| Status: | Active, open to new members |
| Leader: | |
| When: | On Wednesday afternoons 2:00 pm 2nd week of month |
Over time, we have concentrated on playing recorded jazz and now have established a significant database of items that Jazz Group members have enjoyed. Although this is our core activity, we also hold themed sessions, based around a recorded interview with or about a jazz artist. We have also watched jazz based DVDs, while we have occasionally had a live talk on jazz. Live jazz events in our area are also discussed.
The venue may change with each meeting, so check out the meetings page to find the venue for the next meeting. If you have favourite pieces of jazz on cassette or CD, then bring them along for other members to enjoy, and of course we always welcome new members.
Contact Group Leader Roy Burridge via the link above.
Jazz in the Afternoon – December 2025. Christmas will have gone when you read this but a sprinkling of Christmas music, among our personal favourites, with some surprises, gave us a splendid December session. Many jazz musicians have recorded their own versions of Christmas music. Carols; Popular songs; Film tunes; together with some exotic variations. We came up with a really good mix.
Beginning with a real rhythm & blues number, Charles Brown’s ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ was followed by Oscar Peterson playing his variations on ‘God Rest you Merry Gentlemen’. After this we had a good old oldy, Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters singing ‘Santa Claus is coming to Town’. Then we went to a jazz group that sometimes sounds as if it really wanted to be in a chamber orchestra, the superb MJQ or Modern Jazz Quartet. Their exquisite blend of piano, vibraphone, bass and drums, gave us ‘Variation No. 1 on God Rest you Merry Gentlemen’, so different from Oscar’s version. We heard 2 tunes from Diana Krall, ‘Let it Snow’ and ‘The Look of Love’, ‘Decks the Halls’ from Kenny
Ball, and Fats Waller’s piano solo, ‘Keepin’ out of Mischief Now’.
There have been many discussions about the origins of Jazz. Who started it? Where did it first appear? It does seem rather unlikely that Jazz was around in the 12th Century but we had a lovely Gregorian Chant from that era. OK, it wasn't jazz but it was so enjoyable and a complete contrast for us to listen to. ‘Hodie Christus Natus Est Magnificat’, as performed by the ‘Choeur Gregorien de Paris’. We continued the classical influence with Skip Martin’s ‘Swingin’ with Prince Igor’, a great adaptation of Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. Returning to our more usual fare, we had Natalie Cole singing ‘This will be an Everlasting Love, Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra’s ‘Christmas Night in Harlem’, Miles Davis's ‘Swingtime’, Tommy Dorsey’s Cocktails for Two’, and concluded with the Staple Singers‘ and ‘I’ll take you there’.
A lovely varied programme to end the year and may we say - ‘A Happy New Year’ to all our readers.
For our November Jazz in the Afternoon session, we decided to change the monthly theme forsomething completely different. This time we went back to the early days of jazz and enjoyed music from the 1920’s and the 1930’s. These two decades were the period when arguably, jazz went through it’s greatest development. In the very early twenties, jazz, which had developed in the American southern states, had a simplistic style but this rapidly changed. By the end of the thirties, much more sophisticated styles had been developed. Large bands, featuring 20 or more musicians, were popular and their influence spread, not only across North America but across the pond, particularly to France and Britain.
But to get back to our session. King Oliver and his ‘High Society Rag’ from 1923, got us going. Then we just had to have Louis Armstrong, one of Jazz’s all time greats. From his ‘Hot Five’ we heard ‘West End Blues’ and from one of his later groups, ‘Mack the Knife’. Bob (younger brother of Bing) Crosby and ‘South Rampart Street Parade’ from 1927 and the Dutch Swing College’s ‘Bad, Bad Leroy Brown’ were followed by Earl Hines piano with ‘A Monday Date’ and Roxy Music’s ‘Dance Away’. Ma Rainey, a great old time gospel and blues singer, sang ‘Chain Gang Blues’. We heard 2 numbers from Bunny Berrigan, ‘Blue Lou’ and ‘Jelly Roll Blues’ and Harry James gave us ‘Moten Swing’, honouring a very early jazz pioneer, Benny Moten. ‘At The Jazz Band Ball’ came from Bix Beiderbecke, followed by Meade Lux Lewis with his unmistakable ‘Honky Tonk Train Blues’. We again heard Earl Hines , as part of Louis’ Hot Five, playing ‘Fireworks’. The session finished with Charlie Barnet’s ‘Skyliner’, Lonnie Donegan’s Grand Coulee Dam’, Stephane Grappelli’s ‘Have you met Miss Jones’ and ‘Young and Beautiful’ from Roxy Music.
