Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)

Subject: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Aug 11 - 05:19 PM

We don't have many threads on mainstream/trad jazz, but - if you're interested - I came across an album made in 1983 by the Brighton-based Jubilee Jazz Band. It was called "Making Tracks" and the line-up for the album was:

Paul Bonner (trumpet) - died just recently
Roy Leith (alto sax)
Sluff Hazel (tenor & baritone saxes)
Mike Collier (trombone) - died some years ago
Chris Gibb (double bass)
Ken White (drums) died some years ago
- and yours truly on tenor banjo & guitar

You can hear a sample of the album here. It wasn't, IMO, too bad an album for its era - but you can judge for yourselves. I wonder if there are many "territory" jazz bands like these still in existence these days... probably all old greybeards like me now if they are!

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 12 Aug 11 - 05:31 PM

Hi Will,

Enjoyed your band. Good 'ol standards.

We are the Ancient Jazz Quartet and we meet Mondays at 12:00 for a jam session.

Bill Rappaport: Clarinet (second chair, Atlanta Symphony)
Bill Rutan: Tenor banjo and guitar (IMHO one of the best in the country
L.A. Tuten: String bass
Me: Acoustic guitar

I have MP3 of our stuff but can't figure out how to download it for others
to hear it online or at Mudcat.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Aug 11 - 05:41 PM

Excellent - I'd love to hear your stuff.

Why not go to the Soundcloud site where I posted my tracks, sign up (it's free) and upload your mp3s? Shouldn't be too hard... ask for help if you need it.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Stringsinger
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 10:15 AM

Thanks Will. Good suggestion. I'll follow up.

I really love this earlier jazz and music from the 20's and early 30's.

I also like the be-bop with Parker, Monk but the warmth and friendliness of the
earlier African-American influenced music is comforting and fun.

It was my privilege to meet some of these older practitioners such as Zutty Singleton,
Big Jim Robinson, Johnny St. Cyr, Kid Ory and others.

Once I experienced them in a live setting, it changed my taste in music. I loved going to
the Louis Armstrong concerts in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium every year.

Louis, Jack T., Cozy Cole, Barney Bigard, Velma Middleton......always later Louis had an interracial band and this to me spells the beauty of jazz.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 10:27 AM

Monk was a genius. I must have played his "Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea" a hundred times and it still enthralls. The sparseness of the notes - lots of space for them to ring out.

I also love Jelly Roll Morton's stuff, as well as early Ellington... King Oliver's band on "Deep Henderson"...

You're a lucky man to have met some of those musicians. I had the privilege of playing with a few of the British jazzers - probably unknown to you - such as Humphrey Lyttelton, Danny Moss and George Chisholm, from time to time. And I once played - on a jazz weekend in Holland - with Bud Freeman.

I still play a little live jazz now and then - but nearly always in informal local sessions in pubs.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: paul vaughan
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 12:33 PM

Hi Will,
I remember the J.J.B from when my old dad ran the Fortune Of War in Brighton!
Sadly the old man has joined the "died some years ago" list.

I can tell you however that there is a jazz night every thursday in Newhaven at the Jolly Boatman where I have seen Roy Lieth performing.
I don't get down there much myself though I do like a bit of the old jazz now and then. It's not the prettiest looking pub in the world but they do excellent ales! (always Harveys and usually 3 or 4 guest ales) maybe you should check it out?

Regards

Paul.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 12:45 PM

Ah - so you're Wally's son? What a small world! The JJB did indeed play at the Fortunes of War on quite a few occasions.

Thanks for the heads-up on the Jolly Boatman - I'll check it out. :-)

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: paul vaughan
Date: 13 Aug 11 - 12:54 PM

You knew my dad? wow!!!
If you plan going to the Jolly Boatman pm me and I'll try and meet you for a pint or three (shift work allowing).
seeya soon!

Paul.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: paul vaughan
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 11:40 AM

I thought I would tag this onto this thread as it seems to fit the jazz theme and should get the attention of Will Fly!
I found this by following a link Will made on the Kid Ory thread. It's really just a mix of Trad Jazz and Bluegrass but it made me smile!!

   The Preservation Hall Jazz Band & The Del McCoury Band "I'll Fly Away"

p.s. Watch out for the dodgy vocals at the start! once you get past that things start swinging!

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 02:42 PM

Great stuff - thanks for posting, Paul! Just shows that great music is made by great musicians regardless of musical background, genre, age, style, etc., etc.

A good friend of mine (trombone player) went to see a mid-day concert in Preservation Hall in N.O. some years ago - the music was solidly old-fashioned N.O. style jazz - and got chatting to the players after the concert. The chat turned into a jaz session and, almost to a man, the old players were into people like Monk, Sonny Rollins and modern jazz - the Preservation Hall gig was a great paying act for them and the tourists, but didn't at all represent the music they actually played all the time.

My guess is that the Del McCoury musos would also fit well into a jazz environment, great players that they are.

It's heartening to know that music, and the sheer joy of playing it with other enthusiastic people, can cut across all boundaries.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Vic Smith
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 03:04 PM

Mike wrote:-
"I came across an album made in 1983 by the Brighton-based Jubilee Jazz Band..."

And I think that this is the album that was recorded (quite illegally) at the BBC studios in Marlborough Place, Brighton, I believe that Alan Kennington worked beside the BBC engineer that recorded it.
I know this because at the time Mike Collier, with Derek Stewart-Baxter, used to record the station's jazz programme and his regular studio time was just before Jim Marshall and I took over the studio to record the folk music programme.
When we arrived, their recording session had over-run and they needed another hour to finish things off. If they gave Jim and I the money, would we go down the pub for a hour and come back and record our programme an hour later?

