|
National Jazz Archive
The National Jazz Archive is a collection of materials pertaining to jazz and blues that is kept at the Loughton Library in Essex, England. The archive was founded by British trumpeter Digby Fairweather in 1998 and contains visual and print materials from the 1920s to the present. Patrons of the archive have included Baroness Amos, John Altman, Liane Carroll, Deirdre Cartwright, Gary Crosby, Paul Jones, Soweto Kinch, Cleo Laine, Michael Parkinson, Courtney Pine, John Prescott, Clare Teal, Kate Westbrook, and Mike Westbrook. In 2011 the Archive was awarded a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The grant enabled the cataloguing and digitisation of a substantial proportion of the collection, as well as a learning programme for schools and young people. The National Jazz Archive is a registered charity and relies on support from donations and volunteers. Collections The National Jazz Archive holds more than 4,000 reference books, specialist periodicals and bulletins. It a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loughton
Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Charing Cross. The parish of Loughton covers part of Epping Forest, in 1996 some parts of the south of the old parish were transferred to Buckhurst Hill parish, and other small portions to Chigwell and Theydon Bois. It is the most populous civil parish in the Epping Forest district, and within Essex it is the second most populous civil parish (after Canvey Island) and the second largest in the area. At the 2021 census, it had a population of 33,353. Loughton has three conservation areas and there are 56 listed buildings in the town, together with a further 50 that are locally listed. History The earliest structure in Loughton is Loughton Camp, an Iron Age earth fort in Epping Forest dating from around 500 BC. Hidden by dense undergrowth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Westbrook
Michael John David Westbrook (born 21 March 1936) is an English jazz pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces. He is married to the vocalist, librettist and painter Kate Westbrook. Early work Mike Westbrook was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, and grew up in Torquay. After a spell in accountancy and his National ServiceThe Wire, 1985 (some of it in Germany) he went to art school, studying painting, in Plymouth. There he also began his first bands in 1958, soon joined by such musicians as John Surman, Lou Gare and Keith Rowe. After moving to London in 1962, Westbrook led numerous bands, large and small, and played regularly at the Old Place and the Little Theatre Club at Garrick Yard, St Martin's Lane. Together with Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath, Westbrook shared the role of house-band at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. He became a key figure in the development of British jazz, producing several big-band records for the Deram label, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Barnes (musician)
Alan Barnes (born 23 July 1959) is a multi-award winning English jazz saxophone and clarinet player. Career Between 1977 and 1980, Barnes attended Leeds College of Music, where he studied saxophone, woodwinds and arranging before moving to London. In 1980, he played with the Midnight Follies Orchestra and the following year was with the Pasadena Roof Orchestra, touring Europe until 1983. In that year he left to join the hard-bop band of Tommy Chase, where he attracted attention on the UK jazz scene for the first time. He left Chase in 1986 to co-lead The Jazz Renegades, with rock drummer Steve White, with whom he recorded four albums. In 1985, he recorded his first record as co-leader with Tommy Whittle (entitled ''Straight Eight'') and as leader of his own quartet in 1987, ''Affiliation'', with pianist David Newton, an association that goes back to their days at Leeds College of Music. In 1988, Barnes was asked to fill the chair recently vacated by Bruce Turner in the H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddy Greco
Armando Joseph "Buddy" Greco (August 14, 1926 – January 10, 2017) was an American jazz and pop singer and pianist who had a long career in the US and UK. His recordings have sold millions, including "Oh Look A-There Ain't She Pretty", " Up, Up and Away", and " Around the World". His most successful single was " The Lady Is a Tramp", which sold over one million copies. During his career, he recorded over sixty albums. He conducted the London Symphony Orchestra and performed for Queen Elizabeth II and with the Beatles. Music career Buddy Greco was born Armando Joseph Greco to an Italian-American family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Giuseppe Joseph Greco and Carmela Greco (born Piedimonte), who was originally from Ripabottoni in Molise, Italy. His mother introduced him to piano at age four. As a child he sang on the radio, and as a teen performed in nightclubs in Philadelphia. At age 16, he was hired by bandleader Benny Goodman and spent four years touring the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir John Dankworth
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE (20 September 1927 – 6 February 2010), also known as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist, clarinettist and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he was a music educator and also her music director. Biography Early years Born in Woodford, Essex, he grew up, within a family of musicians, in Hollywood Way, Highams Park, a suburb of Chingford, and attended Selwyn Boys' (Junior) School in Highams Park and later Sir George Monoux Grammar School in Walthamstow. He had violin and piano lessons before settling eventually on the clarinet at the age of 16, after hearing a record of the Benny Goodman Quartet. Soon afterwards, inspired by Charlie Parker, he learned to play the alto saxophone. He began his career on the British jazz scene after studying at London's Royal Academy of Music (where his jazz interests were frowned upon) and then national service in the Royal Air Force, during which he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Barber
