Juvenile jazz bands are a type of children's

marching band A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, ofte ...

that started in the 20th century almost exclusively in

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

mining areas of the

North of England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

and the Midlands, with a few bands in the mining areas of

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. Historically, the bands originated in the tradition of coal miners' union marches and colliery brass bands. It was felt that the children should be allowed to participate, and the earliest bands were the children's section of trade union parades. They form an important part of British

working class culture Working-class culture is a range of cultures created by or popular among working-class people. The cultures can be contrasted with high culture and folk culture, and are often equated with popular culture and low culture (the counterpart of high ...

. The instruments used are usually

kazoo The kazoo is an American musical instrument that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (which itself is a membranophone), one of a class of instruments which modifi ...

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

, and

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s. Jazz bands using massed kazoos are mentioned as early as 1919 by

Lord Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the wor ...

in his Chief Scout Yarns. Juvenile jazz bands were common in the Midlands in the 1930s and possibly earlier, featuring in footage of the Castlefields Meteor Jazz Band in film of Shrewsbury's Coronation celebrations in 1937. There was a resurgence of interest in the 1950s, enjoyed a heyday in the 70s and 80s, but numbers have dwindled recently. The juvenile jazz band, the

Pelaw Pelaw () is a residential area in Gateshead, located around from Newcastle upon Tyne, from Sunderland, and from Durham. In 2011, Census data for the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council ward of ''Heworth and Pelaw'' recorded a total populatio ...

Hussars, famously appeared in the film

Get Carter ''Get Carter'' is a 1971 British crime film written and directed by Mike Hodges in his directorial debut and starring Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, John Osborne, Britt Ekland and Bryan Mosley. Based on Ted Lewis's 1970 novel ''Jack's Return Hom ...

. There is still an organization named the United Kingdom federation of jazz bands, which oversees and organizes competitions between the various bands at a national level A new organisation was formed at the beginning of 2019 under the title Marching Band Association United Kingdom (MBAUK) after a number of bands became disillusioned with the UKFJB.

References

{{reflist Youth organisations based in the United Kingdom