Mauri Owen

So Mauri, I want to go back to before you came into Essex because obviously you’ve had such an interesting life in music. We spoke earlier that you were in the Second World War serving. Were you a musician before the Second World War?

 

In a way I was. I left school and I’d started being an accountant and then they had what they called, we had a good school orchestra and they had what they called stay at home holidays.

 

Where was this, where was school?

 

Southgate. They got a band together which used to contain all the parks all over London, in fact Don Rendell was with me in the band then because we went to school together.

 

When was this, if you don’t mind me asking?

 

In 1942.

 

And you would have been what 15?

 

I’d been 17. I got called up, well I had joined up, I was on the volunteer reserve as well and I got called up in December 1942. Then I went to Canada, did all my sort of navigation flying training then came back to England then went straight out to India.

 

Wow, what regiment were you in, you were in the RAF? What was it?

 

It was called 355 Squad and for the next three and a half years we were flying and then I’d finished my tour I went down to Ceylon, which was where everyone was gathering in their red uniform and we were waiting for new planes with compression that could fly over there, called the privateer. When I was there I found someone who said “I’ve got a saxophone which you can borrow”.

 

What Tenor or Alto?

 

Alto. And we got a band there and I didn’t realise it was called the Air Commanders because of how good it was. It was absolutely full of... like I said Lenny Phoenix was the pianist, and then this went on, we were waiting and then suddenly, bang, the atomic bomb. Then on 15th August Mountbatten phoned up and said “Get the band together because we’re going to have a big dance tonight, and the war’s finished”. My 21st birthday.

 

Was that '45?

 

'45 yeah.

 

Was the band a Swing band or was it just a regular dance band, no Jazz solos or.......?

 

Ooh, there were Jazz players. There were also straight players. Alan Franks who was a Squadron Leader was then clarinet with the London symphony orchestra and he was playing the saxophone, it’s a transient thing because they kept coming and going. Well I was destined to… we had what we called an 'agent service release number' which is the time we’d been in the service in your age. Because my number was horribly high so I was in for another year and that was more or less where I learnt to play properly really. So when I did get demobbed and I went back to London I did an audition with Harry Roy.

 

And that was in'45 was it?

 

It might have been '46.

 

Was Harry Roy still playing through the war time.

 

He’d just got married, I think, to Princess Pearl or somebody and went off to America and Sid Roy was running the band and they had a job down in Portsmouth and would I like it, yes so I went there and when I was there Nat Gonella came along and I joined that.

 

Blimey, you joined Nat Gonella in '46 did you?

 

’47. And then I went with Bill Le Sage had a band in Wokingham of all places, just a small saxophone and rhythm section and then I had my big break and they wanted a baritone player at Dundee with Bertie King, and this band was full of musicians. Now I’ve never played the baritone but I borrowed one and I went out there on the off chance and I was lucky there. It was absolutely full, Jimmy Deucher was one of the trumpets and Harry Hall who was the lead trumpet with...er...all the bands. It was absolutely full of musicians. Then they had the big floods on Canvey Island.

 

Well, you’ve gone quite ahead there, the floods were in ’54 weren’t they.

 

Yes, well I was quite a long while in Dundee wasn’t I?

 

I think you’ve jumped quite far ahead. So how long were you in Dundee for because you went up there in ’47 didn’t you?

 

I should think so yes, I was there for 18 months. Benny Green was one of tenor players.

 

And this is just pre Be Bop isn’t it really?

 

Well, we knew about Be Bop. We wondered about it. It didn’t sort of really hit home for another year or so.

 

You probably couldn’t have really got the 78 records anyway I wouldn’t have thought?

 

They were sneaking over because we had some Charlie Parker ones. We knew the people on the boats and they used to bring them in and we heard them but couldn’t quite make it out and it wasn’t for another couple of years before it hit home what he was doing and how wonderful it was really.

 

That’s right because Charlie Parker just changed everything didn’t he really?

 

Oh, yes. Charlie Parker’s god! But, I’ve always been like a big band player, sort of pack-horse. Ralph Sharon, instead of the small band went out with a big band Then we had a business with the Tenor leads of Woody Herman and Basil Kirchin had a band.

 

And that was early 50’s was it?

 

I should think it was, yes.

 

Had you moved to Essex by then?

