearance. Several different bands played there. (Bill Brunskill is definitely in the picture (dated 1953-54) - Austin remembered some of the faces but not the names). But losses mounted up and in early 1954 they had to stop the sessions.. The three of them then started Jazz at the Fighting Cocks in Kingston (1954 onwards).
Freddie Taylor died some 15 years ago and Mick Atkins on Christmas Eve last year (2010). Austin Hill has lived in Wales for many years.'
'Also, re the notes - I think that we were out of touch at the time so what Ron Drakeford did not know was that my buying prototype 3 of the Palace Peacock 14 fret Maccaferri replica guitar (with original Selmer parts) was actually no coincidence!. Pedlar White, another good friend, was teaching me Django style guitar. Several times about 1970 he took me to see Alf Palace, a wonderful guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who lived up Kingston Hill. In 1948 Alf had won the Grimshaw Award, which was the top award for guitarists. At some stage he had suffered a very bad industrial accident which left him virtually unable to play, but, though in great pain, he would play one (brilliant!) guitar number for us whenever we saw him. He also painstakingly built the replica Maccaferris of which I think he only built four, keeping one for himself. I still cherish my Maccaferri - I also have Alf's vibes.
Incidentally I worked at Dobell's (every jazz fan is born within the sound of Dobell’s) in the early 1960s (great times!).'
2011.10
Ron Drakeford sends us this photograph of Pedlar White and John Bastable playing at Kingston Working Men's Club in the 1960s. Ron writes more about Pedlar in his story of jazz in Kingston-on-Thames (click here).
John played banjo with the Ken Colyer band from the summer of 1954 and took over the band when Ken retired from ill health in 1971, renaming it Johnny Bastable's Chosen Six.
Click here for our Profile of Johnny Bastable.
2011.9
Banjo player Don Coe who writes below about Bill Brunskill's band has sent us this picture of Brian Taylor's Jazz Band playing a session at the Cy Laurie Club one evening in about 1960.
The line up is: Cyril Keefer, clarinet, Brian Taylor, trumpet, Jim Sheppard, trombone, Harry Sowden, bass, Ken Pring drums and Don Coe, banjo.
2011.8
Pianist Jamie Evans has dug into his mouldering archive for this picture of the Alan Cooper Trio in action at the Plough, Clapham Junction, south London, in 1993.
Jamie says: 'Sitting in with the band on that night was Lol Coxhill on straight soprano sax while Coops is on clarinet, Jamie on piano and peeking through the middle in his characteristic straw hat was Ian Howarth (drums).'
'Lol turned up at the Plough quite a few times and his avant garde playing made an unexpectedly pleasing combination with Coops' more traditional approach.'
The Trio played at the Plough for one and sometimes two nights a week for four years (1990-94) but the pub was recently demolished to make way for the inevitable block of flats.
Does anyone else remember The Plough?
Mel Henry remembers does ...:
'I often used to sit in there as it was always an enormous pleasure to play with Alan. The place seemed to attract wierd musos of quite varied styles. I remember particularly the jazz cello playing of an American guy, Stanley Adler, who later went on to run a successful kletzmer group. Jamie Evans runs the Alan Cooper website at alancooper.wetpaint.com. '
2011.7
Dave Bowen sends us this picture of a session at Merlin's Cave. He is not sure of the picture's origin, but says: 'It gives a very good impression of the atmosphere of the Merlin's Cave sessions in the 70s. With Wally Fawkes, John Chilton and Bruce Turner (at the microphone). I believe it has Geoff Kemp on bass and it looks like Eddie Taylor on drums. The pianist is clearly obscured!'
Click here for our page on Merlin's Cave.
2011.6
Jamie Evans also sent us this picture of jazz at The Kensington pub in London and says: 'This picture is a little the worse for wear 
having been pinned to bulletin boards in our house over the years.'
'The Kensington pub in west London was a great centre for jazz and pub rock in the 60s and 70s and the picture (taken in 1969) shows the Ted Wood band which played there on Friday nights. In the foreground, pint at hand, is pianist Jamie Evans and the line-up behind is Terry Thomson (tenor sax), Geoff "Fatty" Brown (trumpet), Malcolm Everson (baritone sax) and Ted himself (vocals).
The late Martin Drew did some of the percussion work with the band but sadly, the picturedmusicians apart from myself (as of April 2011) have all passed away now. Sandy Brown used to play at the pub as a soloist with a rhythm section and Kilburn and the HighRoads, Ian Dury's outfit, was also one of the pub rock outfits that did the Kensington in its hey-day.'
Mike Hogh tells us that The Kensington Arms was run by Jim Delaney who used to be the landlord at the Tally Ho! 'Willie Garnett and I had a short residency there with Geoff Brown's band,' says Mike.
