Early Memories (1960s)
My earliest memory of hearing and loving music was at my Aunty Jean’s house. My mum had returned to work as a teacher and my mum’s sister Jean, who was a lovely kind lady, looked after me during the day.
She had lost her sight completely as a result of diabetes. She would cook my lunch and afterwards I’d sit on her knee and we would listen to ‘Listen With Mother’ on BBC Radio 4.
​
The programme ended with its theme tune ‘The Berceuse’ from ‘The Dolly Suite’ by Gabriel Faure. I used to particularly like it when the music was extended, as it was sometimes when the programme was short. I decided then, aged about eighteen months, that I was going to play the piano and that one day I would play for the queen.
First Lessons and School Years
Mark, my elder brother, first started having piano lessons when he was about six and I was three. I had my first lessons around the age of five in the hall at Charing Primary School, Kent with Phillip Moore who later went on to a very distinguished career as organist at York minster. One of the first pieces I remember playing was ‘Indian Drums’.
I continued with lessons for a year or two, perhaps getting to around Grade Two standard. I played on our ancient upright, straight strung John Spencer piano that had been to India and back (or so the story went). My mum (Johanna Vinten née Alexander 1927-1995) often played the piano; some simplified Chopin etc.
There wasn’t a lot of music in our household however – a box set of vinyl records from Reader’s Digest and one or two classical records – I remember Tchaikovsky’s 1812. There was definitely no jazz at all.
I was playing the piano on and off aged 8 to 10 but I remember becoming interested in composition aged around 11 and had some piano and composing teaching from Mr Garrard at Friars school. I began having lessons with Mrs Joan Hosking at her private house in Charing. With her I studied Chopin and Mozart and passed some of the Grades.
It was at this time I did what many of my contemporaries did and learned to play the ragtime piece, ‘The Entertainer’. This piece came to my attention as it was the theme tune for the film ‘The Sting’. I went on with my study of ragtime and learned some of the other rags by Scott Joplin including a version of Maple Leaf Rag in the key of G – I later learned it in Ab. I also learned to play some rags by other composers. Learning to play these rags rather took me away from ‘serious’ practice and I remember one lesson with Mrs Hosking in which I revealed and played to her the pieces I had been practising instead of those she had set me – it must have been very frustrating for her! I played some of the rags to her and she was so impressed that she called her husband into the room to listen.
​
Teenage Years: Bands, Songs and First Jazz
By this time I had moved from my prep school near Ashford in Kent to the Norton Knatchbull School in Ashford. There I met my lifelong friend, the guitarist, John Keston-Hole and we jammed together in the practice rooms next to the music room. John’s main interest was in Rock Music so we played rock although I don’t think I was ever very comfortable playing this genre. Sometimes we would play in the practice rooms rather than go and play games on a Wednesday afternoon and sometimes we got caught. I was writing songs at this time which were ‘poppish’ I guess.
Aged 14 or 15 my French teacher, Mr Thomas (Bernie as we called him) leant me a record by the trombonist Kid Ory. I enjoyed listening to this and I believe this led me into setting up a school jazz band. Mr Thomas also used to play the grand piano in the hall at lunchtime – playing Top Cat, The Pink Panther Theme and Take Five.
It was late in the day when we asked if the little jazz band we had formed could play at the end of term concert in the summer of my 5th Year. With John Keston-Hole on bass, Chris Dryland on drums and Andrew Prangnell on trumpet we played my own composition ‘Are you Two-Timing Me?’.
I remember we played a couple of ‘false endings’. It was very well received. From these early beginnings we went on to play at other school concerts in my last couple of years at school. The band augmented to a seven-piece band with the following personnel:-
​
​Andrew Prangnell trpt, ‘Bernie’ Thomas clt, Jim Fehr (my music teacher) trb, Laurence Muspratt clt, John Keston-hole on bass (sometimes Andrew Paterson) or guitar, Gary Moore on drums.