 

Yes we had. I know I joined John Dankworth in 1954, that I do know. And I worked with Harry Brooker at The Palace Hotel for quite a long while.

 

Well if it’s OK we’ll go to there… So you’d obviously come back from Dundee and so you must have been in Essex by then, by the late 40’s? Where abouts in Essex was that you’d moved to?

 

Eastwood.

 

OK, how did you get the job at the Palace Hotel with Harry Brooker?

 

It was rather funny because I just went down to have a look at Southend seafront from my childhood and passing the Palace Hotel the band were just coming out to have their break and I knew half of them and they said “Come in and meet Harry” and that time he said “What are you doing now?” Because most of the band were going off to the Bermudas, Peter Appleyard was the drummer then and became quite famous playing with Benny Goodman, and Harry wanted a band for the summer and I said “Oh yeah I could do that”.

 

Summer ’49 then could that have been?

 

’49, yeah. I must have been there for a couple of years I think.

 

That was seasonal was it?

 

No, it was this big band in season but then it went to a quartet in the winter.

 

How many nights a week were you working?

 

I was working three nights there and I was working down the Kursaal as well with Howard Baker then.

 

Oh with Howard Baker. He’d been there a long time about 25 years or something because he carried on until the 60’s didn’t he?

 

Yes. Then I went out with Ralph Sharon on tour and then when that folded, I went with Basil Kirchin.

 

Was that the first summer season that Mauri and you met? (asks wife, Freda)

 

Yes it was.

 

Love at first sight?

 

Freda – I was the receptionist at the Palace. He was going out with a very beautiful Liz Taylor lookalike and I thought “She’s got no chance, I’m having my feet under the table there”, and I did! Well how I did it because she was gorgeous and there’s me a red headed, freckle-faced little Welsh girl, but I won.

 

So when did you move down here then?

 

Freda – I came here, it must have been ’48, I was 17, I’d just left school, hadn’t long left school and a friend of mine, or somebody I had met was head receptionist at the Palace and she wrote to me and she said “I want a receptionist”. I’d done my training as a hotel receptionist. I didn’t even know where Southend was. So I came up and one of the musicians in the band met them at the station, took me to the hotel and that was it.

 

How many years were you there?

 

Freda – At the Palace? A couple of years then I went on to Bournemouth and then I came back to the Palace as head receptionist the second time. Then I went up to London and I was a receptionist in one of the London hotels and that’s where I got married from there.

 

What bands do you remember performing at the Palace Hotel in the period that you were there?

 

Freda – Gresha Farfel, he was there at the beginning. He was Greek wasn’t he?

 

No he was Jewish.

 

What kind of music was that?

 

Actually he became the lead trumpet player with Billy Cotton. He was quite a trumpet player but he had a Polish band with him and the Union wouldn’t allow it and that’s how Harry Brooker got the job there. He took over from Gresha.

 

Who else do you remember?

 

Freda – Well that was it because Harry was still at the Palace until after we got married.

 

I was wondering who was playing when you weren’t there. Oh no, you said when it wasn’t an orchestra it was a quartet?

 

That’s right. I took the band over when Harry died. I ran it as just a quintet.

 

What did you call it the Mauri Owen Quintet?

 

Yes

 

Until when?

 

Until it went down. It fell to pieces, the Palace.

 

Freda – Yes it sort of became a doss house.

 

Was that in the 60’s?

 

Probably, yes. They just closed it down.

 

Freda - It became a Bed & Breakfast.

 

So you had a long run at the Palace Hotel then really?

 

Yes, I did really. Tony Compton was the accordion player.

 

So that was at the Palace Hotel, how long were at the Kursaal for?

 

A long, long while. I was with Harold Baker for 4 or 5 years, then when he died Dennis Hayward took over and then I went with Dennis. Then he went out on the road with this Glen Miller business which lasted for about three years.

 

Did you go out with them?

 

Yes.

 

With Dennis Hayward was it more just as a straight ahead dance band or were there Jazz elements to it as well?

 

There were some good Jazz players in the band but it was mostly a dance band. Bobby Armstrong was the drummer.

 

Was he? He must have been young. Although you were all young I suppose!

 

Yes it was quite a while ago wasn’t it 70’s or 80’s I suppose.

 

Were all the musicians in Harry Brooker and Howard Baker’s band all local musicians?

 

Romford way a lot came from.

