[Dixielandjazz] Strathclyde Stompers

[Marek Boym]

I heard Gerorge Penman in Glasgow, and, I blieve, at the  Edinburgh
festival.  An excellent band, wasn't it?  We drove there from Edinburgh,
and we were told to come early if we wanted good seats, because whenever
Penman played the place was SRO.  I ended up standing - there was too much
noisy conversation at our table.

In Glasgow Jim Petrie substituted for the regular trumpeter - an advantage,
as far as I was concerned, because Jim, although hardly well known, had
been a favourite of mine for a long time (or should I have said 'has
been?").  An English correspondent once asked me who was my favourite
British trumpet/cornet player.  I replied Jim Petrie, but he had never
heard of him.  After hearing him for the first time at the festival
volunteer party (my friend volunteered), the first thing I'd do when in
Edinburgh was to enquire about the Diplomats of Jazz.  In those
pre-internet days I usually phoned Beverly Knight (if I remember properly),
their lady banjo player.
Cheers


On 18 May 2014 22:34, Ken Mathieson <ken at kenmath.free-online.co.uk> wrote:

>  Hi Marek et al,
>
> Marek's friend wrote
>
> Hi Marek,
> The better known jazz band was the Clyde Valley Stompers.
> The Strathclyde Stompers  was pretty good trad jazz band that used to play
> the jazz scene in Scotland in the late 60's early 70's. I don't have any
> recordings of the band.We were lucky enough to get quite a lot of gigs and
> occasionally did a warm up set for bands like Alex Welsh or once we
> supported Kenny Ball's Jazzmen.
>
> Regards,
>
> Harvey
> The plot thickens! I was very active in the Glasgow and West of Scotland
> scenes in the late 1960s but was in Brasil in the early 70s, then very
> active again on the Glasgow and wider Scottish jazz scene from 1972
> onwards. However your friend's name and the band's name don't ring any
> bells whatsoever. The jazz scene in Glasgow shrank substantially in the mid
> 60s and by the late 60s there were two predominant trad bands in Glasgow:
> George Penman's Jazzmen and Jazz Heard. Both bands bands did a lot of
> support work with big name London-based bands as well as a lot of
> broadcasting for BBC. I co-led Jazz Heard but nobody else fancied
> bandleading chores (who can blame them?), so it wound up in 1971 while I
> was abroad. Thereafter I freelanced and played with all the local jazz
> groups across a range of styles from New Orleans to hard bop and never
> encountered or heard of a band called the Strathclyde Stompers. I'll ask
> around among other old jazzers here and report back if the mystery is
> resolved.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ken
>