SHARING A SWINGING LEGACY
DeMontfort Hall Leicester May 14 and
The Stables, Wavendon, May19
‘Sharing a legacy - a second generation of Swing’ is a 2-hour treat featuring Jan and Ray Jnr, who are visiting the UK with their Eberle Orchestra, and will perform many of the tunes their father made famous with the Glenn Miller Orchestra. The Big Band sound will be fused with rare footage, photos and personal stories of their famous father. Only two shows in the UK! An event not to be missed by Big Band lovers.
Sir JOHN DANKWORTH
Jazz composer, bandleader
and saxophonist
Sir John Dankworth, who died on February 6 aged 82, was a pioneer of modern jazz in Britain, a leading composer of film music. While he had once been seen as Britain’s answer to Charlie Parker, Dankworth came to think of himself as a composer rather than a soloist. A stylish alto saxophonist, he was a pioneer of the domestic modern jazz movement in the Fifties before establishing himself as a writer of film scores.
The theme tunes to The Avengers and Weekend World are two of many. The name Johnny Dankworth came to stand as an enduring symbol of British jazz in the eyes of the general public. Despite ill-health, he continued to perform in his twilight years. Viewers of Jools Holland’s Later programme witnessed a feisty studio performance from British jazz’s first couple last year, and at the London Jazz Festival concert at the Festival Hall, Dankworth gave a spirited display from a wheelchair.
He and his wife Cleo Laine, were champions of musical education and launched a
cultural programme based at their home at Wavendon, “The Stables” dedicated to bringing together musicians of all styles and cultures. Among the activities which he inaugurated in recent years were informal chats about music by him and an invited guest or two. He was appointed CBE in 1974 and received a knighthood in the 2006 New Year Honours. He is survived by Dame Cleo Laine and their two children, the double-bassist Alec Dankworth and the singer and actress Jacqui Dankworth.
In Remembrance of Sir John Dankworth
“Some weeks ago I visited John Dankworth as he was very keen to discuss artwork ideas for his new CD. I had been working for John and Cleo’s record label Qnote for a couple of years and determination and attention to detail from John was something I had often witnessed. These character traits, along with musical genius must have contributed to his long and prolific career as both composer and performer.
As I left the hospital room John was opening his laptop to make some adjustments to a few charts – I think he lived and breathed music right to the end.”
Sara Colman |
LATEST GIG UPDATES:
- Saturdays @ New Life Baptist Church, Kings Heath,
They have started holding free monthly Saturday Evenings Concerts at New Life Baptist Church, Kings Heath, B14 7JZ. They are not always jazz but on the 13 March 2010 Patsy Fuller (above) is performing. Doors open at 7.00 pm and there are refreshments. A retiring offering will be available.
 Kidderminster Library:
Fri 19th March, Kern/Porter night - Devon Harrision and Cormac Loane with the Simon Deeley Trio
7.30 pm £7/£6 01562 824500
- Scarlett Pimpernel, Harbourne in the round room on Saturday 13th March, Steve Gibbons Band (right)
- Thursday 25th March at Bearwood Corks Club it's one of the gigs of the year. Andy Hamilton's 92nd Birthday Party with special guest Art Themen. It will be wall to wall music, with Andy's band, The Blue Notes, plus the Tony Richards Trio
www.bearwoodjazz.co.uk- 0121 429 2091
- Sunday 21st March 3-6pm
THE JOHN DUNMORE JAZZ BAND (above) IN THE NEW ORLEANS STYLE @ THE CROWN. West Haddon. NN6 7AP
Ken Pye(tpt) Ron Radford(tbn) Mike Taylor(piano) Rachel Hayward (bjo) Glynn Murray(bass) Spud Speddings (dms)
FREE Tel. 01788 510381 www.louisianamusic.co.uk
- March 24th £8.00 8.30pm
New Orleans Heat at Jazz connection, Ryton 0n Dunsmore, Nr Coventry
- Burton Big Band
Wednesday 7th April - Henhurst Social Club, Burton 8.30 p.m.
- AMMENDMENT FROM MAGAZINE:
Pete Allen is the International Reeds Star who will be playing at George Huxley's Old Silhillians Jazz Club on Thursday 25th March and not Tim Allen as advertised in the magazine. It's at 8.30pm, £8 on the door, £7 for members.
