| 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 🎶 🎵 - August 2026
A selection of our own choices this month, produced some really unexpected music. Peggy Lee started us off with her great hit, ‘Fever’, virtually unaccompanied except for a double bass, drum and finger snaps. It may not sound much, written down like this but just listen to it. Oscar Peterson gave us ‘D&E’, a cryptic title by pianist John Lewis, of the MJQ. We then went to New Orleans to hear the type of music popular there nowadays. Quite different from the Trad Jazz style we’ve heard over the years. This was the Preservation Hall Jazz Band playing ‘August Nights’. Next came something very unusual for us, a variation on ‘Tea for Two’ by Dimitri Shostakovich which he called ‘Tahiti Trot’. This was played by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. No doubt it was this kind of western influenced music, (he also wrote a couple of ‘Jazz Suites’), which greatly upset the Soviet
authorities at various times during his life.
We returned to more usual fare with Ray Charles’ ‘You’ll never miss the Water’, a touch of Boogie
Woogie in Albert Ammons' ‘St. Louis Blues’ and June Christy with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, singing
‘Willow Weep for Me’. The Jacques Loussier Trio, famed for their jazz versions and improvisations of J.S.Bach’s works, gave us ‘Aria’, George Melly with John Chilton’s Feetwarmers sang ‘Anything Goes’ and the Dave Brubeck
Quartet played ‘Give a Little Whistle’.
Then came ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ from Antonio Carlos Jobim, with the vocal this time, not by Astrud
Gilberto but by Frank Sinatra. Nigel Kennedy turned to jazz with ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ and Bix Beiderbecke
played ‘Way Down Yonder in New Orleans’. We finished the session with Kenny Ball’s ‘The Green Leaves of Summer’, Erroll Garner’s ‘Skylark’ and Jan Garbarek’s ‘As Seen from Above’.
Jazz in the Afternoon - July 2026
This month we’d decided to bring along some of our personal favourites. These gave us a wide ranging selection, covering more than 100 years of jazz and therefore, many styles of jazz. We started with one of the earliest, from the 1920’s, Louis Armstrong’s ‘Potato Head Blues’. This is a real classic from Louis’ Hot Five and Hot Seven groups. Then Frank Wess gave us ‘Stelle by Starlight’. Frank was one of a small number of flute players in jazz. He played this in addition to tenor and alto saxes. At one stage he was a stalwart of the Basie Band and was also an arranger and composer.
Next, from his early days, was Cliff Richard’s ‘Up a Lazy River’ and then, unexpectedly, the London Symphony Orchestra, of all outfits, really let their hair down with ‘Baker Street’ a number originally performed by Gerry Rafferty in 1978. Those classical musicians can really turn it on when they want to. We had a couple of tunes from Jasmine Myra. Jasmine is a young composer, saxophonist and band leader. We heard ‘Opening’ and ‘Where Light Settles’ both being excellent examples of the work of this gifted, British musician.
Eva Cassidy gave us ‘Fields of Gold’ which we had heard Sting sing last month. An immediate contrast
was Muggsy Spanier’s ‘Sugar Foot Stomp’ and another contrast, Stan Kenton’s ‘Two Guitars’. When we each bring our own favourites, contrasts inevitably occur. So we continued with Mel Torme’s‘Too Close for Comfort’, Herb Alpert’s ‘Street Life’ and a group of jazz guitarists – unknown, playing ‘This Masquerade’.Johnny Mac, who as you may know, lives in Callington, gave us ‘False Hearted Lover’, Ahmed Jamal played ‘It’s the Good Life’ and Benny Goodman closed the session with ‘Jumpin’ at the Woodside’.
Jazz in the Afternoon – June 2026
June, and our theme this month had to be ‘Flowers’ which came with other beauties that the season offers. ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ from the piano of Earl Hines was the perfect start and was followed by ‘Swingin’ at the Daisy Chain’ by Count Basie. Never mind that Basie’s ‘Daisy Chain’ was a jazz club in Harlem, rather than a child’s string of flowers. Then a couple of vocals, Nancy Wilson’s ‘Days of Wine and Roses’ and Vince Hill’s ‘Edelweiss’', before Laura Mvula wandered into the ‘Green Garden’ where we enjoyed Chris Barber’s ‘Petite Fleur’.