 

Do you remember any of the names of the musicians?

 

Yes, there was Curly Holliday he was the Jazz trumpet and Lenny Griffiths who is now dead he was the lead.

 

Which band is this we’re talking about?

 

Howard Baker. Bill Boyle, Reg Salmons who’s also dead now.

 

What did Reg play?

 

He was the baritone player, Den Dorsey was the other Tenor player, he’s dead. All the four trombone players are dead, I know that.

 

And all Essex?

 

Yes, Bob Veal was the bass player. I believe he’s still going strong. 

 

Is he still local, Bob Veal?

 

Yes, I think he still plays around Romford mainly.

 

Very interesting. And I imagine probably the same for Harry Brooker’s band. They were all local were they?

 

Oh they were, yes. Well the Vibraphone player came from Palmer’s Green. Harry Day was the drummer and he’s dead. He was very well known in Southend.

 

Harry Brooker had a Hawaiian sound didn’t he?

 

Yes.

 

Was it called Harry Brooker’s Hawaiian Serenaders?

 

I think it was, yes.

 

Freda - Because he was with Felix Mendlessohn, which was the Hawaiian band in London.

 

And George Barclay the singer with Felix used to come down on a Saturday night.

 

Do you know what went on at the Kursaal before Harold was resident there in the late 30’s?

 

Well I know Joyce Carlisle was the vocalist.

 

There must have been other bands playing because that couldn’t have been 5 nights a week could it because you were playing at the Palace Hotel at the same time weren’t you?

 

I think on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday something like that. I know I fitted things in you know, I was able to do both.

 

I wonder what was going on at the Queen’s Hotel at the same time because that was a lovely big ballroom wasn’t it?

 

Yes. Who’s band was it at the Queen’s? He was a very good violinist and his daughter became quite a famous vocalist. So famous I can’t remember her name...

 

Freda – Coloured girl?

 

No.

 

Freda – Oh it’s not the one I’m thinking of.

 

Not Maxine Daniels?

 

No, but I’ve played with Maxine Daniels.

 

I wonder who that was? That must have been unusual, a black singer in the area those days?

 

Freda – Well that’s the one I was thinking of but it’s obviously not the one.

 

I don’t think we worried too much about colour down here.

 

Freda – Musicians don’t think about colour. Our wedding photograph has got a lot of coloured people in and people sort of look twice but we never think about colour do we? They’re just musicians.

 

Well there were some great West Indian musicians over at the time weren’t there?

 

I think I learnt most about playing from a West Indian, Bertie King, up in Dundee.

 

He’s quite a legend isn’t he?

 

Oh he was a magnificent saxophone player and he used to suffer terribly from migraine and I was up there on baritone but I had an alto as well and these attacks would come on and he’d take his pad and put it on my stand and I had to right out and play it. That was more or less when I started to do some lead alto playing but he used to play for Benny Carter you know. He’d play with all the bands. Funnily enough we saw the other day a thing about the West Indians and they’d picked him out on the television.

 

Incredible. So you were playing down here at the Kursaal and the Palace Hotel for quite a while, but you also did Kirchin and Ralph Sharon, but you also said you were still playing with your 5 piece at the Palace through to the 60's. How did you manage to fit all this in because it seems to me that you joined Dankworth early 50’s in ’54, so you must have been doing Sharon and Kirchin right up until Dankworth were you?

 

It was, yes. Actually I was up in Liverpool for a while with Hal Groyne we used to do Northern Bandbox and Music While You Work! I decided to come down south and I did a summer season at Saltdean at the Butlins. The very funny thing there was we used to have a lot of artists come down and one day it was Nat Gonella and he comes in, we always used to have a run-over at 5 o’clock, he comes in and looks at the band, we had a young baritone player, he said “You’ve never played with me have you?” and he said “No Mr Gonella”, he said “You know you’re the only one who hasn’t!”

 

How long was you with Nat for?

 

Not long, about 18 months. It was a small band in Southampton in Court Royal. I know it was very near the greyhound stadium and Nat used to always nip in and put bets on.

 

Yeah, put his wages on the bet.

 

The band’s wages!

 

Really? So that was Saltdean. So you were there for a summer, were you?