Donald Christopher "Chris" Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with " Petite Fleur" in 1959. These included the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with Barber triggered the skiffle craze of the mid-1950s and who had his first transatlantic hit, "Rock Island Line", while with Barber's band. He provided an audience for Donegan and, later, Alexis Korner, and sponsored African-American blues musicians to visit Britain, making Barber a significant figure in launching the British rhythm and blues and "beat boom" of the 1960s. Early life Barber was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, on 17 April 1930. His father, Donald Barber, was an insurance statistician who a few years later became secretary of the Socialist League, while his mother was a headmi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acker Bilk
Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk, (28 January 1929 – 2 November 2014) was a British clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance – of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistcoat. Bilk's 1962 instrumental tune " Stranger on the Shore" became the UK's biggest selling single of 1962. It spent more than 50 weeks on the UK charts, peaking at number two, and was the second No. 1 single in the United States by a British artist. Early life Bilk was born in Pensford, Somerset, in 1929. He earned the nickname "Acker" from the Somerset slang for "friend" or "mate". His parents tried to teach him the piano but, as a boy, Bilk found it restricted his love of outdoor activities, including football. He lost two front teeth in a school fight and half a finger in a sledging accident, both of which he said affected his eventual clarinet style. On leaving school Bilk joined the workforce of W.D. & H.O. Wills's cigarette fac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ken Colyer
Kenneth Colyer (18 April 1928 – 8 March 1988) was an English jazz trumpeter and cornetist, devoted to Dixieland, New Orleans jazz. His band was also known for skiffle interludes. Biography He was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, but grew up in Soho, London, and served as a member of his church choir. When his elder brother Bill (1922—2009) went off to serve in World War II he left his jazz records behind, which influenced Ken Colyer. He joined the Merchant Navy at 17, travelled around the world and heard famous jazz musicians in New Orleans, Louisiana. In the UK, Colyer played with various bands and joined, in 1949, the Crane River Jazz Band (CRJB), with Ben Marshall, Sonny Morris, Pat Hawes, John R. T. Davies, Julian Davies, Ron Bowden and Monty Sunshine. The band played at the Royal Festival Hall on 14 July 1951 in the presence of Elizabeth II, Princess Elizabeth. Parts of that group merged with other musicians including Keith Christie and Ian Christie (musician) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Fox (jazz Critic)
Charles Richard Jeremy Fox (1921 – 9 May 1991 in Weymouth) was an English writer and broadcaster who specialised in jazz. He left school at 14 and trained as a draughtsman. His career in journalism began in the 1940s via letters to ''Melody Maker'' and jazz magazines of the era such as ''Jazz Music'' (edited by Max Jones and Albert McCarthy), ''Jazz Forum'' and '' Jazz Journal''. He settled in London in the early 1950s working as a sub-editor on the ''Recorder'' newspaper and edited a poetry magazine entitled ''Ninepence'' founded with the poets Patrick Brangwyn and Christopher Logue. Fox was part of the group around McCarthy who founded ''Jazz Monthly'' magazine in 1955; the magazine continued publication until 1972. Fox's earliest broadcasting work was as a substitute presenter of ''Jazz Today'' on BBC Radio when its regular presenter, Steve Race, was ill and he began the ''Jazz in Britain'' programme which debuted new musicians. Fox lodged for many years with the famil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ian Carr
Ian Carr (21 April 1933 – 25 February 2009) was a Scottish jazz musician, composer, writer, and educator. Carr performed and recorded with the Rendell-Carr quintet and jazz-fusion band Nucleus, and was an associate professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He also wrote biographies of musicians Keith Jarrett and Miles Davis. Early years Carr was born in Dumfries, Scotland, the elder brother of Mike Carr. From 1952 to 1956, he attended King's College, now Newcastle University, where he read English Literature, followed by a diploma in education. Musical career At the age of 17, Carr started to teach himself trumpet. After university he joined his brother in a Newcastle band, the EmCee Five, from 1960 to 1962, before moving to London, where he became co-leader with Don Rendell of the Rendell–Carr quintet (1963–69). In its six years, the group (including pianist Michael Garrick, bassist Dave Green, and drummer Trevor Tomkins) made five albums for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dance
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin. An important distinction is to be drawn between the contexts of theatrical and participatory dance, although these two categories are not always completely separate; both may have special functions, whether social, ceremonial, competitive, erotic, martial, or sacred/liturgical. Other forms of human movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, cheerleading, figure skating, synchronized swimming, marching bands, and many other forms of athletics. There are many professional athletes like, professional football players and soccer players, who take dance classes to help with their skills. To be more specific professional athlet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Popular Music
Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia'' It stands in contrast to both art music and traditional or "folk" music. Art music was historically disseminated through the performances of written music, although since the beginning of the recording industry, it is also disseminated through recordings. Traditional music forms such as early blues songs or hymns were passed along orally, or to smaller, local audiences. The original application of the term is to music of the 1880s Tin Pan Alley period in the United States. Although popular music sometimes is known as "pop music", the two terms are not interchangeable. Popular music is a generic term for a wide variety of genres of music that appeal to the tastes of a large segment of the population, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