I was studying A level music at this time at school (eventually I scraped an E Grade – it really wasn’t for me). During my Lower Sixth there was a production of My Fair Lady and I was expected to take part in it as I was studying music. I became very anxious about the whole idea of going on stage, bizarrely what I have spent most of my life doing. Here I am with Fred Ambler – I believe I was a costermonger.
First Gigs and the Pull of Jazz
When I was around 15 years old my dad took me to Maidstone River Boat Festival and there was a jazz band playing. I met and chatted to guitarist/banjo-player, Eric Webster who told me about jazz gigs in local pubs that he played in. Within a few weeks my dad took me to some of these gigs.
The local gigs I went to were Dr Jazz playing at The Duke of Wellington at Ryarsh, The Blue Rhythm Kings at The Red House, Boughton Monchelsea and The Flower Pot on Sandling Road, Maidstone where I later performed my first paid gig in July 1981. I also went to the Sunday night sessions with Pete Turner’s Band at the Bybrook Tavern in Ashford. I began ‘sitting in’ with some of these bands.
​
In this time I remember a school trip to Paris whereI bought my first jazz record.
It was Jelly Roll Morton and his Red Hot Peppers on Black and White Tribune. This record started my obsession with the music of JRM. I also began to learn some of the Morton Piano Solos such as Wolverine Blues at this time which I remember playing in the interval at The Bybrook Tavern. Unfortunately the piano at this pub was half a tone flat so I couldn’t play with the band. At this pub I also met my friends, Ken and Esmée Turner. Ken was playing bass sax in the band.
University Years: Swansea
In 1981 I went to Swansea University to study psychology. My infatuation with Jelly Roll Morton continued and I remember asking a girl back to my room so she could listen to the ‘Library of Congress’ recordings that Morton made in the late 30s. In my first year I formed JJ’s Rhythm Aces and we began to get little gigs in the bar – I believe we played for ‘beer’ in the first place but we began to get other gigs around Swansea and Cardiff that did pay.
​I formed a band with Ray Bartlett who was a great guitarist, John Latham (one of the lecturers) who played clarinet, Steve Hayhurst on trombone, Mike Jones on bass, Gary Phillips on drums. Swansea also had a very good jazz club at the Liberal Club and I saw many performers there including Benny Waters and Slim Gaillard. The guests were often accompanied by local and excellent pianist, Russ Jones. I went to Russ’s house for a lesson or two at this time.
Kent, Teaching and the London Scene
After university, in 1984 I returned to Lenham in Kent for two years and began gigging on the thriving Kent Jazz scene, playing regularly with The Invicta Jazzband at The Smugglers in Herne Bay and with Malcolm Walton’s Blue Rhythm Kings. I was also playing solo gigs on a Sunday Lunchtime and with Ken Turner and his band on Thursday evenings. In the year after Swansea (1985) I attended evening classes at Goldsmiths in Jazz and Popular Musicianship going on to study for a Post Graduate Certificate in Education at Christchurch College, Canterbury. At this time I was also teaching a few piano lessons at my parents’ house and went for a few piano lessons with Keith Nicholls in Ilford. I joined the The New Orleans Echoes in Tunbridge Wells and also joined the Invicta Jazz Band and played a regular Sunday evening session with them at ‘The Smugglers’ in Herne Bay. They also invited guest musicians to play at the Playhouse Theatre in Whitstable. Here I am (with very curly hair) playing with Humphrey Lyttelton on 27th July 1985.
I also began to play gigs (through my connection with Eric Webster) with Bill Brunskill and travelled to Thornton Heath in South London and further afield to play with his band. It was this association I formed with his band which led me to find a teaching job and accommodation near to the celebrated venue ‘The Lord Napier’ where Bill and his band played. It was a very rough and ready pub but the band played there on Friday evenings and twice on Sundays. The landlord was Vic who allegedly ran off with the takings one night.
