‘I can still hear those twenty minutes of music forty years later’
“I was a military brat, having moved 18 times before my 21st birthday. But during one of our longer stays in Washington DC, my parents took my younger sister and I to see Dorothy Donegan at the Blues Alley in Georgetown. She led a trio and the venue wasn’t large. It was my first time in a night club, and I felt very grown up for an eleven-year-old. We got to meet Dorothy briefly between sets, and I remember her being very kind to a child who had enjoyed her music.
She started her set with When the Saints Go Marching In, but the centrepiece was a long jazz take on The Lady is a Tramp. I can still hear those twenty minutes of music forty years later. We got home after midnight, and Mom was not going to let us off school the next day. I flunked my math test, but it was worth it. Both my parents are in their early 80s and still love jazz music.” - Fabrisse ter Brugghe
‘The atmosphere was jumping’
“I was lucky enough to see Miles Davis closing the 1988 Banlieues Bleus jazz festival in Saint-Denis under a marquee erected on a square in the town centre. The atmosphere was jumping, the crowd and band enthusiastic and it was a memorable concert, one that stays with me to this day. I wasn’t living in Saint-Denis at the time but my then girlfriend, now wife, sounded me out about the concert and got tickets.
I’ve been an avid Miles Davis fan since the late 1960s, when I first heard Miles Runs the Voodoo Down. It blew me away. My favourite album would have to be Kind of Blue by Miles, though Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Frank Zappa’s jazz trilogy would run it close.”I was also lucky to be present at Miles’s last ever concert in the UK at the Festival Hall in July 1991.” - Steve Parry
‘Don’t play the drums, play the music and make it swing’
“I thank my parents for introducing me to the world of music. I grew up listening to music of Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson and Art Blakey on my cassette tapes and drumming along in my bedroom. Oscar Peterson’s Starportrait is my favourite jazz album. I studied classical percussion at The Royal Northern College of Music, but I loved my drum set even more and wanted to absorb and learn more about the world of jazz.
Whilst at college I was lucky to spend a week with Ed Thigpen of the The Oscar Peterson Trio, who came as a visiting tutor in jazz. I got to look after Ed for the week at our halls of residence, chatting and drinking red wine in his room. My favourite story was Ed telling me about his first encounter with the great Ella Fitzgerald. She said to him; “ I don’t care if you can play the drums, I care if you can play the music” She asked Ed to put his sticks down and made him sing all of Bye Bye Blackbird. He sang the song and played lightly over his drums using only his hands, to which Ella said; “thats perfect now you can play your drums.”
He also showed me some cool brush tricks and we listened to some albums in his room. It was because of Ed I stuck college out, as I wasn’t really enjoying the classical world. He said; “ Joe, not many kids get to be as privileged as you at a place like this so make the most of it.” Which of course I did. If it wasn’t for Ed Thigpen I wouldn’t have become the jazz drummer I am today.” - Joe ‘JC’ Caddy
‘I regret not having the bottle to say hello’
“As a 16-year-old in the late 1960s I used to frequent local jazz clubs with my mother and father. A special treat after trips to Manchester’s Free Trades Hall to see the likes of the Adderleys, Count Basie, John Dankworth and Dave Brubeck was to visit Club 43. I saw several members of the various big bands, but also in the late 1960s a gig by my hero, the saxophonist Johnny Griffin.
We got in early and so grabbed a front row table, just feet from the tiny bandstand. I recall being blown away by the set. It must have been obvious to Griffin that I was really into his music. Eventually he took five and, grabbing a glass with several fingers of bourbon, plonked himself down at our table. I immediately froze and spent a very long five bars in abject terror, willing that he both did and didn’t say anything to me. To this day I regret not having the bottle to say hello and pass on my regard for his music.
My mother is still alive, but my father sadly passed away. At his funeral my brother put together a great CD. We went in to Ella Fitzgerald singing Lucky Old So and So. He went into the fire with Sinatra’s Young at Heart playing and we all left the service to Count Basie’s Splanky.” - Neil Wellman
‘I had no idea that an off-tempo 13th was an act of radicalism’
“At St. Louis University High School American Literature was a mandatory class for juniors. I had grown a little frustrated with our reading, often feeling behind other students who offered much better criticism and understanding than I could. For our final project I asked my teacher Steve Missey if I could do something creative that helped define or shape American literature. While I suggested rock n’ roll, he instead turned me toward jazz.
As a student passionate about social justice, I felt unsure of a genre I often associated with stuffiness and old people. However, as I began my research, I discovered a world of political dissent in the form of music. I had no idea that playing an off-tempo 13th could be an act of radicalism challenging the powers-that-be. Thelonious Monk had an incredible ability to play piano in a way others couldn’t, hitting the 13th, 15th, and sometimes 17th notes. Hitting those notes demonstrated a few things; his ability, his creativity, and his rejection of musical standards he felt white producers tried to place on artists of colour. Studying and listening to jazz opened me to aspects of American history that I would have never encountered otherwise.” - Ken Homan
‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’
“My parents always exposed us kids to all kinds of music, but my favorite has always been jazz. I loved the music of Vince Girardi. Through A Charlie Brown Christmas children like me were exposed to “new” jazz. Then I discovered the first lady of jazz, Ella Fitzgerald. My Grandfather gave me a cassette recorder with tapes including Ella, Louis Armstrong and others. I’ve been helplessly hooked ever since!” - Julie C. Morris
‘You had to marvel at his energy and sheer inventiveness’
“I met Joe Albany in his room at a central London hotel in 1973. A jazz-loving friend had asked me to take photographs while he wrote about Joe for an Irish news magazine. He was clearly in awe of the pianist, but I’m ashamed to confess I’d never heard of Joe at that point. Joe was trying to make a comeback after years of drug and alcohol abuse. He boarded a flight to England in December 1972 with no work permit or means of support. He couldn’t do “proper” gigs, but stayed to do some undercover gigs at pubs in Kent, and later went on to Copenhagen. You had to marvel at his energy and sheer inventiveness. At our London meeting he did play a little on the grand piano in his room. He was friendly, but I sensed something muted and sad about him.” - Richard Derwent
‘Who knew that early country music was a key influence?’
“I interviewed Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley for local radio at the Bristol Jazz and Blues Festival on 19 March. They not only performed but also gave masterclass workshops that were incredibly special. People of all abilities were able to learn more technique from these great masters of jazz, funk and blues music. They were very easy to talk to especially when we talked about how important the workshops would be to get locals feeling connected to the music, to share their love in this direct way.
My fondest memory is when they told us where they thought their music came from. Who would have known that early country music was a key influence? Passing their knowledge onto the local community here in Bristol, a world city full of diversity, felt like a privilege.” - Colin Moody
‘With the Hammond organ up front I was in heaven’
“My Dad introduced me to jazz. He loved the big band stuff; Harry James, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw but most of all Glenn Miller. What really opened my ears to jazz was an old Dudley Moore Trio LP he had on the legendary MFP label. Thus my jazz leanings were often keyboard led; Gene Harris, Ramsey Lewis, Monty Alexander and specifically organ, Jimmy McGriff as well as Brother Jack McDuff & Jimmy Smith.
My son lives in San Francisco, hence the trip to the atmospheric jazz club Club Deluxe on Haight. Playing were the Thursday B3 Band and with the Hammond organ up front I was in heaven!” - Nigel Westall