We look forward to next month when we expect some Christmassy jazz will be sprinkled among our special favourites.
Our October Jazz in the Afternoon meeting was held on a typical Autumn day and many of our musical selections reflected the weather outside.
We started with Billie Holiday’s, ‘Keeps on a Rainin’’ followed by Charlie Christian’s ‘Gone with What Wind’. Charlie sadly died when only 25 but is regarded as one of the most influential pioneers of jazz guitar and was a key figure in the development of Bebop and Cool Jazz. Louis Armstrong gave us ‘Blueberry Hill’ and then we had Andre Previn (Do you remember Andrew Preview in the Morecombe & Wise Show?), with ‘September in the Rain’. He'd recorded this tune at the age of only 17. ‘Misty’, recorded by many but this time from Duke Ellington, ‘River Stay away from my Door’ sung byJimmy Rushing backed by the Dave Brubeck quartet, ‘Flood Warning’ came from John Dankworth, and Ted Heath’s ‘Ill Wind’, all reminded us of Autumn.
We then heard ‘Orange Coloured Sky’ by Natalie Cole, ‘Lily was Here’ from Candy Dulfer and JoeWilliams singing the upbeat ‘Everyday’ backed by Count Basie's Orchestra.Our session ended with a cross Atlantic link, the Modern Jazz Quartet’s ‘Autumn in New York’ and‘Autumn in Rome’ from Peggy Lee. Another afternoon of great music.”
We meet on the second Wednesday of the month. Please contact Roy via the Group Leader link above.
Our monthly theme continued with "September" tunes including a selection of early Autumn pieces and other favourites. An appropriate start could only be, "September in the Rain’" We heard two versions of this, by the Dorsey brothers, Jimmy and Tommy and later on by the brilliant pianist, Dorothy Donegan. Dorothy is perhaps not very well known. She had had a classical training, like Andre Previn, and recorded and gave concerts of both jazz and classical music."September Song" proved to be a very popular choice and we had versions from The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Sammy Davis Jnr., June Christie with The Four Freshmen, backed by Stan Kenton and his orchestra and the extraordinary piano of Erroll Garner. We did indeed hear the same tune four times but each one was so different from the others and the comparisons were very interesting.
Autumn reminders continued with "Stealin’ Apples’" by Benny Goodman, a couple of Glenn Miller favourites, "Don’t sit under the Apple Tree’"and "Falling Leaves". Then came a couple of "Early Autumn" by Anita O’Day and The Don Lusher band. Don Lusher was a fabulous exponent and teacher of the trombone who took over the Ted Heath Band, after Ted sadly died. Mixed in with these we heard Nina Simone’s "I want a little sugar in my bowl" "Daybreak Serenade" from Jess Stacey followed by Frank Sinatra with the Count Basie orchestra, singing "Don’t worry ‘bout me’"
A couple of items from the earlier days of Jazz were Scott Joplin’s "The Chrysanthemum" (which after all, is an Autumn flower) and the immortal Bix Beiderbecke’s "At the Jazz Band Ball". Perry Como gave us his "Till the end of Time’"and we also heard Duke Ellington’s "Sophisticated Lady’"and Dave Brubeck’s beautiful "Laura". All in all, a session of 19 wonderful tunes, mixed in with tea, bickies and chat, giving us another very enjoyable afternoon of Jazz. What a great way to spend a couple of hours! We meet on the second Wednesday of the month. Please contact Roy via the Group Leader link above.
We returned for our August "Jazz in the Afternoon’" session , after taking a July summer break. Our theme this time was ‘The Moon’ and we found a surprising number of tunes with ‘Moon’ in the title. By the way, an August moon apparently has the name of a sturgeon moon or a red moon. Most monthly moon names seem to have originated with the Native Americans. As someone once said "Not a lot of people know that".
However, to set the afternoon’s "nighttime" music going, we chose not the moon, but "Round about Midnight’" by Wes Montgomery and his jazz guitar. This set just the right note for night time music. After that we had "The Moon was Yellow’" from Tubby Hayes and two very different versions of "How High the Moon’" from Stephane Grappelli and June Christie with the Stan Kenton orchestra. We followed this with "Moonlight in Vermont’" from Gerry Mulligan’s baritone sax and Chet Baker’s trumpet, "Paper Moon" sung by Nat King Cole’s daughter, Natalie, and then Roy Eldridge’s "Blue Moon’". Perhaps not usually thought of as a jazz performer, nevertheless Sting gave us his very jazzy "Moon over Bourbon Street", followed by Ella’s "Moon Ray", and before we had our break for tea and bickies, we heard Lionel Hampton with Benny Goodman’s orchestra and the lovely "Moon Glow".
