Any Jazz fans left in Sheffield?

Both Harry and Laurie were tenor players but Harry featured bass sax usually. I think Laurie took over 'the Pieces' when Harry died.

I remember back in the late 50's, the Harry Gold band was guesting at the 'Locarno'. Kenny Napper the bass player ( not in the Pieces of Eight) who was married to a Sheffield girl and was visiting Sheffield at the time, had been dragged down to the 'Locarno' by his missus and she'd also got him up to dance. I mean Kenny was the hippest and when he was shuffling around the floor and Harry Gold recognised him.......... Man, that band took the **** like you've never seen.

I see that the great baritone saxophonist, Joe Temperley has died this week. He took Harry Carney's chair with Ellington, and was a member of some terrific bands over the years. He was up there with the greatest. Big Joe now gone, RIP.

I see that the great baritone saxophonist, Joe Temperley has died this week. He took Harry Carney's chair with Ellington, and was a member of some terrific bands over the years. He was up there with the greatest. Big Joe now gone, RIP.

I've seen Joe Temperley from time to time on the tele, he was part of the resident house band at the Lincoln Centre in New York for some 20yrs or so, under the leadership of Wynton Marsalis. He was getting on a bit but aren't we all.

Hi there!

 

Don't wish to hijack such a great thread but I have a little input to the above subject and (if at all possible) a question about a jazz club in Sheffield in the mid to late fifties.

 

The other reference I found related to I think, Big Bill Broonzy (the information was not complete). In a written record of a radio interview he gave, he stated that he had performed a couple of songs at a jazz club in a place called the 'Haig Tree Hotel' in Sheffield and slept on a bench in the bar on the same night. Subsequent digging around in Sheffield has revealed that a jazz club ran in the upstairs room at the 'HaighTree Inn on Bernard Street from 1954-ish to 1958-ish. I have found a reference to Barry Whitworth being a friend of the proprietor and a further reference to Terry Thornton, one time owner of The Esquire club, also being a friend of the proprietor. Now I'm interested, when time allows I'm going to do more research but it would be great to know if anyone on here knows anything about events at the Haigh Tree.

With all the attendant risks of resurrecting an old thread, I can add a little detail to the above.

My in-laws were tenants of the Haigh Tree Inn between 1953 and the point when the pub was demolished in 1959. They were Pat (Ann) Groobey who was licensee and aided and abetted by her husband Dennis (Gordon) Groobey.

They were originally temporary tenants, covering for illness from sometime in 1953 and permanent tenants from March 1955 until the pub closed for demolition during 1959.

They were jazz fans and as soon as they could they opened a jazz club in the pub. They were of the belief that if you opened a club with membership rules and fees, you could stay open after hours which turned out to be not strictly true. Complaints about the noise turned out to be one of the issues running the club. This caused the police to visit on a number of occasions. However, Pat fought her corner and made her point by leading the officers of the law to the children's bedroom where they were sleeping peacefully. Both children were under two years old at that point.

There was a resident band with female vocalist and some guest musicians and vocalists. Some well known artists from the wider jazz world were booked occasionally but due to limited audience numbers this wasn't a profitable activity. Dennis was friends with a number of other promoters and club proprietors which led to musicians visiting the pub, which was out of the mainstream but musician friendly, and no doubt how Big Bill Broonzy turned up there.

Sadly neither Pat nor Dennis are with us any longer and they didn't often talk about the jazz club in any depth, but here is a summary of a chat I had with Pat in the 1990's which came out of a general conversation we had about the history of Heeley where she then lived.

