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Jazz Clubs

I have memories of Ronnie Scotts at The Robin Hood on Stratford Rd 1959/60? Long time ago and I only went once so could be wrong.
 
Hi RoySteve,

Could be because they only used it once! They also used the Mermaid and, on a more regular basis, the Golden Cross at Aston Cross. I'm sure you've got the date right because appearances at the Golden Cross had more or less dried up by the time I moved south in January 1961.

Maurice
 
Hi Maurice, It was certainly short-lived at the Robin and may well have moved elsewhere.I have very fond memories of the Golden Cross also especially when Tony Forde was playing. A very fine young tenor player who seemed to vanish without trace from the Jazz scene although I left Brum in 1962 and for all I know, he gigs to this day!

Roy
 
I thought i would mention the Upstairs Club which was over the Old Stone Cross in Dale End.
It only lasted about 18 months but was packed every week. It opened with Ken Rattenbury's band who had a weekly TV spot at the time.
Ken Ingram also played there along wth the Blyth River Stompers and the West Side Band from West Bromwich.
Basil Wainright had a residency there. There were many others.
 
RoySteve:

Not many left from that era - Johnny Patrick and Mike Burney are about the only ones still playing regularly I think. I met up with both about four years ago but the talk inevitably turned to players who were no longer with us. Brian Newton is still directing his Big Band at the Triplex Social Club every month and Trevor Darby is still on trumpet.

Boro Keith:

Was that the pub almost on the railway bridge? If so, I used to play there on a Wednesday night in 1959/60 with Pat Sweetman on drums, Vince ??? on bass and an alto player whose main job was lead clarinet with the Midland Light Orchestra. Names are beginning to escape me now!

Maurice
 
Johnny Patrick is the only name I recognise. My regular venue was the Embassy Bop Club next door to the Oak pub in Selly Oak. There was an amazing Parkeresque alto player in the early 50's Kenny Osborne but he caught one of the nutty religions and gave up playing. In the mid50's the house band was the Jimmy Walker Quintet which featured Laurie Monk on trombone and Bill Harrington on tenor. Both went on to great things with the Dankworth band. Laurie became a producer with the Beeb and ran a big band in Croydon. Don't know what became of Bill. Other names from that era; Harry Smart John Gibbins both trumpet. Alan Randall vibes. I've just discovered that Tony Kinsey is from Sutton Coldfield!!!
 
RoySteve: Alan Randall I once approached for lessons, but he was too busy and I was not far off leaving Brum by then. Laurie Monk I knew of but never met, but Selly Oak was not an area I knew at all.

Charlie: Saw him many times at the Golden Cross and recently acquired three albums from that period. Simon Spillett was writing an autobiography some years ago, but it doesn't look as if it is any closer to seeing the light of day!

Maurice
 
Tubby - Have you got 100% Proof? Blistering!

Alan Randall - That must have been at the time he decided to become George Formby?
 
100% Proof I don't have - that's the one with Kenny Wheeler & Ray Warleigh, isn't it. Will add it to my wish list!

Maurice
 
Roysteve
I remember the Sunday Mercury did a centre page spread of photos of the Embassy Club. This was in the days of zoot suits about 1952-53.
 
I was still at school until 1953. I suppose I didn't take a real interest in jazz until I was in the RAF a couple of years later!

Maurice
 
Since this is the Photos and Video Forum I wonder if anyone has inside photos of any of these clubs to contribute.
 
Sorry I got my forums mixed up.
Still photos would be welcome.
Thinking about the Embassy bop club I think it was next to the Plough and Harrow pub on at the top of Chapel Lane ;- near the Oak Cinema.
 
Correct, I said the Oak pub but I was mistaken. Thanks for the correction the old brain aint what it used to be!
Roy
 
Not all the music in Digbeth was "trad". I often played the 57 Club with the Johhny Beck Six. We were an offshoot from the Birmingham School of Music.Very much "west coast" music. We were also resident at Aston Cross Jazz Studio One, and the Bournebrook Hotel in Selly Oak. We worked with guest musicians Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Don Rendell etc. Colin Willets (piano/vibes) started his first gigs with me when he was 16, and Colin invited me to his 65th birthday jazz reunion, with many of Birimingham's older jazz musicians attending. After two or three summer seasons with big bands, and a final few weeks at B'ham Casino I left the city for good and travelled the world working with, and meeting all the greats, from Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa through to Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald. I have lived a great life in the music business, but the roots grew Birmingham jazz clubs.
 
