Ribble Valley Jazz & Blues was able to access a significant grant in November from the Local Network Fund – for promoting events, workshops and promotions for young, aspiring jazz musicians. This has given RVJ&B a big boost because one of our objectives is to actively support young jazz & blues musicians. Lancashire is already well blessed with young people playing our music, mainly through school Big/Swing Bands in the county. Clitheroe Royal Grammar School have plaid for us as part of our Youth Jazz programme, and several of its players have set up there own small bands; hence The John Wickham Trio and The Jazz Commandos, both of whom have performed for us, and supported various workshops. There are also bands operating at St. Augustines RC School, Billington, at Westholme School, Blackburn, at a Chorley School (no details), and the Lancashire County Bands have been performing for many years. Not far away, in Wigan, there is the excellent Wigan Jazz Club which has two youth jazz bands, both of which perform regularly at club events, and at the annual Wigan Jazz Festival – look on their site at www.wiganjazzclub.org.uk
Nigel Spooner has been leading our efforts in putting on workshops and events, and his efforts have been supplemented by our committee members. We have made substantial progress on promoting various workshops for individual instruments, and for a band. For instance, Kevin Holbrough from Leeds, an experienced trombonist, lead at workshop at the end of March for 5 local young trombonists – a session that was fully appreciated by all participants! All told, we will have promoted group workshops for drummers, bassists, trumpeters, saxophonists, and pianists. We have also been able to support individual young people with support for bespoke masterclasses.
The Jam Session in early March was an innovation for the club – and a workshop that was attended by 4 young people playing baritone sax, tenor sax, drums, and piano, an innovation that we are likely to repeat.
The end of March brought us an excellent Youth Jazz event at our new base in the St.Michael & John’s Social Centre in Clitheroe with the Dan Berry Quintet – local young people from Darwen (in the main) but who are currently at music college in London. Dan Berry & the Quintet were extremely well supported by The John Wickham Trio – John, Andy and Tom are obviously benefiting from the experience with RVJ&B. Apart from playing for us, and the CRGS Swing Band, they are picking up a few local gigs such as the opening event of The Grand Youth Arts Centre in Clitheroe, and some weddings.
So, having had the advantage of specific grants for promoting Youth Jazz, where do we go next? Well, we are looking for some new money to set up another round of workshops and events, and RVJ&B Committee is looking at promoting a local Jazz & Blues Festival next year, with a particular emphasis on Youth Jazz. Watch this space!
Meanwhile keep logging in to this web site for up-to-date info. And don’t forget our gigs, currently planned up to end July.
If you have a need for any more information – or want to contribute to the future of RVJ&B in any way – you can use the Contact Us on the web site, or phone the club on 07870 908 159.
Geoff Jackson
The John Wickham Trio – 26th October gig
But another group has grown out of the CRGS Swing Band – The Jazz Commandos – this quintet put on an excellent performance at the recent Ribble Valley Arts Alliance event last November. We hope that we can hear them at one of our gigs in the next month or two?
The John Wickham Trio will be appearing on our gig programme, supporting the Northern Jazz Orchestra on 29th February. So a good reason to turn out for an excellent double bill!
We will be putting links to Youth Jazz bands, groups and gigs – so if you have any relevant information – send it to geoff.jackson@dsl.pipex.com, or to the info address on this web site.
Geoff Jackson
Treasurer