| Leaders | Jackie Email84a; Piers Email84b |
| Day & Time | Tuesday Monthly - 3rd week 14.00 to 16.00 Doors Open 13:30 |
| Dates | Oct 20: Nov 24: Dec 15: Feb 16: Mar 16: Apr 20 |
| Venue | Shalford Village Hall (Main Hall) |
| Status | Active, open to new members |
October 20th - Sarah Spencer's Transatlantic Band
November 24th - Louisiana Rhythm Kings
December 15th - Martin Litton's All Stars
February 16th - The Forest Hill Owls
March 16th -
April 20th -
We enjoy six live concerts from professional musicians during the winter and spring terms, October to April, which is mainly Trad Jazz from the 1920s and 30s. They tell us about the pieces they are playing – and often anecdotes about the original bands. Details of which band is playing when will be added to this webpage when booked.
Note that the concert in November is on the fourth Tuesday (24th) and there is no concert in January.
Members of the group will be sent details and a booking form for the first three concerts in September. There is a charge of £6 per concert to cover the costs of the bands.
Our first concert of the year was the excellent and extremely entertaining Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Band. A new band for us, it consisted of Sarah Spencer (reeds, vocals - and slapstick), Magic Mike Henry (cornet), Rob Pearce (trombone), Colin Graham (sousaphone), Dickie White (banjo and vocals) and Graham Smith (drums). Between them they have years of experience playing in many different types of venue all over the world with some famous bands, and their style of music was mainly New Orleans. Sarah gave us some very amusing and insightful comments about the music they were playing.
They started off with the lively jazz version of Beautiful Ohio, followed by Alice Blue Gown (inspired by the blue dress worn by Alice, the daughter Teddy Roosevelt), then Dickie White was on banjo and vocals for the classic foot-tapping standard All the Girls Go Crazy By The Way I Walk, and the traditional New Orleans Bogalusa Strut. The set included a few numbers written by trumpet player Jabbo Smith (whose real name was Cladys, no wonder he changed it) a contemporary of Louis Armstrong - first the romantic tune Love and later the certainly less romantic, even raunchy, I Got the Stinger, and another which was first played impromptu at a concert on the Riviera and has no known formal written music or recording, the slow number A Million Dreams, with Sarah on vocals. Included were a couple of numbers by Cab Calloway, Sweet Jenny Lee and the fast paced A Chicken Ain’t Nothing But A Bird. In contrast Begonia, featuring Graham Smith on drums, had a definite creole/ Caribbean feel to it, and Magic Mike featured on the swing Kid Ory number, Careless Love, plus ragtime Climax Rag. To finish, a request When the Saints Go Marching In (adding that Preservation Hall now charge $20 a time for this piece) combined with an audience participation number Smokey Johnson’s It Ain’t my Fault, rounded off a super afternoon.