2011.5
Richard Nelson sent us this picture taken at Gerry Salisbury's 80th birthday gig at Lakeside Jazz Club in 2009. Richard says:
'Jimmy Hastings is on saxophone, Simon Nelson on cornet beside him, Gerry playing cornet, Phil Brooke on guitar and on drums Mr Bob Doré, a great buddy of Gerry's. On bass was our Latvian wonder, Mr Ivars Galenieks.'
'The story behind the gig is that Gerry and Jimmy had last played together many years earlier when Gerry fell ill on stage. Jimmy, who had been through it himself, recognised the onset of a heart attack and called the ambulance. On his birthday, Gerry quipped that he hoped for better luck this time! The usually sartorially elegant Mr Hastings had left all his gig clothes at home and went on stage in his stripy tee shirt.
The young cornetist is my son Simon, Gerry's pupil and biggest fan. Simon has his own band "DixieMix" and Gerry is very proud that Simon has been asked to join a new band called "The Stars of British Jazz"which includes John Benson, Colin Wood and John Crocker amongst others.'
2011.4
Jamie Evans sent us two old newspaper cuttings from 1961.
The first is of the Temperance Seven. Hand-written notes on the cuttings say: 'Benny Cohen (cornet) was depping for Cephas (Howard, trumpet). This was an ITV television show in the Spring/Summer of 1961.
Evidently Paul (McDowell) had not yet walked on to deliver the vocal refrain.'
The second shows Alan Cooper of the Temperance Seven (left) chatting with fellow clarinetist Sandy Brown at the E.M.I. Christmas party in 1961.
The hand-written notes tell us: 'Coop was voted the U.K.'s No 1 clarinetist - Acker Bilk won it in 1962'.
Click here for Jamie's site Alan Cooper Remembered.
2011.3
Here's a great, informal photograph taken by Mike O'Sullivan. Mike says:
'I took this picture of Marshall Royal and Clark Terry at the Nice Jazz Festival in the 1980s, when it was still a proper jazz festival. This was taken next to the Dance Stage at Cimiez.'
2011.2
John Capes sent us this picture taken on a Sunday circa 1965 at Cook's Ferry Inn. John says: 'I did not note the date. The band led by Freddy Randall on trumpet was a pick up group with Lenny Felix piano, George Chisholm trombone, Ian Wheeler (I think) clarinet and Tony Allen drums. They played for a couple of hours that Sunday lunchtime. It looks like night but that is because all curtains were closed and the band was lit with red lighting making it like a darkroom.'
Tony Cash clarifies the question of the clarinet player: 'The Cook's Ferry Inn photo is intriguing: the bearded clarinetist is almost 
certainly my old, much lamented, friend, Alan Cooper. I didn't know that he'd played with Randall. In 1956, Alan was studying at the Royal College of Art, so any London gig was feasible.'
Gerry Salisbury also sent us this photograph taken at his club in Norfolk some years ago. Gerry says: 'The people in the picture with me are pianist John Bunch who has played with everybody, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman and so many others, and my very good friend drummer Bob Dore.'
'I remember my first meeting with John Bunch, I was playing at a village hall in Norfolk with a rock and roll band on bass guitar with Bob Dore on drums and Johnny Wiltshire on guitar, Johnny used to have a group called Johnny Wiltshire and The Trebletones in the 60s and I joined him in about '62. We were with Cliff and the Shadows touring and accompanying artists like The Vernons Girls, and Frank Ifield and Sunday concerts with Adam Faith. Bob Dore has been a rock drummer, big band, and is a 'take-no-prisoners' jazz drummer who swings like nobody's business. I was playing with this rock and roll band and in the interval somebody came up to me and said: 'Have you heard of a guy called John Bunch?' I said: 'Yes, he's a great piano player', and he said: He's just over here'. I got very excited and said: 'Where?', so the fellow introduced me and he was the most charming man you could meet. His wife is editor of Vogue and her father who lived just round the corner had died and left her a big cottage, so I asked him if he would play at my Jazz club and he said, yes he would do it for £100, and the club was packed to the gills. He said he was doing Ronnie's a few nights later.'
John Bunch was born in Indiana in 1921 and died in March last year (click here to sample John's playing from his album John Bunch Solo; click here for more information about him, and click here for an interview with John).
2011.1
Vikki Horder sent us this signed programme from an Eddie Condon concert. Vikki says: 'I can remember seeing Eddie Condon at the De Montfort Hall, Leicester. In those days there were a few rows of seating on the stage and we always used to try and get them.'