Diana Krall offered a touch of reality with ‘Garden in the Rain’ so we were pleased when Richard Bennett’s New Orleans Jazz Band took us ‘Down among the Sheltering Palms’. Our floral theme continued with Woody Herman’s ‘Rose Room’. (Yes, another jazz venue, this one in a San Francisco hotel). We then ventured outside the garden with The MJQ’s ‘Willow weep for me’, Louis Armstrong’s ‘Jeepers Creepers’ and Sting’s ‘Fields of Gold’.
The local jazzman, John Surman, gave us a haunting ‘Glass Flower’. Then the mood changed as Courtney Pine’s ‘Butterfly’ flitted past and Cy Laurie’s Jazz Band played ‘Royal Garden Blues’. We heard another ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ from an early recording by Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller and finally Gerry Mulligan’s ‘Lullabyof the Leaves’ brought our session to a close.
Jazz in the Afternoon – May 2026
This month, our theme was ‘The Sea’. Not many jazz tunes seemed to feature this. But, our members ingenuity knowing no bounds and we finished up with a good selection of items connected in one way or another with the sea. We pushed off with Charlie Parker’s ‘Slow boat to China’ followed by the MJQ’s ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’. We then heard the very well known ‘Beyond the Sea’ by Walden Robert Cassotto, or Bobby Darin as he was better known and this was followed by the original version, Charles Trenet’s ‘La Mer’.
Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang played ‘Penn Beach Blues’ and Count Basie with Helen Humes gave us another version of ‘Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea’. Then we had Charlie Byrd and Ken Peplowski’s ‘The Girl from Ipanema’. Following this we heard ‘Over the Waves’ from Richard Bennett’s New Orleans Jazz Band and Duke Ellington’s ‘Chelsea Bridge’
‘There’s a boat dat’s leaving soon for New York’ came from Andre Previn, ‘North West Passage’ followed from Woody Herman and ‘Surf Ride’ from Art Pepper. We again had the MJQ with ‘The Watergate Blues’. Frank Sinatra wondered ‘How Deep is the Ocean?’ and Stan Getz finished the afternoon with ‘The Shining Sea’. A lovely relaxing afternoon, drifting along to great music
Jazz in the Afternoon – April 2026
We had the rustle of Spring and April in our selections this month, sprinkled over a selection of great music. Quite a few choices happened to feature trains in one guise or another and we started with ‘She’s on the Train’ by Lionrock. A complete change followed, Tommy Dorsey’s take on Dvorak’s ‘Humouresque’, not usually thought of in jazz circles but here given the typical Dorsey touch. After these first two items, we just had to remind ourselves that we were in April, so Count Basie played ‘April in Paris’, a big band classic, if ever there was one.
Then the MJQ got rather ahead of themselves, thinking it was ‘Summertime’ but never mind, ‘cos the great Louis gave us ‘I love Jazz’.
More ‘train’ tunes followed, ‘The Loco Motion’ from the Sax Group, ‘Tuxedo Junction’ from Gene Krupa, Duke Ellington’s ‘A Train’ and ‘Alabamy Train’ by Louisiana Red. Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith, who we mentioned last month, gave us one of his own pieces, from 1935, ‘Echoes of Spring’ which was followed by ‘April Showers’ from Sid Phillips and ‘April in Paris’ heard again but this time from Erroll Garner’s piano. We heard a third pair of tunes, this time, ‘I’ll remember April’ played by Teddy Wilson and then sung by Bobby Darin. Another vocal was Peggy Lee’s ‘These Foolish Things’. Dizzy Gilespie’s ‘How High the Moon’ came before Aker Bilk’s ‘Stranger on the Shore’ and Glenn Miller’s Chattanooga Choo-Choo’. Bill Evans closed our afternoon with his usual thoughtful playing, reminding us that ’Spring is Here’.
Jazz in the Afternoon – March 2026
March and early Spring were our themes this month. We avoided the left, right, left, right, type of march, although we half expected ‘When the Saints go marching in’ to pop up, but it didn’t. In fact, we couldn’t find many tunes for the month but with a good number of Spring suggestions and some of our individual favourites, we enjoyed a great mix of music for the month. We got off to a realistic start for early Spring, with Richard Bennett’s Jazz Band’s ‘I get the blues when it rains’. Humphrey Lyttleton’s ‘March Hare’ came from his earlier years and a superb but unknown jazz guitarist gave us ‘Jazz round Dawn’ and later on in the session, ‘How High the Moon’.
