[Dixielandjazz] Graham Tayar RIP

[Tony Davis]

My thanks to Robert Calder for bringing to my attention the sad news of 
Graham's death, and the Guardian obituary which I unaccountably failed 
to spot at the time.

Graham and I were - roughly - contemporaries at King Edward's School, 
Birmingham, though he was a few years ahead of me.  I remember meeting 
him once in a pub in Birmingham, but we didn't get to know each other 
until 2002, when we met at the funeral of pianist Ray Foxley (another 
Old Edwardian).  A couple of years later he asked me to play trumpet at 
a dinner for the Old Edwardians' Association at a club in Piccadilly.  
Graham's idea was to put together a band made up entirely of Old 
Edwardians, and he almost succeeded; I think only the bass player was an 
"import".  Graham himself was on piano, of course.

A lovely man indeed, and as his son says, a "creative force".

Tony Davis

On 09/08/16 14:43, ROBERT R. CALDER wrote:
> DJML and friends
> A fellow acquaintance of the leader and pianist of the Crouch End All 
> Stars has told me (by e-mail, and from a current location in New 
> Orleans -- sic! -- to where I have copied this) of Graham's recent 
> death. See below for link to Guardian obit by one of his progeny.
>
> Lovely man, Graham, some years back cooked a brace of haggis I had 
> left with a friend for the impending Burns anniversary celebration, 
> and rather than jazz had endless rugby songs from said friend and the 
> fellow Caledonian and guest Nicol Williamson (of stage and screen fame).
>
> Graham maintained that he had formed the Crouch End ensemble 
> consequent to the cajolings of his old friend Wally Fawkes, to be a 
> band with or within which Wally could play.  The Lytteltonian parallel 
> continued when rather than supposedly existing as a band with which 
> Wally could perform it became one with which Ian Christie performed 
> (same sequence in which the two clarinetists were with Humphrey 
> Lyttelton.  Graham had his reminiscences of others sometime happily 
> prominent, Bruce Turner sending up our Scottish hero Sandy Brown, when 
> Sandy demonstrated, not that bebop harmonies were horrible nonsense 
> (some would agree with him) but that his own ear was tuned to 
> something different. Bruce parodying Sandy travestying Bop, was how 
> Graham referred to it.
> "Dear Bruce," he actually said.
> One of our listmates tells me Tayar means traveller, and Graham had on 
> his wall a certificate or permit issued to one of his ancestors the 
> century before last, licensing trade on the Mediterranean. The 
> Guardian obituary provides a little more, and Wally is recognisable to 
> eye and ear on the YouTube clip,
>
> Robert R. Calder
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvrHPSe0MG0
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
> https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
>
> <https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/08/graham-tayar-obituary>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> To unsubscribe or change your e-mail preferences for the Dixieland Jazz Mailing list, or to find the online archives, please visit:
>
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>
>
>
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://ml.islandnet.com/pipermail/dixielandjazz/attachments/20160812/9f35c0f9/attachment.html>