Windy City Weatherbirds

Monday 8 April 2024 There were many requests to invite this young band back, so it was a joy to welcome the Windy City Weatherbirds to Griffin Park Jazz Club again in April. The three brothers, Magnus, Daniel and Joe grew up in Orkney and were encouraged by their parents to play music, their mum played clarinet and piano and their granddad trombone and bagpipes, and they specialise in Swing and Dixieland music. Sol, their rhythm guitarist is currently on a sabbatical in Australia and so Cornelius, from Yorkshire, was standing in, just as magnificently, breaking out melodically from the rhythm when the tune allowed. Favourites included The Tin Roof Blues, 1923, The New Orleans Rhythm Kings; Some of These Days, 1957, Louis Armstrong; At the Jazz Band Ball, 1917, The Original Dixieland Jazz Band; and That Da Da Strain, 1939, Muggsy Spanie and His Ragtime Band.

The band recorded their first album last October, at Light Ship 95, a 550-tonne ship that was moored on the Goodwin Sands and is now docked near Canning Town. The album is called The Lightship Session and will be available to order soon.

Magnus Pickering – Cornet and vocals
Daniel Pickering – Trombone
Joe Pickering – Clarinet and Tenor Sax
Cornelius Corkery – Rhythm Guitar

You can listen again to some of the tunes here on Paul Rodigo’s YouTube channel.

Join us every 2nd Monday of the month. Next time will be Monday 13 May with Max Emmons. Everyone is welcome. £10 on the door, 8pm – 10.30pm at Brentford Community Sports Trust. Bring your own drink, there is also free tea and soft drinks available.

East of Meon

Monday 11 March 2024 Another new band for the club… we welcomed East of Meom all the way from South London to Griffin Park Jazz Club, delighting the crowd with a night of upbeat Golden Oldies, Great American Songbook and a bit of Latin mixed in too.

Favourite tunes included Sweet Georgia Brown, with a nice drum and bass section, 1925 by Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard; Do You Know what it Means to Miss New Orleans, written by Eddie DeLange and Louis Alter, performed by Louis Armstrong and sung by Billie Holiday in the movie New Orleans in 1947; Do Nothing til you Hear from Me, Duke Ellington, 1940; and St Louis Blues, WC Handy, 1914, with guest appearances from both Tomoko and our John Habes on mouth organ.

Saxophone – Kati Whitaker
Keyboards/Vocals – Marcus Hill
Double Bass – Paul Canton
Drums – Andy Coe
Clarinet – Tomoko Nakahata

Join us next month on Monday 8 April for a return visit from The Windy City Weatherbirds. 8pm, music starts 8.30pm. £10 cash on the door, bring your own food and alcohol drinks if you wish, we have zero alcohol beers and snacks for sale (still waiting for licence). Tea, Coffee, Lemonade, squash and water free, plates glasses and ice on request. Also if you have any prizes you’d like to donate to the half time raffle these would also be welcomed.

Mood Swing

12 February 2024 We welcomed Mood Swing for the first time at Brentford FC Community Sports Trust Hub for a great evening of hot gypsy jazz and classic jazz tunes played in the style of the Paris Hot Club of France years. The band played a wide variety of guitar and violin-based jazz including many Stephane Grapelly and Django Reinhardt favourites from the interwar and post war years. It was a night of a incredibly inventive style of brilliant jazz seldom heard live nowadays played with great skill and enthusiasm, and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all.

The set opened with the classic Minor Swing, which is almost a standard ‘example’ piece for gypsy jazz and the whole evening was peppered with Reinhardt and Grapelly solo and Hot Club band numbers like Nuages, Lady Be Good, Djangology and Troubillant Bolero all with excellent solos that alternated between the musicians.

There were also some Grapelly and Barney Kessell favourites like Limehouse Blues featuring a lovely violin solo by Ann, and Cry Me a River. Classic standards like Jerome Kern’s Pick Yourself Up and Cole Porter’s 1953 evergreen I love Paris received the same strings based treatment and fitted seamlessly into the show, and another more recent gypsy style standard, the Dorada Schmitt’s signature tune Bossa Dorada was one of several tunes with a latin feel. There was another bossa nova (I think!) Corcovado and the 1942 Sammy Kaye standard There’ll Never Be Another You that Chris Montez had a latin (Samba-ish) hit in the 1960s. Fly Me To The Moon and All Of Me standards were icing on the cake and entranced us all.

There was a a rarity too with a London connection, a really rousing version of Stomping At Decca which Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelli recorded with Quintet Of The Hot Club Of France in Decca’s London Studio on Jan 31^st 1938 before the War. The night ended with the inevitable and unbeatable Sweet Georgia Brown. Thanks to Ann, Peter, Stefan and Mike for a great night, and we hope to see them again at Brentford.