That would possibly be Vince THOMAS on bass, and George Watts on alto. I knew both musicians well , and worked with them. Also remember Brian Newton.
 
Lets not some of my old musician buddies of the fifties. Bobby Harrison (tpt) Went on to be principal trumpeter with the BBC Radio Orch, Roy Reynolds (tnr) went to the USA and became lead tenor in the Kenton Band, Tony Levin (drums) resident drummer at Ronnie Scotts in London, Ray Price (drums - Handsworth boy) again left for the USA and played with Stan Kenton, George Shearing, Oscar Peterson. We had some pretty good musicians around in the 1950's/ My personal favourite was Tommy Webster (drums) who taught Tony Kinsey. All of the others that you mention, I knew well. Alan Randall made a lot of money out of his George Formby act (drove a Rolls Royce UKE 1). Kenny Osbourne was most talented in the Charlie Parker style, and at one time he was part of a very good sax trio of Kenny on alto, Maurice Pheiffer on Tenor and Johhny Collins on Baritone. Sadly both Kenny and Johnny became, shall we say unpredictable, in their life.
 
Vince Thomas I knew well and did a Wednesday night session in Stirchley with him and Mike Burney for a while. Brian Newton is still running his Big Band at the Triplex Social Club and we met up for the first time in 40 years when I was over in the UK in 2012. I moved to Dorset in 1961 and in the late 1960s bumped into Johnny Beck's ex-girlfriend in a pub there. I worked with Don Rendell on a couple of occasions at the Parkstone Jazz Club in Poole in the mid-1970s. Ronnie Scott also brought a trio down with John Mealing on organ - can't remember who the drummer was on that occasion.

Maurice
 
Johnny Clelford, a good friend and a wonderful drummer, was the driving force in the Jimmy Walker Group that you mention. John finished his playing career at Yardley Wood Social Club, and although recovering from a stroke sadly died a few years ago.
 
Remiss of me not to mention Johnny, as you say a wonderful drummer also a damn fine Barber and all round good bloke.
 
Interesting to read your post Norfolkbrummie. I used the jazz club at Studio One at The Golden Cross every week (that and The Americana!), together with other jazz clubs in Birmingham One question that you might be able to answer for me - where was the Casino in Birmingham that you mention? I ask because I have noted down in an old diary that I often went there but can't remember where it was.

Judy
 
Yes, the Casino was where I played. I worked with the Billy Walker Band. I covered the afternoon sessions and Gary Alcock would cover the evening sessions. This suited us both fine, since Gary worked at British Leyland during the day, and the evenings allowed me to cover jazz clubs etc. The Casino was opposite the Old Square at Lewis' on Corporation Street. When I found out that the Casino was closing (around 1959/600, I decided to leave Birmingham, went to Liverpool, to play in Liverpool Locarno with the Jan Ralfini Band. I never returned to Birmingham, although I did play with the Midland All Stars for two years
 
More coincidences, Norfolk Brummie.... the resident band at Bournemouth Pavilion when I got down there was Jan Ralfini!

Maurice
 
I went with Jan Rafini from Manchester, but only stayed for the summer season. The band was not a good one, but since I had just married, the money was useful. When the blue rinse brigade and poodles arrived, I left. Did you ever come across Don Neilson the singer with the band? I believe he also left later on and was replaced by Tony Blackburn! Don was a good friend, and I have often wondered where he went.
 
Don Neilson doesn't ring a bell, but Tony Blackburn was born in Poole, his father was a doctor, and so most of the locals knew the family, especially when he started broadcasting as a DJ. The Ralfini Band replaced a largely local band led by Stanley Broughton, a man renowned for using a heavy layer of black shoe polish to fill in the lack of hair on his head. Unfortunately, the shoe polish cracked and he became a bit of a laughing stock to his musicians as it was so obvious! Most of the decent musicians left to work in the hotel residencies and the Pavilion went pretty much downhill after that. I'm still in touch with a local bass player from around that era, so I'll ask him about Don Neilson.

Maurice
 
Thanks Norfolkbrummie. Of course! The Grand Mecca Casino by the Old Square. I used to go there for the lunchtime dances in the 50's but never connected it with Jazz in the 60's! It all comes back to me now. Thanks for that.
Judy
 
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