Jazz is alive and well. In fact, Cumbria is simply swinging
Last updated 13:40, Thursday, 08 May 2008
Jazz fans have been drawn from near and far this week to Keswick’s renowned jazz festival.
The town plays host to bands from across the globe, including some of the world’s finest jazz musicians.
And alongside traditional and mainstream jazz acts such as Keith Nichols, Alan Barnes, Randy Sandke and Jeff Barnhart will be a fine selection of local jazz performers.
John Minnion is the man responsible for bringing the jazz festival to Keswick for the last 17 years.
His experience of putting a festival together dates back to 1988, when he organised the Bude Jazz Festival in Cornwall.
It was following a show at the Carnegie Theatre in Workington that he suggested a jazz festival in Cumbria.
A visit to Keswick was all he needed and in 1992 the first Keswick Jazz Festival was a sell-out, with more than 600 attending.
In 2003 the promotion was taken over by Keswick Theatre by the Lake who extended the festival to four days. Last year it increased to five days, which is continuing this year.
John said: “It has gone from strength to strength. Keswick Jazz Festival has helped to remind people about jazz.
“Our main identity is with the traditional end of the jazz spectrum but we also feature younger bands.”
John sees venues attracting jazz bands in the area, including the Rosehill Theatre in Whitehaven, Kirkgate in Cockermouth and Carlisle Jazz Club, as vital to the jazz scene in north Cumbria.
Workington is also the location of Fellside Recordings, one of the country’s leading independent specialist record companies. The company includes Lake Records, which specialises mainly in British traditional jazz.
John said: “There is a lot going on in the area and we have always had a contingent of local bands playing at the festival.”
Cockermouth-based singer Caroline Sweeney and the Brian Melville Band will perform a mixture of modern jazz and swing music on Sunday while Keswick School Jazz Orchestra have attracted some guest soloists and were joined by upcoming 20-year-old jazz artist Amy Roberts last night and the legendary American trombone player Jim Fryer tonight.
“There are some wonderful young players,” said John. “Keswick School Jazz Orchestra has been a revelation since it first formed three-years-ago.”
Some of the musicians playing at Keswick also take the opportunity to play at local venues before or after the festival.
Yesterday Mart Roger Manchester Band played at Carlisle Jazz Club and Jeff Barnhart will also play there later this year.
Carlisle-born Colin Smith was a founder member of Mart Roger Jazz Band, who are regarded as one of the best jazz bands in the UK.
Liz Inch, of the Carlisle club, said: “Jazz has never stopped here. Bands enjoy playing in Carlisle.”
The club has been meeting weekly for more than 10 years and moved to Carlisle Rugby Club just before the floods in the city in 2005.
Before this, jazz had been played in various pubs around the city, including the Greenbank Inn on London Road and The Royal Scot in Morton.
“Since the floods we have expanded the type of bands that play at the club,” said Liz. “We now get some international bands as well as local and national musicians.”
Trumpet player Les Bull, from Barrow, has played at various venues in Carlisle over the years and the Les Bull Band play at Carlisle Jazz Club several times a year.
He said: “My first memories include playing at the Coach House at Heads Nook in the 1960s. Mick Potts became the chairman of the club.
“Jazz was big news at this time.”
Les thinks there was a decline in interest in jazz in the 1970s when young musicians started to play rock and roll.
He said: “The rock bands had been supporting the jazz bands but this all changed and it became the other way round.
“Carlisle and Barrow are special to me and although the venues are still packed full, many of the bands have now grown older and I fear that once my generation of jazz bands have disappeared there won’t be any to carry on.”
Carlisle jazzman Peter Myers says Mick Potts was the father of jazz in Carlisle and was his inspiration. Mick started Peter off on the washboard and he now plays the trombone.
While Mick and his brother Al were still at school, they formed a band, which became the Gateway Jazz Band and in the early 1950s were playing the pubs and clubs in Carlisle.
Peter and Colin Smith both played with the band.
They practised in the YMCA in Fisher Street and the Temperance Hall on Wigton Road and played in Carlisle, Silloth and Dumfries, also acting as support band for Humphrey Lyttleton and Chris Barbour’s band.
In the early 1960s Carlisle had the Jazz at The Garret Club, on Devonshire Street, which would stay open all night.
He said: “After the war traditional jazz took off. The clubs in this area were full of people.”
Peter still plays with The Gentlemen of Jazz.
“Carlisle Jazz Club is flourishing,” he said. “We hope more young jazz groups will take it up again when my generation are no more.”