Guitar, Vocals – Peter Mayor
Violin – Ann Mayor
Guitar – Stefan Moody
Double Bass – Mike Bennet

Next up is East of Meon on Monday 11 March, an excellent jazz band that will be giving us a Golden Oldies night with lots of early jazz and standards, and a bit of latin and Great American Songbook mixed in. We intended to book them in a future slot but they have very kindly offered to play in March and fill in for a last minute cancellation so please do all come and bring your friends and give them a great GP Jazz Club welcome. It will be a good night guaranteed!

Please join us. £10 cash on the door, bring your own food and alcohol drinks if you wish, we have zero alcohol beers and snacks for sale (still waiting for licence). Tea, Coffee, Lemonade, squash and water free, plates glasses and ice on request.

Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Jazz Band

Monday 9 January 2024 Happy new year everyone! There was a good turnout at Brentford FC Community Sports Trust Hub to welcome back Sarah Spencer and friends from her Transatlantic Jazz Band at Griffin Park Jazz Club. The band played a great selection of favourites mixed with some lesser known but excellent and diverse classics that were thoroughly enjoyed by all. The set included Louisiana Fairy Tale, a 1935 composition on a rare 1938 recording by Fats Waller, and the lighthearted but seldom heard Jelly Roll Morton track Big Lip Blues; also a reprise from last July’s visit by Sarah with the Gene Autry song Take Me Back To My Old Boots And Saddle that became a memorable Red Allen jazz record in 1935, and Ikey Robinson and The Windy City Five’s 1935 jaunty and rhythmic hit Sunshine.

There was a latin flavour with an example of the slow rhumba “beguine” Caribbean dance with Panamanian jazzman Robert Mavouncy’s Begonia and Andrew Clancy delighted with his piano solo feature plating a great arrangement of the ever popular Pennies From Heaven. The earliest New Orleans jazz classic was Papa Celestin’s Tuxedo Jazz Band’s storming and joyous signature tune Papa’s Got The Jimjams! from 1927 and to our delight Sarah and the band played a red-hot version of the Satchmo Louis Armstrong favourite I wish I could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate.

Saxophone, clarinet, vocals – Sarah Spencer
Cornet – Magic Mike Henry
Piano – Andrew Clancy
Double Bass – Lord Jim Swinnerton

Join us again on Monday 12 February when we host Moodswing Quartet, a new band to Griffin Park Jazz Club who come highly recommended. They play hum-able jazz numbers from the swing, Latin and Parisienne style Hot Club repertoire and have a special love of the Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grapelly Hot Club Of France era in the 1940s. Tell your friends, and bring your own alcoholic drinks and snacks if you wish. Zero Alcohol drinks and snacks will be on sale at low prices, and fruit drinks, tea and coffee are free. Tickets £10, doors open 8pm and music starts from 8.30 til 10.30pm. Find us here.

Bob Dwyer’s Bix & Pieces

Monday 11 Dec 23 For our first Christmas party at the new Brentford FC Community Trust space we were treated to 7 excellent musicians coming together for Bob Dwyer’s Bix & Pieces. There was a great turn-out, lots of free mince pies and edible treats and a bumper raffle, which helps raise money to pay the band. Some favourite tunes were I can’t believe that I’m in love with you, composed by Jimmy McHugh, with lyrics by Clarence Gaskill, 1926; Baby won’t you please come home, Bessie Smith, 1923, with Bob on vocals; and New Orleans, Hoagy Carmichael, 1932.

Trombone – Bob Dwyer
Susaphone – Mark Easener
Trumpet/Cornet – Magic Mike Henry
Drums – Graham Collicott
Clarinet – David Horniblow
Saxaphone – Richard Exall
Keboards – Graham Barton

Griffin Park Jazz Club will continue next year on the 2nd Monday of each month. Tickets £10, doors open 8pm and music starts from 8.30 til 10.30pm. Next month we welcome Sarah Spencer and her Transatlantic Band. At the moment it’s still bring your own alcohol if you like, and some soft drinks and snacks are available to buy at a cheap price, there’s also free tea and coffee supplied by the Community Trust. Everyone is very welcome.

See this link for How to Find Griffin Park Jazz Club: https://griffinparkjazzclub.wordpress.com/2023/11/23/how-to-find-griffin-park-jazz-club-at-our-new-location-at-brentford-community-trust-offices-at-brentford-fc/

How to find Griffin Park Jazz Club at our new location at Brentford Community Trust Offices at Brentford FC

If you are walking from Kew Bridge Station you can follow the route around Brentford Stadium to the entrance of the Community Trust offices, please see below.

Parking is available at Fountain Leisure Centre after 6.30pm and there is also some parking on Lionel Road North. Once parked it is a 5 minute walk up Thomes Layton Way and then either down the steps or disabled lift to the entrance of the Brentford Community Trust offices, see red cross on below map. This is located opposite the Away Fans Gate F of the stadium. Dotted lines below also show the pedestrian route from Kew Bridge Station.