'Humphrey Lyttelton was supporting band that evening, we usually met them for a dri
nk afterwards and he introduced me to Eddie. He was funny and made me laugh, he reminded me of James Cagney!! Bruce Turner took a photo of us (three other friends) with all the Eddie Condon band, but I never saw the finished article.'
Vikki Horder's photographic memory reminded Alastair Clark in Scotland of the time Eddie went there during the same tour:
'During that tour, the Condon band played the Usher Hall in Edinburgh. The only man missing from the line-up on stage was Mr E. Condon. It turned out later that Eddie had been inveigled to the bar at the Edinburgh Press Club that night by none other than our local esteemed drummer and journalist, George Crockett, who took the opportunity to introduce Eddie to some of the fine malt whiskies he might have missed. The band played on while Eddie went through an array of Scotches. Actually, he did finally show up and sat in for a few numbers. For just a short while after that, George was not our favourite person, and went into hiding.'
2010.12
This photograph, taken at the Aberdeen Beach Ballroom in the 1950s, was sent to us by Sandy Pringle.
Sandy says: 'It poses a problem as I cannot remember the names of the musicians! Perhaps someone will recognise them? '
Gerry Salisbury tells us that the trombone player is Geoff Sowdon and the trumpet player, Alan Wickham. Although the clarinet player looks familiar, Gerry can't quite place him.
Alan Wickham says that the clarinet player is Dave Shepherd and the photo was taken in 1951 and was printed in the Melody Maker magazine. It was the Joe Daniels band with Jeff (?), Norman Long on piano and Joe Daniels. This was the front line doing the last chorus.
2010.11
This Photographic Memory is not a photograph but a copy of a flyer from Steve Fletcher for the Cy Laurie Jazz Club in 1956. Steve says: 'I have lots of memories of the Cy Laurie club. I spent so many evenings there that eventually the manager gave me a job on the door.'
You can see that in 1956 jazz was on the menu every day of the week from 7.15 pm to 10.45 pm and if you were a member you could get in for 3/- (was that 30p?). We shall be featuring the Cy Laurie club in a future article and so would be pleased to hear from anyone else who remembers it.
(Click here for our page on the Cy Laurie Jazz Club)
2010.10
A few of years ago, we featured two items about jazz and folk (click here). Discussing how some jazz musicians also performed in folk groups, Alex Balmforth sent us this picture of Alan Lomax and the Ramblers with Bruce Turner and Jim Bray.
Back Row: Alan Lomax, Bruce Turner, Jim Bray, Brian Daly.
Front Row: Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl, Shirley Collins.
Chris Duff has come across the photograph and writes:
'Regarding the photograph of Alan Lomax and The Ramblers sent to you by my friend, Alex Balmforth, I forwarded the page with the photograph to a good friend of mine in the folk world who knows Shirley Collins well and to my knowledge, has presented her in folk clubs since the 1960s. He tells me he has seen the photo before and can confirm the line-up as Alex states. He is going to forward the page to Shirley to see if she has any comments to make'.
'Sandy Brown was one of my favourite clarinettists. I saw and heard him many times in the '60s and early '70s with Al Fairweather and also as a guest musician. I was involved with the Sussex Jazz Society during much of this time as editor of the monthly newsletter and taking the money at the door at the Fox and Hounds, Haywards Heath, the SJS "headquarters". Sandy came down from London many times to play with Mike Collier and the resident Fourteen Foot Band. Without exception, he played to a full house.
Those were the days!'
2010.9
Our thanks to Bunny Austin for this picture of drummer Harry Miller and Joe Harriott standing at the entrance to Cooks Ferry Inn from the car park. The date is somewhere around 1966. Does anyone have information about this Harry Miller? According to John Chilton's records there was another Harry Miller who played bass and cello and who worked with Mike Westbrook, Stan Tracey and many others.
Legendary saxophonist Joe Harriott came to Britain in 1951 from Jamaica, and fortunately for us, decided to stay. Click here for more information about Joe. Click here to sample Joe's album Killer Joe.
2010.8
Not strictly a photograph, but Roger Trobridge sent us a poster advertising a gig for the Sandy Brown band at Sheffield University. The poster was designed by Harry Kroto. Roger says: 'Harry has a Nobel prize for chemistry but he was always a graphic artist. This poster dates from our time at Sheffield University in the early 1960s.' Harry has the poster hanging in his living room and recalls that he never actually went to the gig: 'I guess someone who was into jazz at Sheffield knew I did posters for Arrows, the University Magazine, and must have asked me to do it. It must have been around 1962-63'.
The poster is typical of a time when the year never seems to have been included in the date. It reflects how popular jazz was on the University campuses, how entry fees were advertised in shillings and pence, and it also shows how the saxophone had become the instrument that signified 'jazz', (Sandy Brown of course was a clarinet player).
