Category Archives: Jubilee Jazz Band

Jubilee Jazz Band, Friday, 14th March 2014

We had the JUBILEE JAZZ BAND on Friday,14th March 2014 here at our Farnborough Jazz Club.   The guys in the band were KEN REESE (trumpet), BARRY PALSER (trombone), JOHN LEE (reeds), HUGH CROZIER (piano), GERRY INGRAMS (double bass), LYNN SAUNDERS (banjo) and DOUG HIGGINS (drums).   Hooray, the sun has come out and the rain has stopped, thank goodness.  Lovely to see the spring flowers out.  Wow, just think, it won’t be long before we have the hose pipe ban!  We enjoyed some great fun last Friday, particularly with Barry, who has a great sense of humour (even though he’s a Northerner – well, north of the Thames and he can’t help that, can he).  The tunes I picked to tell you about are not necessarily the best ones played, just those I managed to jot down.  Their repertoire began with ‘It’s a Sin to Tell a Lie’ and of course Barry sang it.  The next one John played clarinet, which sounded wonderful when they played ‘Mama’s Gone – Goodbye’, a great number.  ‘Blue, Turning Grey Over You’ was another lovely tune, to which John changed to playing tenor sax.  Then came an Earl Hines jazz favourite called ‘Rosetta’.  Hugh sang this one, with John still on tenor and both Ken and Barry playing with mutes.  They followed on with that beautiful Gershwin brothers number, called ‘S’Wonderful’.  The whole band were brilliant, especially some fabulous trumpet sounds from Ken.  ‘Is it True What They Say About’ brought on the line-dancing with 9 or 10 of us, all having a laugh.  I loved the next Cole Porter number called ‘Miss Otis Regrets’, Hugh sang it with John using again tenor.   There were a couple of requests to follow on.  One from Mike, called ‘Avalon’, again sung by Hugh, with plenty of dancing.  But the next number (requested by Gordon) brought practically everyone onto the dance floor and most singing along with Hugh.  This number was ‘Love Letters in the Sand’ (Pat Boone’s 5wk hit at No. 1 in 1957!)  Their closing signature tune was ‘I’ll See You in My Dreams’ sang by Barry ending the evening, once again a happy one.  So why not promise yourselves a treat, turn up and have a good time next Friday, with Laurie Chescoe’s Reunion Jazz Band.

Please support us and keep jazz ‘live’.

Diane and Keith

‘Avalon’ – (m&l) Al Jolson, Vincent Rose & Buddy DeSylva (1920)
‘Blue, Turning Grey Over You’ – (m) Fats Waller, (l) Andy Razaf (1929)
‘I’ll See You In My Dreams’ – (m) Isham Jones, (l) Gus Kahn (1924)
‘Is it True What They Say About Dixie’ – (m) Sammy Lerner, (l) Irving Caesar (1936)
‘It’s A Sin to Tell a Lie’ – Billy Mayhew (1936)
‘Love Letters in the Sand’ – (m) J Fred Coots, (l) Nick & Charles Kenny (1931)
‘Mama’s Gone, Goodbye’ – A J Piron & Peter Bocage (1924)
‘Miss Otis Regrets’ – Cole Porter (1934)
‘Rosetta’ – (m) Earl Hines, (l) Henri Woode (1933)
‘S Wonderful’ – (m) George Gershwin, (l) Ira Gershwin (1927)

Jubilee Jazz Band 25/10/2013

JUBILEE JAZZ BAND played for us on Friday, 25th October 2013 here at FARNBOROUGH JAZZ CLUB.   The guys in the band were KEN REESE (trumpet), BARRY PALSER (trombone), JOHN LEE (reeds), HUGH CROZIER (piano), GERRY INGRAMS (double bass) and DOUG HIGGINS (drums).  Many of our audience were missing, having gone away to a jazz weekend.  Fortunately, a few ‘not so regulars’ turned up.  Keith and I have often thought one day, you will all turn up together and we will have to turn some of you away – only joking!  The wonderful thing was we had a guest artist.  None-other than the lovely jazz singer, MARY WILKINSON.  We have known Mary for best part of twenty five years (her husband, Mick has played in a couple of bands with Keith, including Keith’s own band ‘The KGB’).  All the band were playing well and the first number I jotted down was Barry singing ‘I Can’t Believe that You’re In Love With Me’.  Next was a great ‘Bix’ Beiderbecke number called ‘From Monday On’, sung by Hugh.   Barry told us the next two numbers were known for different names.  ‘Apex Blues’ (a jaunty little number) was also known as ‘Wibbly Wobbly Blues’ and a number I just love, ‘Fidgety Feet’, was originally called ‘War Cloud’.  Don’t you just love Barry’s little extra bits of information?  Hugh had a feature on piano with a beautiful tune from the film ‘The Great Zeigfeld’ called ‘You’, he is a brilliant pianist.  Then Hugh sang a marvellous duet with Mary, with a Bessie Smith number called ‘Oh! Daddy Blues’.  Mary then sang with the band to the next number, ‘It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie’, (a song originally by Fats Waller, also of Billie Holiday).  Mary does sing a lot of Bessie Smith songs, so we all think of her voice being Bessie’s type, but Mary has her own unique voice and can sing any song beautifully (especially her cheeky songs too).    I filmed the next three numbers.  One, sung by Barry, was another ‘Bix’ number called ‘Louisiana’.  Mary sang a couple of great blues number called ‘Organ Grinder Blues’ (original singer Eva Taylor) and ‘Down Hearted Blues’.  It was great to have captured Mary’s singing on film, but I was disappointed you couldn’t see her too clearly, being too dark.  I have been too busy (as usual), but with a bit of luck, I will be purchasing ‘the real McCoy’ video camera, so hopefully will be able to put some good videos on this website.  Meanwhile, I can’t even send my films by email to the bands to check if they like them enough to allow them to be published here!  It seems they are too big to send!  Technology! Who’d have it?  Seriously, I will get it right soon, but here it comes, my usual remark- hmmm!  Well at least with technology, you can look up numbers on the internet, listen to them and remind yourselves.  I don’t know about you, but I cannot remember names of songs (jazz, or otherwise) until they start playing.  No! I’m not getting old!

Cheers.

Diane & Keith

‘I Can’t Believe that You’re In Love With Me’ – (m) Clarence Gaskill (l) Jimmy McHugh (1925)
‘From Monday On’ – (m) Harry Barris, (l) Bing Crosby (1928)
‘Apex Blues’ – (conflicting) Hoagy Carmichael, Sidney Arodin & Joe Poston OR Earl Hines & Jimmie Noone (1928)
‘Fidgety Feet’ – Nick LaRocca & Larry Shields (1919)
‘You’ – Walter Donaldson & Harold Adamson (1935)
‘Oh! Daddy Blues’ – Ed Herbert and William Russell (1921)
‘It’s A Sin To Tell A Lie’ – Billy Mayhew (1936 ‘All Of Me’ – Gerald Marks & Seymour Simons (1931)
‘Louisiana’ – (m) James Johnson, (l) Andy Razaf & Bob Schaefer (1928)
‘Organ Grinder Blues’ – Clarence Williams (1928)
‘Down Hearted Blues’ – (m) Lovie Austin, (l) Alberta Hunter (1922)