One More Time

Monday 13 November 23 It’s been a while since Max was with us at Griffin Park Jazz Club, and it was great to see him again in our new location at the Community Stadium, with some new members in his band. Favourite tunes included an hypnotic Georgia on my Mind, Ray Charles 1960, (in key of F) with Max on vocals; some beautiful clarinet sounds with Poor Butterfly, Raymond Hubbell with lyrics by John L Golden, 1916; and Rose Room, (in A flat), also known as Sunny Roseroom, by Art Hickman, 1917, and a hit for Duke Ellignton in 1932.

Max Emmons – Trumpet
Steve Smith – Double Bass
Pete Littleproud – Drums
Andrew Clancy – Keyboards
Martin Nickless – Clarinet

The set-up is still bring your own alcoholic drinks if you like, with soft drinks and snacks available to purchase and free tea. Next time it will be our Christmas do, so do bring along raffle prizes and any Christmassy food to share. We will be joined by Bob Dwyer’s Bix & Pieces. Monday 11 December, doors 8pm, music 8.30-10.30pm. Everyone is very welcome.

Windy City Weatherbirds

Monday 9 Oct 23 We were joined for the first time by a fabulous jazz band called Windy City Weatherbirds. Growing up in Orkney the three brothers were encouraged by their parents to play music, their mum played clarinet and piano and their grandad the trombone and bagpipes. Joe grew up on the Isle of Wight, on the other side of the British Isles. With so many lovely tunes to pick from, some favourites included Some Day Sweetheart, written by John and Seb Spikes in 1918, and recorded by many including Gene Austin in 1927; New Orleans by Hoagey Carmichael, 1932; Fools Rush In, Glenn Miller 1940, with Magnus on vocals; The Careless Love Blues, WC Handy, 1921, also recorded by Bessie Smith featuring Louis Armstrong, 1925; and I am Confessing, Doc Daugherty, Ellis Reynolds and lyricist Al J. Neiburg.

Looking around, everyone had smiles on their faces as they enjoyed the professionalism and pure talent of this relatively young band. Their love of traditional jazz shone through and we hope this was the first of many more trips to the club.

Magnus Pickering – Cornet and vocals
Daniel Pickering – Trombone
Joe Pickering – Clarinet and Tenor Sax
Sol Grimshaw – Rhythm Guitar

Join us every 2nd Monday of the month. Next time will be 13 November when Max Emmons will be back with One More Time. Everyone is welcome. £10 on the door, 8pm – 10.30pm at Brentford Community Sports Trust.

Nigel Fox and his jazz band

Monday 11 Sept 23 After having had August off for a summer break Griffin Park Jazz Club was back with something a bit different. Nigel Fox, (an old school pal of John’s), and his band joined us for a night of live music and beautiful singing by Nigel’s wife Ingrid Emsden-Fox. With Duncan Lamont (junior), son of Duncan Lamont, composer and band leader, on Saxophone. Favourite tunes included Perdido, Duke Ellington, 1942, with Ingrid on vocals; My Ship, music by Kurt Weil, lyrics by Ira Gershwin, 1942; So Many Stars, by Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, 1967, featuring Duncan on sax; and Dead Leaves/Autumn Leaves, covered by Miles Davis, 1992; and finishing with George and Ira Gershwin’s Our Love Is Here to Stay, 1938.

Saxophone – Duncan Lamont
Keyboards – Nigel Fox
Double Bass – Steve Riddle
Vocals – Ingrid Emsden-Fox

Join us again on the 2nd Monday of October from 8-10.30pm at The Brentford Football Club Community Stadium Hub. Everyone is welcome. £10 on the door. At the moment it’s bring your own drinks, with tea provided by the club, and a selection of snacks to purchase.

Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Jazz Band

Monday 10 July 2023 With our first post-Covid session last month in the bag, we were back in the swing of things this Monday evening with a brand new band for us, Sarah Spencer, who has played at the club before with other band, and her Transatlantic Jazz Band. The musicians came together online, during the pandemic and you could tell how much they enjoy playing music, the session was upbeat and full of enthusiasm. Tunes included All the do is dream of you, from Singing in the Rain, with Sarah on vocals, There’s a House in Harlem for Sale, and Take Me Back to My Boots and Saddle, by Red Allen, and Bogalusa Strut by the Morgan Brothers.

Sarah Spencer – Saxophone and clarinet
Andrew Clancy – Keyboards
Jim Swinnerton – Bass
Mike ‘Magic’ Henry – Trumpet

Lots to see on YouTube for each of these musicians…. just do a search for their names.

There will be a summer break and no jazz in August but we’ll be back on Monday 11 September with Nigel Fox playing for us. Everyone is welcome to join us. 8pm – 10.30pm.