Florence Kathleen "Kathy" Stobart (1 April 1925
– 6 July 2014) was an English
jazz saxophonist
Jazz saxophonists are musicians who play various types of saxophones ( alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone etc.) in jazz and its associated subgenres. The techniques and instrumentation of this type of performance have evolved ove ...
primarily known for playing the tenor sax. She was a well-respected figure in the history of jazz in Britain and became an inspiration, through her tutoring of music, to a whole new generation of younger female musicians.
Early life
Stobart was born in
South Shields,
County Durham (now
Tyne and Wear
Tyne and Wear () is a metropolitan county in North East England, situated around the mouths of the rivers Tyne and Wear. It was created in 1974, by the Local Government Act 1972, along with five metropolitan boroughs of Gateshead, Newc ...
), England.
She was the third child of Matthew and Jessie Stobart, her mother was a pianist and her father was a police officer. She first learned piano as a child. After picking up the saxophone, she first played in Don Rico's
all-female band at the age of 14, then locally in
Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to:
*Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England
*Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England
*Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...
.
Career
In 1942, aged 17, she moved to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, playing with
Denis Rose,
Ted Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...
and
Jimmy Skidmore. Later that decade she played with
Art Pepper and
Peanuts Hucko
Michael Andrew "Peanuts" Hucko (April 7, 1918 – June 19, 2003) was an American big band musician. His primary instrument was the clarinet, but he sometimes played saxophone.
Early life and education
He was born in Syracuse, New York, United St ...
. She played with Canadian pianist Art Thompson (1918-2003) whom she joined in 1943, and was married to him from 1943-1951. He led the band at London's Embassy Club, then a favourite London haunt for visiting stars such as
Bing Crosby and
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in Bob Hope filmography, more than 70 short and ...
.
She toured with
Vic Lewis
Victor Lewis MBE (29 July 1919 – 9 February 2009) was a British jazz guitarist and bandleader. He also enjoyed success as an artists' agent and manager.
Biography
He was born in London, England. Lewis began playing the guitar at the age ...
in 1949 and led her own group in 1950-51;
among its members were
Derek Humble
Derek Humble (March 1930 – 22 February 1971) was an English jazz alto saxophonist.
Humble was born in Livingston, County Durham, England, and played professionally from his teenage years. He was working with Kathy Stobart by 1950 and played w ...
,
Dill Jones
Dillwyn Owen Paton "Dill" Jones (19 August 1923 – 22 June 1984), was a Welsh jazz stride pianist.
Biography
Jones was born in Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, on 19 August 1923. He was brought up in New Quay on the Cardiganshire coast. Mus ...
, and Bert Courtley whom she married in October 1951 until his death in September 1969.
In the 1950s and 1960s, she went into semi-retirement to raise her family. From 1969 to 1977, she played with
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family.
Having taught himself the trumpet at school, Lyttelton became a professional ...
.
Following this she led her own groups, with
Harry Beckett
Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett (30 May 1935 – 22 July 2010) was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player of Barbadian origin.
Biography
Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados, Harry Beckett learned to play music in a Salvation Army ...
,
John Burch, and vibes player Lennie Best, among others. Aside from this she played with
Johnny Griffin
John Arnold Griffin III (April 24, 1928 – July 25, 2008) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Nicknamed "the Little Giant" for his short stature and forceful playing, Griffin's career began in the mid-1940s and continued until the month of ...
,
Al Haig
Alan Warren Haig (July 19, 1922 – November 16, 1982) was an American jazz pianist, best known as one of the pioneers of bebop.
Biography
Haig was born in Newark, New Jersey and raised in nearby Nutley. In 1940, he majored in piano at Obe ...
,
Earl Hines,
Buddy Tate
George Holmes "Buddy" Tate (February 22, 1913 – February 10, 2001) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.
Biography
Tate was born in Sherman, Texas, United States, and first played the alto saxophone. According to the website All A ...
,
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
,
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...
, and
Dick Hyman. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s she taught adult music classes along with the pianist-trombonist
Eddie Harvey Edward Thomas "Eddie" Harvey (15 November 1925–9 October 2012) was a British jazz musician (piano, trombone, arranger and educator). He was also the inspiration for the Richmond Canoe Club Walking Division.
Early life
Eddie Harvey was born in B ...
at the
City Literary Institute
City Lit is an adult education college in Holborn, central London, founded by the London County Council in 1919, which has charitable status. It offers part-time courses across four schools and five "centres of expertise", covering humanities an ...
in
Holborn
Holborn ( or ) is a district in central London, which covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part ( St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Ward of Farringdon Without in the City of London.
The area has its root ...
, London.
During the period 1978-1992 she formed the Kathy Stobart Quintet originally featuring
Harry Beckett
Harold Winston "Harry" Beckett (30 May 1935 – 22 July 2010) was a British trumpeter and flugelhorn player of Barbadian origin.