 

Yes, I did a summer there and right at the end, funnily enough the band were going up to Norwich and the band leader hadn’t told us, he hadn’t told anyone in the band that he had got this job and I’d gone up to London and met Bill Le Sage who I’d worked with and he said “John wants an Alto player. Are you interested?” I said “Oh yes!”

 

He’d have been a huge star by then, Johnny Dankworth, wouldn’t he?

 

Oh yes he was just forming the big band and I went back and the phone went and John said you know “I understand you’d like to join the band. We’re going to start at the Court Royal Hotel in a couple of weeks’ time”. We did a week’s rehearsal there before the band went out on the road.

 

Didn’t you tell me earlier that one of the original members of Johnny Dankworth’s band, was it the bass player, was from Essex as well?

 

Yes. Eric Dawson and Bill Le Sage of course is Essex.

 

Freda – No I think Eric Dawson was East London. Didn’t he live Stepney way?

 

It could be, but I think it was the Essex side.

 

Yes, because even East Ham was Essex in those days wasn’t it?

 

Freda – Yes, it might have been East Ham.

 

And of course Don Rendell came from Palmer’s Green.

 

Is Palmer’s Green Essex? No that’s Southgate area isn’t it.

 

Yes it’s right on the corner.

 

I’ve seen Don Rendall many times because my old percussion teacher, Robin Jones, played drums with Don Rendell for decades, very good friends. So, how long were you with Dankworth’s orchestra for?

 

About three and a half years I think.

 

It’s a massive opportunity isn’t it, I mean you’d already played with loads of stars obviously but I mean Jonny Dankworth was absolutely… it was an explosion wasn’t it?

 

Well yes and there was a time when the Musicians Union wouldn’t allow bands to come into Britain because you wouldn’t allow anyone to go out so all these stars that came over needed a band to accompany them and John was the obvious answer, so we used to accompany American stars. So we did half the concert as John's orchestra and then we'd accompany the American starts - Nat King Cole, Johnny Ray, Al Martino, Sarah Vaughn and then all the English ones as well, Lita Rosa and all that. So actually it was good for us because they were always on Sunday, we always had to do double concerts and we used to get half our wages again but, this was quite good.

 

That’s amazing. In that short space of time you were with Dankworth to have had the opportunity of playing with Nat King Cole, Sarah Vaughn and Johnny Ray…

 

They’ve all got their own music too and it was slammed in front of you.

 

Did you get a chance to speak to any of them at all or was there sort of an ‘us and them’ situation?

 

Freda – Can I tell you a tale about Johnny? They did a New Year, well a winter time in the West Country with him and I was in London then and Mauri phoned me and said “We’re coming back tomorrow. Johnny Ray’s put on a big do at the Park Lane Hotel and he's invited all the wives and girlfriends. When we get back I’ll phone you and get a cab down”, because it was just off Tottenham Court Road at one of the big hotels, The Savoy, and then Alex, one of the other saxophone players he rang his wife and Mauri said “Phone Mary and you can both get together and come down”. So I phoned Mary and she said “Right we’ll get our dresses ready and as soon as you hear from Mauri or I hear from Alex we’ll phone each other and you can get a cab down to my flat and we’ll go along”. In those days it was full evening dress, so I got ready and I sat there and I sat there and still no phone call, I kept phoning Mary; “Have you heard from Alex?” No and at 3 o’clock in the morning I thought “I’m fed up with this I’m going to bed!” The excuse was that they’d got snowed up and I believed it! Thousands wouldn’t but I spoke to Mary she said the same that she’d taken herself off to bed, so we never got to the Savoy.

 

Did you ever get to speak to Nat King Cole or Sarah Vaughn?

 

Yes.

 

Freda – Yes, I did I met him and his wife and Natalie who was a little girl then. We met them back stage at the Palladium.

 

Was he easy to work with?

 

Oh absolutely marvellous. The only one that wasn’t was Al Martino. Unfortunately he’d picked up a trumpet and an alto player somewhere along the way and they were both terrible. The trumpet players they just swamped this poor bloke’s singing, but the best I can ever remember was when we joined Johnny Ray. It was up in the Belle View in Manchester and they had a boxing match the previous evening and the boxing ring was still on there. Now I don’t know if I should mention the name Frank Holder but he was playing some numbers over and he kept getting them wrong and Derek Abbott the lead trumpet, a bit of a bolshie one he said “We’re not wasting our time doing this. You go and learn it then you can come back”, and Johnny Ray said “I can sing his numbers” and he was lying on his back on the middle of this boxing ring and he did all Frank’s numbers.