I am sure that our semiologist readers will have an answer for this?
2010.7
Trumpeter Bunny Austin sent in this photographic memory and says:
'This picture was taken in the late 1950s when pianist Ron Weedon was married. Matt Monro was a guest and sang with our quartet which included George Cox, a very fine pianist. One of the guests had a reel-to-reel tape recorder and taped Matt singing with the band - someone has a collector's item!'
L-R: Matt Monro, Mr & Mrs Weedon, Bunny Austin
2010.6
Bunny Austin also sent us this photographic memory from circa 1964. Taken at the Rugby Club near the Cooks Ferry Inn Jazz Club, Edmonton, North London, the names of the players are all shown on the picture. Bunny says: 'This was actually the drummer Harry Miller's band, Harry was formerly with Freddy Randall, but in this photograph Colin Bowden is on drums. The alto player, Jack Jacobs, was in fact an Air Commodore.' Photo © Bunny Austin
2010.5
Sandy Pringle has sent us another picture, this time of Joe Daniels' Hot Shots. Sandy says: 'I was very interested to see that thephoto of Sid Phillips brought back some memories for some people. Gerry Salisbury mentioned the Joe Daniels Hot Shots so I thought he might like to see this photo of Joe Daniels at the Aberdeen Beach Ballroom.'
Drummer Joe Daniels was born in South Africa in 1908. His musical career began in the early 1920s and by the 1930s he was recording and broadcasting with his band the Hot Shots. After the Second World War he continued to play in various groups and made more recordings, sometimes under the name of Joe Daniels Jazz Group which included musicians such as Dave Shepherd, Don Lusher, Tony Coe and Vic Ash (click here for record reviews) and Washboard Joe and the Scrubbers. Joe died in 2003.
(Click here for more about Joe).
Photo © Sandy Pringle
2010.4
Sandy Pringle has sent us this photograph of Freddy Randall marching his band's front line round the Aberdeen Beach Ballroom in the 1950s playing 'The Saints'.
Freddy was born in Clapton, East London in 1921. He taught himself to play trumpet and never learned to read music but he became a significant player in the traditional jazz scene.
He retired in 1958, but returned to playing in 1963, and again in 1972 working with clarinettist Dave Shepherd. Freddy died in 1999. (Click here for more about Freddy).
Photo © Sandy Pringle
2010.3
Sandy Pringle sent us this picture of Sid Phillips also playing at Aberdeen's Beach Ballroom in the 1950s. I
sador Simon 'Sid' Phillips was born in London in 1907. He played and arranged for Bert Ambrose's Orchestra, formed his own quartet in 1946 and led a band from 1949 that included at various times George Shearing, Colin Bailey, Tommy Whittle and Kenny Ball. Sid died in 1973. There is a video (see below) of Sid Phillips and his band playing 'I Found A New Baby' in 1955 and said: 'Kenny Ball is the trumpet player on the video but who are the others?'
Dave Keir writes: 'I did a short spell with the Sid Phillips band during Kenny Ball's time and if I remember correctly, the trombonist before me was Norman Cave and the two sax players were Cyril Glover (alto sax) and George Bayton (tenor). Alma Cogan was the female vocalist and her husband of the time was on drums, but I do not remember the names of the rhythm section players.'
Gerry Salisbury concurs: 'The trombone player in the video clip with Kenny is Norman Cave. He played with Freddy Randall and there was an argument with the result that every member of the band left en masse and Norman formed a band with myself playing Freddy's part. I did two weeks at the Theatre Royal, Dublin with that band. The other picture at the Beach Ballroom has another old mate of mine on trumpet, Alan Whickham, and I would love to know if he is still with us, we had a mutual admiration for each other . He was a very loud player and liked a little drink and when he was on form he was unbeatable - and before I forget it, he played with Joe Daniels Hotshots.'
Norman Simpson adds: 'On the identity of the musos on Sid Phillips's "I've Found A New Baby" .. if the recording date is indeed 1955, the front line is: Kenny Ball, Norman Cave (trombone) - after his first spell with Sid, Kenny joined Norman Cave's band, but Kenny rejoined Sid in November '54 taking Cave with him, and both were with Sid throught 1955 - Cy Glover (alto sax), Frank Freeman (tenor sax) - both reed players were with Sid for most of 1955. The rhythm section are, like all good rhythm sections, invisible.'
In February 2012, Su Oliver wrote saying: 'Just looking at your photo I can confirm it's definitely George Bayton on sax - he was my Uncle & passed away in 2004. His wife Kay also sang with the band - as Kay McKinley. Sadly my Aunt died last week but I'm finding out lots by looking through her paperwork.'
Photo © Sandy Pringle
2010.2
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