Then Spring did shine through with Ella’s ‘Mountain Greenery’, Buddy Rich’s ‘Up jumped Spring’ and Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith’s ‘Echoes of Spring’. We don’t hear much of Willie now but he is regarded as one of the great influencers of piano jazz. He was a flamboyant character with a flamboyant name - William Henry Joseph Bonaparte Bertholf Smith - and he earned his nickname ‘The Lion’ for his exploits during WW1.
But back to music. We heard Brook Benton’s ‘Rainy Night in Georgia’, Cleo Lane’s ‘I got it bad and that ain’t good’, Erroll Garner’s ‘Mambo Carmel’ and Count Basie’s ‘Down, Down, Down,’ which was quite upbeat. Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey gave us ‘September in the Rain’, Peggy Lee sang ‘There’ll be another Spring’with George Shearing’s sextet and then we heard ‘Cantaloupe Island’ from Herbie Hancock. We finished with the firm assurance that ‘Spring is Here’, an unusual, unaccompanied vocal by Chet Baker.
Jazz in the Afternoon – February 2026
We had a theme again this month and while ‘February’, not surprisingly, doesn’t seem to have been a very popular subject for composers, who could resist ‘Valentine’s Day’? Possibly no-one, because the song ‘My Funny Valentine’ has been recorded by over 600 different artists on more than 1300 albums. It waswritten by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart for their 1937 Broadway show, ‘Babes in Arms’. According to Wikipedia, in 2015, the Gerry Mulligan Quartet’s 1953 version of the song, featuring Chet Baker, was inducted into the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for its "Cultural, artistic and/or historical significance to American Society and the Nation’s audio legacy". Not to be outdone, we included two versions of this iconic tune, one by Chet Baker, (of course), and the other by Dinah Shore with Andre Previn.
But we didn’t overlook the varied aspects of St. Valentine’s Day and it’s implications.We started with The Platters’ ‘Only You’ and then Harry James and his trumpet managed to give us a link to the month with ‘Cept February which has 28’. Natalie Cole sang ‘That Sunday, That Summer’ and later on ‘Lush Life’ but the MJQ looked on the sadder side with ‘The Man that got away’. Perhaps that wasn’t such a bad move after all, as Gerry Mulligan explained that ‘The Lady is a Tramp’, (also written for ‘Babes in Arms’). Things brightened up with Dave Brubeck’s ‘Lover’ and Tommy Dorsey’s Cocktails for Two’ which no doubt led to Dexter Gordon insisting ‘They say that falling in love is Wonderful’. However, Andre Previn was doubtful, because he thought ‘I got it bad and that ain’t good’.
We had a break from all this romantic stuff with Gene Krupa’s ‘Drummin’ Man’ and Art Tatum’s ‘Lullabyof the Leaves’ but our theme inevitably returned with Sonny Rollins’ ‘Falling in Love with Love’ and Charlie Parker’s ‘I’m in the Mood for Love’ which finally led to Sarah Vaughan’s ‘Teach me Tonight’
Jazz in the Afternoon –January 2026
We began the New Year without a specific theme, just a selection of our personal favourites and very enjoyable they were too. First came Theodore ‘Fats’ Navarro with ‘Tad Walk’. Fats was a trumpet virtuoso and one of the founders of bebop. Then Andre Previn’s ‘I got it bad and that ain’t good’ showed again what a talented musician he was. Chet Baker gave us a vocal alongside his trumpet on ‘Let’s get lost’ and then we had Stan Kenton’s ‘Artistry in Bolero’. The word ‘Artistry’ clearly had a special meaning for Stan because some seven of his pieces had it in their title, with ‘Artistry in Rhythm’ being perhaps the best known.
‘Music to watch Girls By’ by Andy Williams was followed by Gene Krupa’s ‘Drum Boogie’. Then Nancy Wilson, with George Shearing’s Quintet, sang ‘On Green Dolphin Street’. More great piano followed with Erroll Garner’s ‘Stormy Weather’ and Oscar Peterson’s ‘Caravan’, the evergreen Duke Ellington composition. ‘Light my Fire’ came from Jose Feliciano, after which we heard Earl Hines’ ‘On the Sunny Side of the Street’ and Ken Colyer’s ‘High Society’, from his days in New Orleans.
From the trombone of Jack Teagarden we had ‘Original Dixieland One Step’ followed by ‘Mood Indigo’ from Duke Ellington, another of his masterpieces. Then Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’, Cab Calloway’s ‘Minnie the Moocher’, Billy May’s ‘Top Hat, White Tie and Tails’ and Charlie Parker’s ‘Street Beat’ which also featured our opening player, Fats Navarro. This brought another afternoon’s session to a satisfying close.
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