Young musicians sought for new Narberth band

21st September 2021

Narberth Jazz have the ambition of reviving an idea first achieved in the 1980’s by sax teacher Jim Luxton. We are looking for young musicians who would like to join a band to be tutored and formed to play at local functions in and around Narberth. All young instrumentalists with a minimum standard of grade 3 are eligible to apply as well as aspiring singers. The successful applicants will have weekly sessions in group playing from qualified teachers at minimal cost. The music played will be open to discussion but will guided by the ambitions of the band members. It is hoped that creative improvisation in jazz styles will form part of the on going programme.

We are also looking for a special musician who would like to take the lead with this project, but in order to make it happen we will apply for a national lottery grant to fund it. To obtain a grant we will need to show that there is an interest from local young people to start a youth band here, and that is why we are asking all who might enjoy being part of the project to contact us to let us know. You can send us an email info@narberthjazz.wales

DUSKI at Haverhub POSTPONED

It is with great regret that I have to tell you that despite our best efforts, ticket bookings for Duski at Haverhub are ultra low, and therefore we have, very reluctantly, decided to postpone that show.

As a small community group we do not have the resources to take on the large debt that going ahead with a small audience would entail. Haverhub are in the same position and they agree that it would be best to rearrange the gig.

We apologise to those of you who were looking forward to seeing this fine band, and the few who have booked will be reimbursed. We hope to rebook the band for a gig next year.

It is especially disappointing for me personally because I believe that it is important to present cutting edge jazz along with traditional and mainstream music. I want Narberth Jazz to be able to present a wide variety of jazz as an important part of the spectrum of Welsh creative arts.

The rest of our current programme will not be affected, and you can book future shows with confidence.

Declan and the NJ team

News extra September 2021

Hello all Jazz friends,

A warm welcome to all our new friends who have joined as members recently.

This extra edition of NJ news is sent because there was a date error in my first September one which is important to correct:

The DUSKI event at Haverhub is on Friday 24th. September and NOT Thursday as written.

Tickets through Haverhub at www.haverhub.org.uk or follow the link www.narberthjazz.wales

We are sorry for the mistake and hope you will understand as this is a special event presenting the best of Jazz in Wales today.

We hope you will come to this exciting new arts venue to enjoy this fabulous band. We have presented Duski at the Plas hotel a few years ago and they have just got better since then, so those that remember them will notice their progress. They are all graduates from Welsh College of Music and Drama who are also involved with other projects, but Duski is their first choice band. Their recent appearance at Green Man Festival was really well received and they have just released a live album or the first time.

Having an extra news gives us the chance to fix the rest of this year’s dates for Narberth Jazz shows, but there are more details on each show on the website www.narberthjazz.wales

October 21st GRAHAM PIKE with John Gibbon Trio

The London based jazz entertainer who plays trumpet, flugelhorn and harmonica returns with our ‘resident’ trio led by drummer and raconteur John Gibbon. Here he is with his sextet in spooky mode https://youtu.be/FTGB-jhbipQ

November 19th. SALUTE TO HUMPH

The Salute to Humph is to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of Humphrey Lyttelton’s birth and to showcase his wonderful life, times and music. The tour will highlight how Humphrey Lyttelton led the way for the jazz revival of the late 40’s and 50’s and brought jazz to the mainstream with the first UK jazz record to reach the Top20, ‘Bad Penny Blues’. https://youtu.be/N1-pQziWiKk

Trumpet star Chris Hodgkins leads an all star 10 piece band in a tribute with audio visual

reminders of the great man who was a mainstay of British jazz and  BBC’s radio comedy for many years.

This will be a cooperative event with and at The Queens Hall Narberth.

December 2nd John Gibbon

Returns with a special band for the last show of the year, to remember John’s much loved piano man for many years, Phil Meades, who recently passed away.

Here he is with Julian Marc Stringle https://youtu.be/BNFNmRGxYnQ

Best wishes Declan Connolly

07988 666054 www.narberthjazz.wales

Newsletter September 2021

Hello all Jazz friends,

A warm welcome to all our new friends who have joined as members recently.

