The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #106399   Message #3683779
Posted By: Will Fly
09-Dec-14 - 03:55 AM
Thread Name: Long-time british jazz musicians
Subject: RE: Long-time british jazz musicians
Good to hear that jazz is alive and well here and there, and sounds like you had a great night, Al. New Orleans in style, I would guess from the name of the band. Out of interest, what was the average audience age like? I haven't been to much jazz in the last few years but, when I did, the audience was mostly (like me) grey-haired and definitely on the pensioner age of the spectrum!

My jazz band days were back in Brighton in the late '70s/early '80s, when there was a flourishing scene down here. Our band played with a number of the people mentioned in this thread - Humph, George Chisholm and, on many occasions, Nat Gonella. Nat's brother, Peter lived in Hove and used to drive over to bring Nat over from his home in Portsmouth to hear our band at the old Adur pub in Hove lagoon - Sunday lunchtime session. Nat couldn't play trumpet then - his lip had gone - but he was still an engaging singer - and a highly rated player in his day.

The scene is not what it was, but there's a flourishing "jazz manouche" gypsy-style jazz scene here now - plenty of good, young players.