Odds and ends...

Don Rendell remembers Denis Rose (late 1945-47)...interview Don Rendell on the London clubs... Don Rendell on the Johnny Dankworth Seven...interview Memories of Jimmy Deuchar...Ron Simmonds Denis Rose - after Club Eleven...Jazz Journal The new Tubby Hayes Quintet (1962)...heard live Dizzy Reece - An Introduction (1959)...Jazz Monthly Tommy Whittle - in conversation with Jazz Journal (1978) The humour of Ronnie Scott "these are the jokes"... Melody Maker readers poll results - late 1950s... Denis Rose in his own words interview Wally Wrightman on Cab Kaye and the Mandrake Club. Doug Dobell and the '77' record label British jazz history

Ron Simmonds on the big bands...interview The London jazz clubs c1955...notes Ronnie Scott's - early days at 39 Gerrard Street Ronnie Scott's - the move to 47 Frith Street Tubby Hayes...interview Tony Kinsey reminisces...interview Memories of Basil Kirchin...Mike Senn Ronnie Scott in 1963...interview Don Rendell - Early days...Jazz Monthly Bill Eyden - drum master Phil Seamen story Jimmy Deuchar...talking in 1985 The story of the Feldman Swing Club

Many sources have been plundered in preparing this website and will continue to be revisited as it expands. Acknowledgements are due to the following: Tom Lord's Jazz Discography ; Jazz Monthly and Jazz Journal magazines ; The Decca Book of Jazz (published by Frederick Muller in 1960, specifically the essential chapter by Tony Hall on "The Growth Of Modern Jazz in Britain") ; Jazz: The Essential Companion (published by Collins in 1987) ; Melody Maker ; Who's Who of British Jazz by John Chilton (published by Continuum 2004) ; The many sleeve notes and booklets authored by Brian Davis, particularly the booklet accompanying the Charly Record's 4 CD set "bebop in Britain" issued in 1991 ; The National Jazz Archive at Loughton Central Library ; Tony Middleton for his kind permission to include extracts from his booklets on the Kirchin Band, Johnny Claes, Tommy Sampson and his Orchestra and the Jazz Couriers ; The Festival Hall East Kirkby - Band Call 1950 to 1963 by Trevor Lee ;

The Jazz Services Ltd organisation has issued a new report The Value of Jazz in Britain which puts numbers and cash values on many of the activities involving jazz musicians and fans. The report was compiled by a team led by University of Westminster lecturer Mykaell Riley and freelance researcher Dave Laing. The full report is available for downloading from the website link above. Although some facts are now a couple of years out of date there are some interesting conclusions: The annual turnover of the jazz sector of the British music industry was almost £88 million in 2004-5... Sales of CDs through shops, websites and at gigs reached almost £40 million while ticket sales for jazz concerts and festivals were worth £22.5 million... It is estimated that there were over 45,000 jazz performances per year in the UK, an average of over 120 per day. The number of festivals has grown to 58 and these festivals are a major growth area... The report says that half of pub gigs were given free of charge or cost £5 or less to enter. A typical charge for a jazz club was between £5 and £7.50 while tickets for concerts in arts centres or concert halls typically cost between £7.50 and £10... Jazz received just £4 million per year in public funding and a much smaller amount from commercial sponsors... Much of consumer spending on jazz CDs in 2004 was devoted to re-issues and compilations. Of the 1000 or so releases of jazz titles each year, only between two and three hundred contained newly recorded music. Indepenent UK labels (many owned by musicians) issuing new recordings expect to sell from a few hundred to one or two thousand copies. Sales of CDs at gigs have become a valuable source of income for many musicians... Audience research shows that over 3 million UK adults had attended at least one jazz performance in the previous year with the core audience for jazz estimated to be about 500,000. This compares with a core audience of 400,000 for classical music... The report contains a profile of British jazz musicians in 2004-5. Musicians were largely male (86%) and white British (88%), but 80% of jazz vocalists were women. One third of musicians lived in the London area and a further 20% in South East England... About two-thirds described themselves as full-time musicians. The most important source of income was live performance fees (49%) followed by earnings from teaching (20%). In the live performance area main sources of work were jazz clubs, festivals, hotels and resaurants. However most musicians annual earnings were well below the national average wage of £26,000. Almost two-thirds said they earned less than £15,000 a year from music. Only 10% had annual earnings of more than £30,000...

The February 2007 issue of JAZZ in London lists over 600 jazz gigs scheduled to take place in the London area in the month of February. The policy of this listing mag is to exclude R&B, soul, rock and other fringe gigs and to concentrate on mainstream and modern jazz only. On this website our main area of interest is modern jazz from the 1940s through to the early 1960s and it is surprising how many names from that era are still "gigging". Among those listed to appear at jazz venues during February are the Tony Kinsey Quartet, Stan Tracey Trio and Quintet, and Tommy Whittle. An early ad for April lists the John Dankworth Seven. US celebrities include the McCoy Tyner Septet and a five piece led by drummer Ed Thigpen. A number of venues invite visiting musicians to "sit in" on certain nights. Jazz venues vary considerably and include bars, pubs, clubs, cafes, restaurants, libraries, sports clubs and even churches. Major venues include The Bulls Head (38 gigs in the month), Pizza Express Jazz Club (28), The Vortex (26), and 606 Club (30). JAZZ in London

Harry Hayes... For some timeI have been trying to track down recordings made in 1946/7 by the Harry Hayes band. I have heard of a CD entitled Harry Hayes and his Band Vol 2 1946/7 (Harry Hayes Musicals HH02CD) but have been unable to track it, (or Vol 1), down. Any help would be very much appreciated. Books... Joe Harriott: A couple of books have been written about Joe and give an insight into his life and music. JOE HARRIOTT: FIRE IN HIS SOUL by Alan Robertson (Northway) BASS LINES : A LIFE IN JAZZ by Coleridge Goode and Roger Cotterrell (Northway)

Daily Mail...September 5th, 2008... Research carried out at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland into the personalities of people who like different kinds of music, has discovered that jazz fans are "creative, outgoing, chilled out and have high self esteem". Professor Adrian North who led the study believes that fans of jazz and soul music "have the 'best' type of personality traits, showing all positive traits". "Jazz people transcend national boundaries, having more in common with another jazz fan in another continent than they would with a fan of a different musical style in their own country".

Tommy Pollard One of the musicians who made a great impression on other musicians at the birth of 'bop' in Britain was pianist Tommy Pollard. Not a lot is known about him, he died in 1960, but I have included what I know in the biography page of the website as well as a brief discography of his recorded work. Through this website I would like to ask anybody who knew him or perhaps played with him to contact me. I would also be grateful if anybody could let me hear the recordings he made that have not been re-issued on CD...

Esquire Records Esquire Records, a small independent company began recording British modern jazz in 1947 and through until 1955 they were the only record company to do so. They recorded all the major British musicians at this time in their formative playing years. These recordings are invaluable historical records. Very few have ever been re-issued on CD. In 1991 Charly Records issued a four CD set which covered the period to early 1952 and although more re-issues covering the later years were promised nothing ever appeared. Since the original recordings are now over 50 years old, and out of copyright, it is possible that they can be re-issued on CD subject to music copyright which lasts longer than 50 years. If anybody has old Esquire records that they would be willing to lend for this purpose please contact me, if we can find enough it should be possible for this music to be made available again...

This page was last updated during September, 2008.
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