By JGB
Although there had been live jazz in Edinburgh before World War II, the international revival of traditional jazz in the 1940s brought about a major increase in interest in this type of jazz in Edinburgh. Among the many young enthusiasts who took up the music then and later, were several who went on to establish national and international reputations. These included clarinettists Sandy Brown, Archie Semple and Jack Duff, trumpeters Al Fairweather and Alex Welsh, pianists Stan Greig and Alec Shaw and trombonists Johnny McGuff and Dave Keir, all of whom became notable UK professional jazz musicians in the 1950/60s. More local in their impact, although also fine players, were clarinettists Dave Paxton and Jack Graham, trombonist Bob Craig, trumpeter Ian ‘Tello’ Telford, banjo player Mike Hart, bass player Dizzy Jackson and many others who continued to play in Edinburgh jazz bands for decades.
In the 1950s, a strong New Orleans oriented group developed around trumpeter Jim Petrie, trombonist Jack Weddell, clarinettist Jake McMahon, drummer Kenny Milne and bass player Jim Young who founded the ‘Climax Jazz Band’, playing in the Afro-American tradition of Bunk Johnston and George Lewis. In addition, a lively tradition of New Orleans styled marching bands was established. Around the same time bands led by Bob Craig, Mike Hart, trumpeter Charlie McNair together with drummer George Crockett’s ‘Nova Scotians’ appeared and became the core of the Edinburgh jazz scene.
Around 1960 ‘Old Bailey and his Jazz Advocates’, formed by trombone player Archie Sinclair and Mike Hart and another band in the New Orleans tradition, ‘Bill Salmond’s Louisiana Ragtime Band’, began long and successful careers in Edinburgh and they were followed by ‘Jack St Clair’s Jazz Band’ and the mainstream styled ‘Pete Martin’s All Stars’. A bit later, ‘Mike Hart’s New Society Syncopators’ began a long and distinguished history, a band which Mike later reinvented as the ‘Scottish Society Syncopators’, and reeds player Hamish McGregor formed and led ‘Seven Up’, the ‘Memphis Road Show’ and later, ‘Fat Sam’s Band’. In 1981, a merger of ‘Old Bailey’s Jazz Advocates’ and ‘The New Society Syncopators’ produced the 8 piece ‘Scottish Jazz Advocates’.
Most of these groups were 6 or 7 piece bands with the traditional line up of trumpet, trombone, clarinet/saxophone, piano, banjo/guitar, bass and drums but from the late 1980s and on into the present century, smaller bands of 4 or 5 became the fashion. These included ‘Jim Petrie’s Diplomats of Jazz’, ‘The Jazz Masters’, ‘Dave Keir’s Hot Four/Five’, Brian Robertson’s ‘Elwynn Stompers’ and ‘The Maid of the Forth Stompers’ who have been the resident band on a cruise boat sailing on the Firth of Forth for over 20 years. A four piece band playing in the European tradition associated with the ‘Hot Club of France’ was formed in the 1980s and went on to have a long career under the name of ‘Swing’ followed by the current year( eg ‘Swing 2008’).
Other bands included ‘Dr McJazz’, led by trombonist John Arthur, and the ‘West End Jazz Band’ led by clarinettist Bob McDowell, which more recently has been based in Linlithgow. Over the years, most of the jazz activity took place in pubs including the ‘Crown Bar’, ‘The Place’, ‘The Woolpack’, ‘Basin Street’, the ‘Navaar House Hotel’ and many others although at various times, jazz clubs were established and flourished for a while. The drummer, Roger Craik, established a long-running session at which a resident rhythm section was joined each month by guest horns.
A great and influential event was the founding by Mike Hart In 1978 of the ‘Edinburgh International Jazz Festival’ (EIJF). From small beginnings, and thanks to the enthusiastic support of the local traditional jazz bands, this developed to become one of the biggest jazz events in Europe, attracting many internationally renowned bands and jazz musicians from all over the world and Mike was awarded an MBE for services to jazz in Scotland in 1995. Great players who graced the early EIJFs included Benny Waters who had recorded with King Oliver in the 1920s, Harry Edison, Al Gray and Buddy Tait who made their names with Count Basie, Carl Fontana, Milt Hinton, Bob Haggart and many others. The EIJF gave Edinburgh jazz musicians not only a chance to hear great players but also the opportunity to play alongside them.
Increasingly, Edinburgh jazz bands travelled in the UK and abroad to play at jazz festivals including the Sacramento Jazz Jamboree in the USA, Ascona in Switzerland, Eindhoven in Holland, Bude, the Isle of Bute, Orkney, Keswick and many others. Both the ‘New Society Syncopators’ (1979) and ‘Old Bailley’s Jazz Advocates’ (1980) won the trophy for best traditional band at the Dunkirk Jazz Festival. It also became the fashion for the local bands to produce recordings of their music giving a permanent record of local jazz and some of the bands broadcast on local and national radio and TV. In 2003, the ‘Silver Jubilee of Edinburgh Traditional Jazz’ in the Queen’s Hall celebrated 25 years of traditional jazz at the EIJF and featured 7 Edinburgh bands and around 40 jazz musicians. Later, Violet Milne and Norrie Thomson founded the ‘Edinburgh Jazz and Jive Club’, firstly based at the Fairmile Inn and latterly at Goldenacre. This is still one of the few successful ‘pay at the door’ Edinburgh jazz ventures and it provides a regular platform for many of the Edinburgh bands and guests from elsewhere and is a showcase of traditional jazz in Edinburgh.
At the time of writing in 2008, traditional jazz continues to flourish in Edinburgh alongside a healthy modern and contemporary jazz scene. Although the free pub jazz tradition has almost died away and many great players have gone, a smaller pool of musicians, now much more integrated with musicians from Glasgow and the west of Scotland, continue to play and provide vigorous proof of the lasting worth of traditional jazz at a local level, frequently aided and abetted by visiting musicians and bands from elsewhere in the UK and across the world. The EIJF, now the Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival, continues to flourish and attract big names and audiences, although now embracing a wider spectrum of music than in the early days.
In Edinburgh, the average age of the bands and their followers is steadily increasing as fewer young musicians come into traditional jazz. Young Edinburgh jazz musicians now tend to play modern or contemporary jazz, although in the birthplace of traditional jazz, New Orleans, many young players are continuing to play the traditional style.
In Edinburgh new blood is needed. Get out there, learn an instrument, start singing jazz and get along and support the local bands. – This is too good a music to just fade away.
JGB 4.08
Addendum: Some jazz musicians of the local scene but not mentioned in the text above are:
Simon Carlyle /sousaphone, Ralph Laing /piano, Dougie Boyter /banjo, Dougie Goodal /clarinet, Les Horne /trumpet, Gus Ferguson /trumpet, Owen Mcdonald /bass, George Gilmour/clarinet, Roy Dunnett /drums, Eric Jamieson /drums, Alec Mackintosh /trumpet, Eddie Hamilton /clarinet, Finlay Milne /trumpet, Bill Smith /trombone, Tony Sargent /bass, Jim Baikie /guitar, Bob Busby/reeds, Tom Renouf /piano, Bill Oliver /guitar, Henry Mackenzie /tenor sax, Donald Macdonald /tenor sax, Tommy Whittle /tenor sax...
And there will probably be lots more. But email me their (or your) names ...and I'm really sorry if you've been missed out.
OK... so most of the pictures have me in them, but that's because these are the shots people have given me throughout the years. If you send me digitised photos by email or prints by post for me to digitise (you'll get them back) I'll put them on this page.
This could grow and grow...
Ian.
