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<DIV> Thanks for allowing me in the group.</DIV>
<DIV> I have been interested in jazz for most of
my 77 years and started out as a 13 year old in 1954 when my older brother won a
table top record player in a cycle race. Friends of his gave him some 78
records and one of which was </DIV>
<DIV>Jelly Roll Morton’s ‘Black Bottom Stomp’ backed with ‘Grandpas
Spells’. At the end of the 1950’s a friend of my
brother won an essay competition with the prize being a complete set of the 12
LPs of Morton’s Library of Congress</DIV>
<DIV>recordings. My tastes in jazz currently range from King Oliver up to
about Zoot Sims with a liking for big band, Ellington and Basie as well.
As long as it swings then its for me! </DIV>
<DIV> Finding jazz wasn’t easy in New Zealand in
those days and records came mostly from the UK because of the restrictions which
applied to overseas currency- especially US dollars and in the late 1950’s and
early 1960’s it was illegal to </DIV>
<DIV>have $US even in your possession. I recall being nervous as I had a US $10
note. I grew up in Christchurch and Operation Deep Freeze mission to Antarctica
was based there so there were some dollars around.</DIV>
<DIV> A lifetime of collecting has given me a
large collection but I am interested in exchanging with anyone. </DIV>
<DIV> There has never been a lot of jazz of any sort in
New Zealand but jazz flourished in Australia after WW2 and I am interested in
the traditional jazz from there. As I said it was much easier to get jazz from
the UK than from anywhere else</DIV>
<DIV>and I have a reasonable collection of jazz from there.</DIV>
<DIV> I live in a New Zealand town of about 25,000
– a tourist town in a scenic part of the country beside a large lake. I doubt
that there is single traditional or indeed jazz fan of any sort in the area and
so I rely on the internet for jazz contact.</DIV>
<DIV> As many of you of similar age will no doubt
have noticed many of my jazz enthusiast contemporaries have a habit of dying and
so I look forward to hearing from anyone with similar interests.</DIV>
<DIV> I was teacher for most of my working life and have
an interest in history and New Zealand native plants as well.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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Roger Strong</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>