Biography
Born in Bridgetown, Saint Michael, Barbados, Harry Beckett learned to play music in a Salvation Army ...
(trumpet);
Fiachra Trench
Fiachra Terence Wilbrah Trench (born 7 September 1941, in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish musician and composer from Drogheda, County Louth, Ireland.
Trench first studied Chemistry at Trinity College, Dublin, before moving on to t ...
(keyboards); Dave Olney (bass); Tony Mann (drums), later on including Lennie Best (vibraphone); Johnny Burch (piano); and Harvey Weston (bass). Guest vocalists included
Elizabeth Welch and
Marian Williams. It was during this period that she appeared at the
Nice Jazz Festival
The Nice Jazz Festival (, ), held annually since 1948 in Nice, on the French Riviera, is "the first jazz festival of international significance." At the inaugural festival, Louis Armstrong and his All Stars were the headliners. Frommer's calls i ...
for the first time.
Stobart was also a regular guest musician on the BBC Radio 1 programme ''Sounds of Jazz'', recorded at the
Maida Vale Studios
Maida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC sound studios, of which five are in regular use, in Delaware Road, Maida Vale, west London.
It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1 ...
midweek in London in the 1970s, and introduced by
Peter Clayton
Peter James Clayton (25 June 1927 – 10 August 1991) was an English jazz presenter on BBC Radio, jazz critic, and author. From October 1968 until his death in August 1991, Clayton presented jazz recordings, interviews, studio performances, and ...
on Sunday evenings.
In 1982, she was the top performer to headline Britain's first women's jazz festival.
A major support towards empowering female musicians and, in 1986, she was a guest with Gail Thompson's Gail Force,
as well as leading a group with saxophonist Joan Cunningham in the late 1980s. Meanwhile she made guest appearances returning to play in New York with saxophonist
Zoot Sims
John Haley "Zoot" Sims (October 29, 1925 – March 23, 1985) was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor but also alto (and, later, soprano) saxophone. He first gained attention in the "Four Brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's big ...
and the expatriate English pianist
Marian McPartland
Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...
. In 1985, she moved to
Axmouth
Axmouth is a village, civil parish and former manor in the East Devon district of Devon, England, near the mouth of the River Axe. The village itself is about inland, on the east bank of the Axe estuary. The parish extends along the estuary ...
,
Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
, and set up a student band in
Exeter.
[Kathy Stobart Obituary](_blank)
''Independent.co.uk'' Retrieved 27 May 2020.
From 1992-2004, she re-joined
Humphrey Lyttelton
Humphrey Richard Adeane Lyttelton (23 May 1921 – 25 April 2008), also known as Humph, was an English jazz musician and broadcaster from the Lyttelton family.
Having taught himself the trumpet at school, Lyttelton became a professional ...
Band for the third time and made occasional guest appearances with others.
Lyttelton once referred to her "huge, booming sound, imbued with total originality and commanding presence". In 2001, Stobart appeared on stage with
Radiohead, along with the Humphrey Lyttleton band, in front of 42,000 fans at the South Park concert in Oxford. During this period she also continued her ongoing teaching, including running her own jazz courses.
In the same year, Stobart tutored saxophone to the actress
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia Dench (born 9 December 1934) is an English actress. Regarded as one of Britain's best actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her ...
for her role in the Alan Platter TV play, ''
The Last of the Blonde Bombshells
''The Last of the Blonde Bombshells'' is a 2000 British-American television film directed by Gillies MacKinnon. The script by Alan Plater focuses on the efforts of a recently widowed woman to re-unite the members of the World War II-era swing b ...
''. She continued to play professionally until the age of 82 in 2007.
Kathy Stobart Website
''Kathystobart.co.uk'' Retrieved 27 May 2020.
Personal life
Stobart was married twice. First to Canadian pianist Art Thompson from 1943 to 1951. She and Thompson were married towards the end of the war and worked together, also visiting the US on holiday, where Stobart sat in at Eddie Condon's club in New York. The marriage ended in divorce, when Thompson elected to stay on in north America. She then went on to marry trumpeter Bert Courtley from 1951 until his death, caused by the effects of alcohol and the 'apparent stress caused' working with the Ted Heath Band, aged 40. He died in Croydon
Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...
, Surrey on 13 September 1969.
Stobart suffered from a stroke in 2011 and died three years later on 6 July 2014, aged 89. She is survived by her three sons with Courtley: David, Peter (bass guitar player) and Paul (saxophone player).
References
Bibliography
*Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.
Biography
Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...
and Ira Gitler, ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. Oxford, 1999, pp. 624–625.
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stobart, Kathy
1925 births
2014 deaths
English jazz saxophonists
20th-century English musicians
20th-century saxophonists
20th-century English women musicians
Women jazz saxophonists