.Suitably refreshed, we had Natalie’s Dad, singing "Beautiful Moons Ago’", and then two wonderful pianists, Bill Evans with "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" and Oscar Peterson’s "It’s only a Paper Moon".The afternoon continued with Dexter Gordon’s "The Moontrane", and of course, Glenn Miller’s "Moonlight Serenade". We still had more "Moon" tunes to listen to but 4 o’clock came round so we finished our visit to night time music with what often comes before morning, an "Orange Coloured Sky" hearing again from Natalie Cole. For our September session not surprisingly, we will have as our theme, "September".
We took a well deserved summer break in July but are eagerly looking forward to our August session,
when the 'Moon' will be our theme for the month. So if you are feeling a bit blue and want to shine, why not join us for a couple of hours of great music.
The musical theme chosen for our June meeting was "Summer / June" and of course, this produced a wide selection of great tunes.
Not wanting to wait any longer for Summer to arrive, we heard ‘Everybody loves the Summer’ by Roy Ayers, a couple of renderings of ‘Summertime’ from Sarah Vaughan and the MJQ, then Woody Herman’s ‘Summer Sequence’ and ‘The green leaves of Summer’ by Kenny Ball.
Inter-twined with the Summery tunes, we enjoyed Ella Fitzgerald’s ‘Miss Otis regrets’, The Propellor Heads backing Shirley Bassey’s ‘History Repeating’, the Lambert, Hendricks & Ross vocal trio with Count Basie Orchestra’s ‘Lil’ Darlin’, and June Christy with Stan Kenton and ‘Willow weep for me’.
We continued with Johnny Hodges and Charlie Parker’s ‘Funky Blues’, Herb Alpert’s ‘Rise’ and Lalo Schifrin’s ‘Mission Impossible’, one of the all-time great theme tunes. Then JAPT featured Nat King Cole on piano with ‘Bugle Call Rag’ and Manhattan Transfer gave us ‘Three Brothers’.
By the way, the MJQ were the ‘Modern Jazz Quartet’ and their music was usually very laid back, sometimes reminiscent of Chamber Music but always melodic and tuneful. The JATP was ‘Jazz at thePhilharmonic’. They were not a regular group but top class musicians brought together for recording sessions and special concerts. Did you know that Nat King Cole was first and foremost a superb jazz pianist before he came to fame and fortune as a singer ?
In July we are having a summer break but will meet again for our August session, when our theme will be the ‘Moon’. If jazz has passed you by, or if it could bring back happy memories, why not spend a couple of hours with our friendly group?
A full house on a warm day in May enjoyed jazz very loosely based around this Merry Month. As it proved almost impossible to find tracks specifically about May, a fair bit of lateral thinking was called upon and no doubt we all spent some time rummaging through our collections. Roy settled for tracks uniquely from an album by Billy May, including “Top hat, white tie and tails” and “Mayhem”, possibly the easiest option?
Whilst the rest of us had to think hard about May and what it means to us. Well, Spring of course! So, we listened to Gerry Mulligan’s “Spring is sprung”, Brubeck’s “Spring is here”, and the Kenny Clarke Quintet playing the Miles Davis number “Swing Spring”. A couple of versions of “Blue Skies”, one by Fritz Kreisler and the other by Frank Sinatra, and we’ve all appreciated plenty of blue sky this spring for sure, as Al Jolson sang in “All the clouds’ll roll away”!
Birds and butterflies are very much in evidence in our gardens right now, so Ruth Etting’s “My blackbirds are bluebirds now” and Diana Krall’s “Just like a butterfly that’s caught in the rain” were topical tracks. The fine weather has brought an explosion of verdant growth and colour, so we enjoyed Ella Fitzgerald singing “Mountain Greenery” and Johnny Cash with “Orange Blossom Special”.
In spring, a young man’s fancy turns to love, so of course we needed to hear Lionel Hampton sing “The man I love”. Other music included Amy Winehouse “You know I’m no good”; a couple of Lonnie Donegan numbers “Bring a little water Sylvie” and “Battle of New Orleans”, plus Scott Joplin “Original rags”. I was amazed to realise that it’s 14 year now since Amy Winehouse’s death – what a loss to music!
Thanks again to Christine for her hospitality. If you would like to join us for our next get together for a lovely afternoon of friendship and jazz, please contact Roy via the Link below.
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