Having played jazz, on and off, for over 50 years, it may seem strange that I have given up playing in the Band when I was still reasonably capable, and still very much enjoying it. But jazz, like so many other full-commitment activities and hobbies, has always been a selfish mistress, and membership of a popular, busy and entertaining band has always made even greater demands on one’s time and availability, so family or friends have usually had to take second place.  It may, therefore, be regarded as ironic that Jane and I have moved a whole Channel, and a bit, away from family and friends!

But, I do not intend to give up playing altogether, as that would be pretty nigh impossible and I would find it unbelievably wasteful ( as I do of all acquired, unexploited skills) to forget or become incapable of playing some of the things that it has taken me decades to make a reasonable stab at.

More than my ego, though, are the many benefits, friendships, musical experiences and sheer fun times that I shall be giving up that 50 years of jazz has brought into my life.

Central to these privileges have been the bands that I have played in and the encouragement that I have received, even when still a pupil at school. Whereas most schools in the 1950s might have frowned on pursuit of ‘The Devil’s Music’ in favour of something more sedate and ‘wholesome’, I was encouraged to play and listen to jazz in my last two years at Kimbolton School by Andre Beeson who even arranged for a select few of us to attend jazz concerts.

On leaving school, I was fortunate to meet Barry Palser, in Cambridge, and be asked to join the emergent ‘Savoy Jazz Band’ with whom I played for 2 years, practising once week in Trinity College Chapel vestry. This was made possible by the good offices of pianist, John Reade, who, curiously, I met again for the first time in 46 years, earlier this year. It was a heady time, when, as it does at eighteen, everything seemed possible, and during the 2 years I was either studying or working for the university I rubbed shoulders with several burgeoning ‘stars’, including Jim McIntosh and Andy Cooper, as well as, in a theatrical setting, Dave Leland.

In 1963 Johnny Rogers succeeded me on clarinet, with ‘The Savoy Jazz Band’, and stayed with them for several decades before joining ‘The Gambit Jazz Band and heading his own bands.

I embarked on a teacher training course in South Wales, and although playing in a small college group, played no more thereafter for about 14 years, as marriage, family, career, athletics judging and an external degree took precedence. Finding it difficult to sit through any Trad/Dixieland concert without feeling saddened that I was no longer playing, my, then, wife, Pat, encouraged me to start playing again.

In 1979 I joined Alan Bennett’s ‘New Savannah Jazz Band’, closely followed by John Minnion’s ‘New Excelsior Jazz Band’, and then, in 1981, ‘The Arthur Brown Jazz Band’. I remained with Arthur, as did Clive Millward, Roger Heath, Tony Hobson and Dave Smith until 1997 when Arthur became a full-time professional with ‘The Pete Allen Jazz Band’. The remains of the Band soon attracted the skills of Pete Ainge, and ‘The Heart of England Jazz Band’ was born. The rest, as they say, is history! And there’s plenty of that; I’ve still got the Band archive!

Making music alone (the endless piano studies, when you really wanted to play Boogie Woogie) can be soul-destroying; making music, of whatever kind, with others, is often uplifting and immense fun; but, making music with like minds, and sharing that with others, is the most fulfilling, and the greatest fun.

Two-thirds of my telephone/address book contains the names of musicians or people associated with our kind of music. Many have become friends; some special friends; and then there is the select group who have spent almost as much time with the Band as its members have spent with one another.

Jazz has enabled me to visit places to play in that I should otherwise, almost certainly, not have seen: as diverse as Mahogany Hall in New Orleans. The Holywell Room in Oxford and ‘The Trumpet’, Bilston.

Jazz has enabled me to meet many people from all walks of life and different cultures, ranging from wartime heroes to High Court judges; accountants to airline pilots; coach drivers to cricket stars, and everything in between. What a privilege!

And, what of the musicians? Some, eminent and frighteningly accomplished, but also those, like me, who shared a similar enthusiasm and passable competence, but who are unlikely to feature in any musicians’ ‘Who’s Who’!

Above all else, I shall cherish the musical integrity and sheer ‘joie de vivre’ of ‘The Heart of England Jazz Band’, when, time and time again, we were described as a happy and entertaining Band. And, why else would we be standing in front of audiences if not to entertain?

That happiness sprang from the internal dynamics of the band – the guys in it, and how they were always something more than musical colleagues, something more, even, than musical friends – something more akin to ‘family’.

We had much more fun than some families do, and probably more than we deserved!
I shall always feel great affection and gratefulness to that ‘family’ and miss: Tony Hobson, Derek Halford, Clive Millward, Malcolm Smith, Nick Millward, Kevin Grenfell, Pete Ainge, Roger Heath and Dave Smith, more than I can say.