"It happened occasionally that musicians would stay after hours and continue playing for their own amusement as much as anything, and we didn't mind as long as it didn't get

too noisy because we had children sleeping upstairs. Sometimes it was visiting musicians who had played elsewhere in the city and then came to the Haigh Tree because it was known that we were friendly to the jazz fraternity. On this occasion we were expecting a musician who was a friend of a friend, I don't remember how we were told, and long after we had closed these two people turned up. One was English and the other was a tall, well built black man. I thought he was Scottish at first because I misheard his name as “Broon”, you know, how the Scots say Brown. Anyway he turned out to be American and sat in the bar chatting with us and a couple of other jazz types. I think he had been to a party somewhere already, maybe after performing in Sheffield, I can't remember now but I know he looked tired. He drank whisky and after having a couple of glasses he asked us to leave him the bottle. I went to bed and left them all talking in the bar.

I got up next morning and found the American and his friend asleep on the bank of seats in the bar and I left them while I cleaned and tidied up. They eventually woke and I asked them if they'd like breakfast and they said yes. I asked them what they wanted and Mr Broonzy asked me what I'd got and I told him the usual things, bacon, tomatoes and the like. He asked me what else I'd got and all I had was things I'd got for our tea,. I didn't tell him it was for our tea but he asked if he could have a couple of pork chops and some fried potatoes and some other things which I did. I had to go to the shop across the road for eggs, I do remember that. I was frying all this up and he asked if he could have some gravy with it which seemed a bit odd to me but I made him some up and he seemed pleased with the result. He ate an enormous amount of food. Four eggs! We thought we were pushing the boat out if we had two. Anyway, we sat around for a bit chatting before he went and got washed. His friend stayed in the bar and when he was washed Mr Broonzy said he was just going to go out and get some air in his lungs. He just walked down the street and stood looking over the wall where he could see the trains going in and out of the station. When he came back he said “you sure got some bad smells in this place”, meaning Sheffield. It was true, there was the brewery, the gasworks, the abattoir, the steam trains and all the steelworks all letting out their smells but we were just used to it I suppose.

Soon after, an old bus rolled up with the rest of the jazz band that he was with and Mr Broonzy and the other chap got on and they drove off. He wasn't the only foreigner we had to visit but he stood out because he was so much larger than life but very soft and polite at the same time. I remember the quality of his clothes was so much better than what we were used to, even his hat, a fedora, which I passed him when he left felt much better than the British equivalent.

He was very polite and gentlemanly and insisted on paying for the food he'd had, which I was secretly grateful for, and the bottle of whisky."

I took that down verbatim and, apart from asides which I've edited out, is how it was related to me. Any emphasis was Pat's.

So that's the story of Big Bill Broonzy and the Haigh Tree Inn. It doesn't sound as though he performed there but I was told the story forty years after the event so details were hazy on some points and the closest she could date it was early 1957 but, I think that shouldn't be taken too seriuosly.

---------- Post added 10-04-2017 at 19:52 ----------

Thanks Jim Hardie

(Can't PM yet!)

On watching a Nat King Cole documentary on Netflix, there was mention of a show he did in Birmingham Alabama in the mid to late 50's, I'm sure it was part of a tour with different artists, I think Peggy Lee might have been on the same bill. There was mention of an attack on Nat, it might have took place on stage also, It never told you the extent of Nat's injuries. The old story emerged as it often did in that part of the US, black man attacked in the deep south by white man, shocking and all too prevalent in that era I suppose. All Nat was there for was to entertain people, did the attacker face any charges, I don't know? What I do remember (it brought it all back to me), Ted Heath and Band were touring the States at the time and was definitely on that tour with Nat when this incident took place. For younger members of the Forum, Ted Heath had the best British Swing/Jazz Big Band of the time with loads of top soloists and stars in all sections of his ensemble. The horrible end to this story is when the Band returned to the UK they had the aftermath of disgust of what took place, it upset them to no end after enjoying many of the dates and seeing a lot of the country. fleetwood

Possibly a Mancunian.

http://www.jazznorthwest.co.uk/saintsjb.htm

A Manchurian Jim ?...oh wait.. Could have been from Stockport (then in Cheshire) or Oldham or Bury (then in Lancashire.)