- Wednesday 3rd March 7.30pm
Dinner & show bookings
Casey Greene & Laura Collins (right) Trio
Casey Greene - Sax/Flute/Clarinet
Laura Collins (right) - Voice
Paul Sawtell - Piano
Housmans, Church Stretton SY6 6BX
Bookings essential 01694 724441
Elegance and Swing, this trio presents their own interpretation of some of the great Jazz repertoire. A fresh approach with a virtuoso touch
www.caseygreene.com
- Friday 5th 8.00pm free
Casey Greene & Simon King
Casey Greene - Sax/Flute/Clarinet
Simon King - Guitar
White Lion , Bridgnorth WV16 4AB 01746763962
Two Jazz instumentalists that interweave with musical mastery
www.caseygreene.com
 Saturday 6th 8.00pm Free
Tom Hill (right) Jazz Trio
Tom Hill – Bass/Vocals
Phil Bond - Piano/Vocals
Anna Brooks - Sax
The Font, Ironbridge TF87AD 01952432216
Tom Hill – musician, singer and actor. A master musician with a spice of wit and charm that holds any audience
www.clarke-hill.com
- Saturday 13th 8.00pm free
John Fleming Jazz Quartet
John Fleming - Sax
Andy Bunting - Piano
Tim Thorton - Bass
Chris Draper - Drums
The Font, Ironbridge TF87AD 01952432216
Birminghams fresh new V-8 turbo-charged Jazz athletes . New faces with new ideas, these guys are in the fast lane soyou had better be quick to catch them .
www.myspace.com/johnflemingmusic
Saturday 27th 8.00pm £6.00 QUIVER (above)
Casey Greene - Sax/Flute
Angel - Vocals
Andrzej Baranek - Piano
Simon King - Guitar/Timbales
Tom Hill - Bass
Carl Hemmingsley - Drums
Eddie McGuire - Congas
Latin-Funk-Fusion Band, all original compositions in the style of Weather Report, Santana and Irekere.
www.quiver.org.uk
SAM BROWN
Sad news for West Midlands Jazz fans is that the great jazz pianist Sam Brown (photographed above by Russ Escritt) passed away on Monday 25th January in West Bromwich following a long period of illness.
Sam, whose real name was Ron Daley, arrived in England from his home in Jamaica during the 2nd World War and saw service with the RAF, an organisation that he maintained close links with. He eventually settled in Birmingham, where in 1949 he met the newly arrived fellow Jamaican Andy Hamilton.
Sam, known to friends at the time as “Big Boy” was over 6 foot tall with the build of a heavy weight boxer. He was not a regular musician, having just dabbled in playing organ, but he was a regular at dances where his great sense of rhythm and his huge hands caught Hamilton’s eye.
Andy persuaded Sam to take lessons from local musicians and he soon started to play the occasional session at dances and parties with Andy and the gold toothed Willie Rogers. By 1953 Sam had become a regular with Andy. They put together The Blue Notes and started to perform regularly in church and school halls across the city. It was at one of these gigs, at The Good Companions on Coventry Road, that Sam met his future wife Evelyn with whom he had two children.
Sam became Andy’s closest friend as they shared over 50 years of playing music together, Sam leading the rhythm section with his own unique style of playing drawing on Caribbean, gospel and blues influences. During the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s at venues such as St Johns Restaurant and The Tower Ballroom they organised hugely popular dances.
It was Sam Brown who Andy telephoned from his hospital bed in the late 1980’s to sing the melody of Silvershine, a song Hamilton wrote in the 1940’s for Errol Flynn which came back to him in a diabetic coma. Together they arranged the song which was to change their lives.
In 1990 Sam led the rhythm section on the internationally acclaimed debut album Silvershine, which took the band from Sundays at The White Swan in Aston and Accafess to top venues in Paris, Milan and St Lucia. Sam was also a central figure in the residencies at Dirty Betts, The Bear and The Drum where he accompanied some of the worlds greatest jazz musicians along with many complete novices for whom he always had a kind word of encouragement.
It became a regular delight at gigs to open the 2nd set with a “Sam Brown Blues”, starting with a long solo reflecting his mood of the day and almost always ending with a big smile to the audience.
Sam Brown, who was in his late 80’s will be terribly missed by his family and Andy, as well as the church community in West Bromwich where for many years he was warden and organist and the music community of Birmingham which has lost one of the key figures in its post war history.
As Andy often said,
“Nobody can play the Blues like Sam Brown”
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