I met my wife, Maggie, at the interview for teaching jobs at Rockmount Junior School. She also got a job at the school and we quickly formed a relationship. I lived , at this time in a single room in Idmiston Road, West Norwood and Maggie soon moved in with me. I continued to work with Bill Brunskill at such venues as The Woolwich Tramshed and the Waterworks Jazz Club in Birmingham in which I had my first real taste of travelling long distances and returning home the same night. I was also playing gigs on the Kent jazz scene. The general gig fee around this time was £10. Maggie’s second teaching job was at Beulah Junior school just opposite this pub.
In my time in Swansea, I had been to a concert featuring a veteran American saxophone player, Benny Waters. One day I noticed in a ‘gig guide’ that Benny was playing at a small pub in Kingston called the Brewster. Maggie and I went to hear him and by chance it became apparent that the pianist with the accompanying band, Brian White’s Magna Jazz Band, was moving to Portugal and so the chair became available. After joining Brian in 1987 there followed a very long association with this band which was an excellent learning platform for me. Geoff Cole, the trombonist wrote me a many-paged chord book as the band had a vast repertoire encompassing many styles of jazz. I had the chance here to play some of the Jelly Roll Morton pieces, and we played many of the Hot Fives and Sevens with Ben Cohen playing the part of Louis Armstrong. This band were incredibly busy, and I found it hard to hold down my teaching job and play all the gigs. As well as playing many jazz clubs and concerts and international jazz festivals, we also played many commercial jobs at places such as The Grosvenor Ballroom and other large London hotels. Brian also invited many American guests to play with his band including Wild Bill Davidson, Al Casey (Fats Waller’s guitarist), George Masso, Kenny Davern and Warren Vaché. Brian also had another band celebrating the playing and band of Muggsy Spanier, Muggsy Remembered. The piano chair became available and it was with this band that I played at the Nice Jazz festival and also, later at the Los Angeles Classic Jazz Festival.
In these years, the phone would constantly ring and the diary was absolutely full to the point where I had to decide between teaching and playing. I also had a regular Sunday residency at The Meridien in Piccadilly with Dick Cook and Norman Emberson. As I had recently accepted an offer to join yet another band, Laurie Chescoe’s Goodtime Jazz Band, this seemed the ideal time to quit the teaching job. As it turned out I did have to return to supply teaching when work was thin.
Laurie’s Band was quite a powerhouse in terms of music and personality. We played at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival in 1992, and one particular night led to a change in fortune for me.
George Melly and John Chilton's Feetwarmers 1992-2002
We were performing at The Duke of Roxburgh in Edinburgh on an evening when George Melly and John Chilton’s Feetwarmers were in town. A couple of the band, Eddie Taylor the drummer and Ron Rubin the pianist came in to listen to the session and they recommended me to John Chilton as Ron was leaving. This, combined with another recommendation from Mike Pointon (trombonist with Bill Brunskill and programme maker for the BBC), led John to ring me during September 1992 to offer me the job with The Feetwarmers.
I remember the excitement of receiving that phone call from John Chilton in late 1992. It was a busy time of our lives as we had just bought our second house, got married and Maggie was expecting Hannah. Within a few weeks I went for a rehearsal at Ron Rubin’s house in Hampstead and prepared for my first gig at Winchester on 27th November 1992.
​At the rehearsal I met the members of the band. They were all significantly older than me. I was only 29 when I joined and the others were generally 30 years older than that. The band was led by John Chilton on trumpet. He was a biographer of many famous jazz musicians and had an encyclopaedic memory for facts. John wrote all the arrangements for the band and compiled the set list for each evening – in truth we often played the same set for long periods of time – months if not years.
On drums was Eddie Taylor, a lovely man and quick-witted Lancastrian. Eddie had grown up in Oldham as the son of a shopkeeper and even wore clogs as a child. By the age of 19 he was playing drums on The Queen Mary back and forth to New York and whilst there would go to 42nd Street to see the likes of Charlie Parker and the other jazz greats.
On bass was Ken Baldock with whom I often had problems. Ken had a tendency to suddenly change tack/mood within the blink of an eye. Having said that, he could be highly amusing and engaging. I think he always resented playing with George Melly as his background had been in more modern jazz and Ronnie Scott never missed an opportunity to rib him about it when we played at Ronnie’s club.