The Keith Marshall band gave a large and appreciative audience a great evening of swing music last month, sounding much bigger than their nine piece line up suggested.

The Firebyrd Trio and special friends

Thursday 9^th September at Narberth Rugby club.

The next Narberth Jazz event is especially for all local members and friends to enjoy a low cost event on Thursday 9^th September at Narberth Rugby club. The evening will feature The Firebyrd Trio and special friends. The trio consists of George Whitfield accordion, Alan Argent saxophone, and Jack Deere Jones bass, who will be joined by selected musician friends later in the evening.

These guys live locally, really know their music, and want to support our community efforts to keep jazz live and local. We hope that you will come and enjoy their mellow music based mostly on standards of popular music.

You don’t have to book for this event as the venue is large enough to cope, but parking may be scarce so cars are best left in the town, it’s only a short walk up the lane by the Creative Cafe to the club. This month is special for us as it is the first time we have had two events at two new venues in one month!

Duski

Friday 24^th September at Haverhub, Haverfordwest

We have partnered with the new arts centre in Haverfordwest – Haverhub to present an exciting group of Welsh players who are pushing Welsh jazz into the 21st century with their blend of rock and improvised music – DUSKI.

We are proud to bring them to this exciting new arts venue which has already hosted exhibitions and young peoples gigs. DUSKI began as a trio in Cardiff comprising of sax, double bass and drums, then guitar (Dan Messore) and keyboards (Paul Jones) joined. Jazz styles morphed into heavy jams with collective improvising.

Duski toured the UK three times to promote their debut album. During this process, the band started developing new music that ended up dominating the set and a second album was on the horizon inspired by the music of Donny McCasslin and Pat Metheny. As well as musical, there were visual influences for the album including the works of David Lynch and Dario Argento. Their third CD, Make A Wish was released on the American Ropeadope label and shows how much this band has developed. They played Green Man festival and  toured Europe to great acclaim.

If you enjoy modern creative music this is a must, tickets £12 from our website www.narberthjazz.wales

You can hear them here  https://duskimusic.co.uk/album/make-a-wish

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Narberth Jazz Projects

Information on our projects here www.narberthjazz.wales/projects

Youth Band

Last month we applied for a grant for our long term projects, but we missed the targets for funding. Undeterred, we will find the right formula and try again. Back in the 1990’s we helped a great musician and teacher, Jim Luxton, to start and run a Narberth Youth Band which played at local events, and we feel the time is right to revive the idea and help young people reach their musical potential. we now ask for your help to find young musicians who may be interested to play in a new youth band.

Do you have a young person in the family or neighbourhood who might enjoy being in at the start of a new band to play local functions and festivals? Please let us know at info@narberthjazz.wales

Jazz Afternoons

We would like to hold  ‘jazz afternoons’ at a local cafe or bar where we would invite people living alone to meet and listen to recorded music of their choice and meet people and perhaps make friends. Please let us know if you would like to take part info@narberthjazz.wales

Retirement and Care Homes – Music Project

Another ambition is to take our live music events into local care homes and make them available to our elderly friends who cannot get out to our live events. We will firstly video performances and stream them into care homes and eventually take musicians in to perform live in the homes. Several care homes have told us they would like to have our shows and we will continue to use your donations for this project. If you would like to suggest other places that would benefit, we would like to know. Please email on info@narberthjazz.wales

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We hope you were able to get to the Aberjazz festival last weekend, but if you did not, you can visit Pure West Radio who streamed some of their concerts. Here is the link to one

https://www.podcasts.com/pure-west-radio-august-2020–d22637a90/episode/pure-west-radio-aberjazz-takeover-with-bb-skone-martyn-oughton-llareggubb-298-9-10pm

The BBC prom featuring the young British saxophonist Nubya Garcia is still available here https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b007v097/bbc-proms

We hope to see you soon at one of the NJ events, and please remember we are guided by you so do let us know your opinions on any aspect of Narberth Jazz.

Stay well

Declan and the NJ team