Hi all - I've just read a great book and I highly recommend it, it's called 'Go Slow' the life of Julie London by Michael Owen. You will remember Julie of 'Cry me a River' fame. She started out as a small time actress who married Jack Webb, who's claim to fame was TV's 'Dragnet' and the movie 'Pete Kelly's Blues' amongst other things. Long story short she eventually married pianist Bobby Troup, one of Bobby's many songs that he wrote was of course 'Route 66'. Julie London had a way with a song like no other, she wasn't a jazz singer per se' but only employed the best musicians who were like the who's who in the jazz world, like wise she could phrase the 'standards' just how they should be sung. It's a great book and a great read. See if your library have got it, (it is new!) or can order it or possibly bring it in from another library, (if they have that service). fleetwood

I may already have posted this on here. I didn't go through all 46 pages. I played trumpet/ cornet in a trad jazz band called the Addy Street Five back in the '60s. It was a university jazz band. We did well in the national competition of university jazz bands. Played around some of the pubs, mostly at dances ('hops') organized by various sections of the university. We made an LP and an EP and someone from the Alumni Office of Sheff Univ contacted me a couple of years or so back as they were going to use one of our old records for a fundraising campaign. Don't know what happened to that idea. Lost track of all my mates in the band after I emigrated to Canada a zillion years ago.

extaxman,

The pub used to be on the same sid as the present Law Courts.

I am almost sure it had the name of an animal.

We also used to go a pub in the Andover ,Nottingham St area.

Cant remember the name but the band played in a small room above the pub.

Also saw Tubby Hayes & Mark Murphy in a pub on the southern outskirts of Sheffield.That name I dont remember either.This was in the early 60s

That would almost certainly be The Old Harrow at Gleadless. Great venue with candles in chianti bottles for atmosphere.

Joined: Jan 2017

Location: Old Whittington

Total Posts: 54

Quote:

Originally Posted by sweetdexter View Post

extaxman,

The pub used to be on the same sid as the present Law Courts.

I am almost sure it had the name of an animal.

We also used to go a pub in the Andover ,Nottingham St area.

Cant remember the name but the band played in a small room above the pub.

Also saw Tubby Hayes & Mark Murphy in a pub on the southern outskirts of Sheffield.That name I dont remember either.This was in the early 60s

That would almost certainly be The Old Harrow at Gleadless. Great venue with candles in chianti bottles for atmosphere.

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The Pub that was where the Law Courts are, with the animal in its name was,

the Old Blue Boar. Trad Jazz on Friday nights, in the late 50s. Does Mary from the Midlands bring back any memories

Just read a great book by Billy Bragg 'Roots, Radicals and Rockers. 'How Skiffle Changed the World', it kind of started when Ken Colyer brought some turn of the century jazz recordings back from the States in the early forties. Now cut to Chris Barber and Lonnie Donnegan and their interpretation and the rest is history, soon groups by the hundreds were soon copying and playing, some better than others obviously. The book is British and current, incidentally the author Billy Bragg was mentioned on another thread related to the students union concert where he might have entertained. The book is worth a read because it is well written, enjoy! fleetwood

Just read a great book by Billy Bragg 'Roots, Radicals and Rockers. 'How Skiffle Changed the World', it kind of started when Ken Colyer brought some turn of the century jazz recordings back from the States in the early forties. Now cut to Chris Barber and Lonnie Donnegan and their interpretation and the rest is history, soon groups by the hundreds were soon copying and playing, some better than others obviously. The book is British and current, incidentally the author Billy Bragg was mentioned on another thread related to the students union concert where he might have entertained. The book is worth a read because it is well written, enjoy! fleetwood

There used to be a BBC TV show in the 50s called Top Town, a bit like It's a Knockout. I remember a skiffle group representing Sheffield and the lad with the washboard stuck it between his knees and did a forward roll. Don't remember if they won.