To all our new subscribers, especially those who signed up to the NJA e-newsletter at the exhibition 'Rhythm & Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain' in London in the past few weeks. We hope you'll enjoy following activities and developments at the Archive.
Big band jazz at Loughton – tickets selling fast!
Tickets for the National Jazz Archive’s fundraising concert by the John Ongom Big Band on Saturday 24 March are selling fast, so book now to make sure of getting in!
The 17-piece John Ongom Big Band, under musical director Angus Moncrieff, will be featuring vocalists Mark Jennett and Cynthia Simmonds. The concert is the first of a series of events throughout 2018 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Archive.
The venue is Loughton Methodist Church, 260 High Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 1RB, close to the Archive’s home in Loughton Library, where there is extensive parking. The church and Archive are a kilometre from Loughton Station on the Central Line, and are served by numerous bus routes.
The concert starts at 8pm and tickets cost £12.
Rhythm & Reaction – "wonderful, informative and uplifting"
The exhibition Rhythm & Reaction: The Age of Jazz in Britain, described in a recent review on the blog Books & Boots as “wonderful, informative and uplifting”, continues at Two Temple Place, London until 22 April. It features many items from the National Jazz Archive among its paintings, musical instruments, textiles and pottery, as well as fascinating film dating back to the 1920s.
Running alongside are talks, walks, workshops, masterclasses, children’s activities and more.
There are special free Wednesday late openings from 6.30 to 8.30pm featuring live music from Tallulah GoodTimes (21 March), Meg Morley Trio (4 April) and Smitty’s Big Four (18 April).
Entry to the exhibition is free, and full details including opening times are here.
The painting above is The Band, by Edward Burra, 1934.
Julian Marc Stringle: 23 June – save the date!
The fine clarinettist and saxophonist Julian Marc Stringle is bringing his quartet, featuring guitarist Dominic Ashworth, to play a fundraising concert for the National Jazz Archive on the afternoon of Saturday 23 June – more details soon!
Say it with Music returns to Loughton
Visit Loughton Library before the end of April to view Say it with Music – the Archive’s exhibition celebrating the people and places that have shaped jazz.
The free exhibition showcases our 18-month HLF programme of events, workshops and interviews about how different generations have promoted, performed, supported, and documented our jazz heritage.
Listen to interviews recorded throughout the project, and discover the contribution that people of different ages and backgrounds have made to British jazz and popular music heritage.
The exhibition runs until 28 April at Loughton Library, Traps Hill, Loughton IG10 1HD. It’s open 9am–5pm from Monday to Saturday. And of course, if you visit the exhibition, do visit the Archive upstairs (open 10–1 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays).
‘Images of Jazz’ coming to Croydon
An exhibition of Brian O’Connor’s wonderful jazz photos will be at the Clocktower Café, 9 Katherine St, Croydon CR9 1ET from 2 to 27 April. The free exhibition is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, with live jazz every Thursday between 12.15 and 2.15pm.
The official opening at 2pm on Saturday 7 April will feature music by Neal and Sue Richardson, with Andy Panayi on sax.
Brian has been photographing jazz for more than 40 years, and his images have featured in many jazz magazines, books and websites.
Jazz reminiscence interview – Jackie Free
As part of the Intergenerational Jazz Reminiscence project, successfully completed by the Archive last year, more than 30 people were interviewed at length about their involvement with jazz throughout their lives. Extracts from all these interviews can now be listened to here, and the full recorded interviews and transcripts will be uploaded in due course.
This month’s featured interviewee is trombonist Jackie Free. From early experience playing euphonium in a competitive Boys’ Brigade brass band, and with a teenage introduction to jazz records, Jackie Free made a clear decision to become a ‘jazz player’, and made his name as a celebrated trombonist on the jazz and commercial circuit. After a lifetime spent as a musician among many bands and players, Jackie highlights the social side of such a career as being as memorable as the music, his journey entwined with story after story.
A portrait of Val Wilmer
A fascinating radio portrait of the jazz writer, social historian and photographer Val Wilmer was broadcast on Radio 3 on 4 March and is available to listen again here.
Her remarkable career has brought her close to almost every significant figure in post-war jazz, blues and R&B. Her books, articles and photographs have delved into the minds, lives and politics of jazz’s most famous exponents – including Coltrane, Monk and Mingus – as well as countless men and women who have shaped African-American culture since the 1950s.
How does she reveal the intimate humanity of her subjects? How, "as a white woman, as an English woman!", has she gained such trust and respect? What makes her "a world figure" in the history of Black music?
Gems from the Archive – Rod Hamer
Trumpeter and band leader Rod Hamer was born in Bury, Lancashire in 1940, and died in June last year, aged 76. His son Julian has donated many of his father’s jazz papers and other materials to the Archive, which are introduced here.
Rod was a trumpeter (also a pianist and drummer) who played in traditional and Dixieland bands in the Manchester area from the late 1950s onwards, notably with the Art Taylor All Stars. His main career was as an artist and art teacher. In parallel with his teaching, he led his own band for many years and wrote for jazz magazines.
The papers donated to the Archive are a fascinating mix of correspondence, contracts and publicity material for his band, articles by Rod, photos, press cuttings, programmes and tickets for concerts and festivals, diaries and journals. Rod and his wife Val were great friends with trumpeter Wild Bill Davison and his wife Anne, and correspondence, photos, newspaper cuttings, presents and articles that the Davisons sent to England are included. There are also some concert posters, including several designed by Rod.
Many thanks to Julian Hamer for donating this fascinating collection.
The photo above shows Rod with ??? on clarinet and John Ritchie on trombone.
Blues Matters! hits 100
Congratulations to Blues Matters! on reaching its 100th issue, and especially to founder and editor-in-chief Alan Pearce. It’s been published since July 1998, and carries 132 pages of news, album and gig reviews in every bi-monthly issue, along with gig listings. Subscribers can also access every issue back to 1998 through a digital archive.
This British publication specialises in blues music from all over the world. It is a double inductee into the Blues Hall of Fame. It has also received three recognitions in the USA for continued dedication to the blues, and has received an award for Keeping the Blues Alive from The Blues Foundation.
Many thanks to Blues Matters! for continuing to send a complimentary copy of each issue to the National Jazz Archive, reinforcing the fact that our mission covers not only jazz but also "blues and related music".
Jim Godbolt’s wonderful book, A History of Jazz in Britain, 1919–50, is available again from publishers Northway Books, thanks to a reprint to coincide with the exhibition Rhythm & Reaction at Two Temple Place. It covers the trail-blazing American artists of the twenties and thirties, their influence on British musicians, the specialist magazines, rhythm clubs, discographers and pundits, and the fascinating cloak-and-dagger plots to defy the Musicians’ Union ban. It can be ordered here.
Jazz and Everyday Aesthetics
A special issue of Jazz Research Journal is to be published in May 2019 and a call for papers has been issued by guest editors Nicholas Gebhardt (Birmingham City University) and Roger Fagge (University of Warwick). The issue will address questions and issues in jazz studies and everyday aesthetics through a broad lens that embraces a variety of experiences and a wide range of approaches and methodologies. Submissions on any treatment of jazz and everyday aesthetics are welcome by 6 April 2018. Contact Nicholas Gebhardt for details.
When did you last listen to that fabulous Ellington or Basie track or maybe Tubby, Chris Barber, Soweto or whoever does it for you and thought… I feel great! Well, the next time that happens why not share that feeling and make a donation to the work of the National Jazz Archive and help us to preserve our jazz heritage?
