[Dixielandjazz] Kathy Stobart R.I.P.

[Ken Mathieson]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for posting the news about Kath. Sad news indeed. She was not just an exceptionally good jazz musician and a very likeable lady, but she was also a musical chameleon who could fit in with a Dixieland ensemble just as well as with a bop band playing very complex music or in a big band sax section. I had the very great pleasure of working with her many times over the years and always found her to have a warm and welcoming nature on-stage and off. But on-stage you always knew you were in a serious gig with Kath: she always gave 100% and expected no less from her colleagues, so she invariably took us to places that we wouldn't normally have expected to get to. She positively enthused over musicians who pushed themselves to their limits and encouraged everyone in this, explaining that it's only by doing so that a player can improve his/her improvising skills. She also had a lot of patience, so I can see why she was a successful saxophone teacher.

My impression of her playing style was that she was essentially a mainstreamer who had spent many years playing bop, so her playing was informed by the bop vocabulary without ever losing her hard-swinging rhythmic feel. This was the basis of her versatility and enabled her to work with jazz musicians of every style. I'll miss her and will raise a glass to her memory tonight while listening to recordings we made together when she guested at the Black Bull Jazz Club in Milngavie, near Glasgow in the late 70s and early 80s.

Ken Mathieson