We could and we did.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 03:16 PM

The Jubilee Jazz Band's "Making Tracks" album was actually recorded over 2-3 afternoons at the Fox & Hounds pub on the outskirts of Haywards Heath. In those days, pubs closed at 2.30pm and opened up again around 6.30 - which gave us around 4 hours of peace and quiet to get the 4-track Revox set up, all the mics plugged in and music to be made.

Mike Collier (the band's trombone player) had been a significant presence on the jazz scene in the 50s and 60s, and had done several radio broadcasts on national and local radio, as well as playing with a number of respectable jazz outfits.

Alan Kennington played bass with the JJB on several occasions, along with players like John McDonald, Dave Gibb and John Boyatt - but it was Dave Gibb on the "Making Tracks" album, and Alan wasn't involved in any way. I ran into Alan last year in Ditchling Village Hall, where he was playing bass mandola with a Brighton-based mandolin orchestra, and we had a good chat about the old days...

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Vic Smith
Date: 23 Nov 11 - 03:53 PM

So it must have been another album that was being recorded around that time at the BBC - but it does bring back memories of the Brighton jazz scene that I followed so closely in those days, much of it at The King & Queen just a stone's throw from the BBC studios, though I used to go to the Fox & Hounds sessions as well. Some great musicians - Benny Simkins and his sons Geoff & Pete. Somehow, I remember the drummers, John Muxlow who was so funny as well as so talented playing all the New Orleans/Chicago stuff, then there was Bill Polley who was.... not so good.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: GUEST,Jim Ward
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 07:36 AM

Alan Kennington can be seen (If you've got good eyesight), complete with bass on the front page of the current 'Folk Diary' in the photo of barn dance band, 'Kate's Kitchen Band'.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 07:44 AM

Us old jazzers can turn our hands to anything, you know.

I believe there are still one or two places in Brighton where jazz can be heard - but nothing like the 70s when places like the Adur in Hove Lagoon, or the King & Queen (both residences for the JJB), or the Bombay Bar and the Concorde had regular jazz bands and sessions. Memories of Bonny Manzi (Bonny's Chinese Jazz Club) come flooding back...

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: paul vaughan
Date: 24 Nov 11 - 11:15 AM

I always remember the night my old dad (Wally) booked the P.H.J.B. in the Fortune of War! Must have been 1982 I think. Hehehe what a night that was!

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: GUEST,shyirra white
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 03:17 PM

Hello my name is Shyirra White Dad was ken the drummer of the jubilee Jazz band and also the panama jazz band. As a young girl I used to go with him to the Adur pub on Sunday after noons and watch the band, along with other places I loved the band and had my Dads copy of the LP until last year when it was put on a bonfire by a spiteful ex. I remember all the band members and also on occasion Colin Farrel played with the band. I would like to know if possible if there is an album somewhere i can buy or any pictures of my Dad as they all went too.I also spent a lot of time at the Fortune of war and the Belvadere next door as my Dad and Mum (Sylvia ) worked there I remeber Wally and am sur Ive met Paul too and your sister Im afraid I dont remeber her name, There were the barmaids Julie and Rose I have very fond and happy memories of those pubs the beach and the band. Sadly my Dad died in 89 and I still miss him very much.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 03:22 PM

Hi Shyirra - I have my copy of the album "Making Tracks" that we made. It's slightly warped (a bit like me!) but I think I can salvage enough of it to make you a CD's worth.

Email me at: [e-mail] and I'll see what I can do.

In the meantime, you can hear some of what we did at:

Making Tracks (3 tracks)

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 04:05 PM

Hello Will,
Thats really kind of you thankyou, ive just listened to your 3 tracks I remember christopher columbus it was one of my favs that and davenport blues i was a bit upset it wasnt on the album or any of the songs my dad used to sing do you recall any of them, I remember him singing my very good friend the milkman and and aint misbehaving. Again thank you do you have any photos of the band you could email me? I had the argus clippings of you all on the volks railway.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 04:07 PM

Somewhere, in one folder or another, I have a whole set of photos taken of the band. I'll have a dig...!

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: GUEST,Shyirra
Date: 10 Dec 11 - 04:18 PM

That would be really great thank you so much you have really made my day .

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: GUEST,Paul Gordon
Date: 08 Jun 13 - 12:05 PM

Dear Shyirra,

I have just spotted your request. I have an LP of the Jubilee Jazz Band called Making Tracks still in its cover and in good condition.It has got some signatures of the band on it. I got it when I used to go to the Adur Pub on Sundays. You are quite welcome to it. My contact email address is [e-mail]. Contact me if you would like it and I will send it to you. Kind regards Paul Gordon

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: Will Fly
Date: 09 Jun 13 - 06:48 AM

Oddly enough, Jim Ward (who posted further up the thread) saw a copy of "Making Tracks" in a charity shop in Crawley some weeks ago - and got it for me!

My own copy has warped slightly over the years, so I've now got one that's totally playable.

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: GUEST,Paul Gordon
Date: 26 Dec 13 - 10:16 AM

Shyirra White [Daughter of Ken White the great drummer]has now received my copy of making tracks I sent her as a gift.I am pleased I have made somebodies day for them....

Subject: RE: Jubilee Jazz Band (Brighton)
From: GUEST,Aimee Macdonald
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 12:08 AM

HI,
Only just found this board. My father John Macdonald played with the Jubilee Jazz Band in 1984/85 at least. I saw them perform many times. I particularly loved Sunday lunch times in The Adur. He was also in the band who played at the Conservative Agents' Ball the night before the 12 October 1984 bombing. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who knew my Dad. Unfortunately we became estranged in 1985 and were never reconciled. I was sad to learn that he died in 2004.
Regards,
Aimee