 

I don’t know who Frank Holder is?

 

He’s a bongo player and also the singer with the band and he was with the Dankworth Seven actually. Nat King Cole didn’t mix in too much but he was such a superb performer but he’d brought over his trio with him and they really mixed with us.

 

I’m surprised he was allowed to bring a trio over with him.

 

That’s because it was a variety act, that’s the only reason he got it in. They were divided into sectors all across the front and I always remember the bass player you could always see his eight to the bar rippling on his back! But he’d say “I’d like to play some of the oldies” and it was always smack into it and I really think he’s the best artist I’ve ever heard and every night he’d put in a few more Jazz things, he’d say I couldn’t do this in America but everywhere he went they liked his Jazz playing so he was very happy.

 

Freda – He was a gentle man and he was a gentleman. Lovely, lovely person.

 

He could be playing the piano and they he’s going to sing and somehow he could just glide out to the piano and his last hand was lining up the piano and he was at the microphone just worked to a T.

 

What was Sarah Vaughn like?

 

She was a rough girl, Sassy!

 

Did she swear like a trooper then did she?

 

Yes!

 

That’s amazing though, again such a legendary figure. We’re still in the mid to late 50’s aren’t we?

 

Yes, then the band went to America and that’s when I left.

 

I’ve got the Johnny Dankworth album and it’s the picture of them getting off the plane in America.

 

That’s it yeah. A friend of mine from Southend, one of the trumpet players, Stan Powmer became very friendly with the brass and when they came over we went and saw them and I went and had a chat with Johnny Hodges. They were really integrated.

 

Oh what Johnny Dankworth’s band were a mixture of American and British players were they?

 

No but they’d got to know each other so well.

 

So you were doing Johnny Dankworth by the late 50’s and you still had your 5 piece at the Palace Hotel. So how did you find time to do anything else?

 

We fitted it in because I used to always do the summer season with Louis Mordish at the Cliffs Pavillion. He was a very famous musician he went to Australia, he used to do the organ. It’s only a small band.

 

There was no Jazz element to that obviously?

 

No.

 

That was just a job?

 

Yes.

 

So you managed to fit all that in, you must have been having to put deps in I would have thought.

 

This is all separate from John, this is afterwards. We keep jumping back and forth. No I would never do anything else with John.

 

But then that was probably 5 days a week work anyway wasn’t it?

 

We were doing up to three broadcasts in a recording session in a week.

 

Freda – We had to put our wedding off three times because John wouldn’t have a dep in. Then we eventually got married in October 1954.

 

I did deps for Geraldo, Pasadena Roof Orchestra.......

 

Now you are going forward there! So trying to keep things chronologically if we can. So you left Johnny Dankworth when he went off to America, which was probably 1957. So what did you do from there?

 

I went to the Kursaal with Howard Baker then when he died Dennis took over. Then Dennis went out on the road and that was quite a long stint. I did deps with other bands too.

 

Freda – You had gone back into accountancy by this time.

 

Oh had you? You had gone to a day job had you? Why did you do that? Was it because you need the security with a young child?

 

Freda – They wouldn’t give us a mortgage because he was a musician. Although he earned more as a musician than he would as an accountant.

 

So you were managing to be an accountant in the daytime and a musician in the evening. When was that?

 

Freda - From about '57 onwards.

 

I could do more or less what I wanted then.

 

Where you a self-employed accountant then?

 

No I wasn’t, it was for a chain of off-licenses. Archie Wilson’s it was called. I was also the company secretary as well and eventually that went bankrupt.

 

So you was also at the Kursaal at the same time?

 

Freda – Musician first.

 

I always found that I never refused any job. I got this teaching work I got 10 different schools and I could do work during the week.

 

At that time? So you were an accountant and teaching at 10 different schools?

 

No, I think after I had finished the accountancy then I started teaching. 

 

Freda – That was the 70’s.

 

Oh you’ve leapt forward a bit there.

 

Freda – I know you were playing right into the 70’s weren’t you?

 

Yes. I’ve never really finished.

 

Freda – He’s still playing!

 

So you were a musician and an accountant in the late 50’s?

 

No this was the 60’s.

 

So by the mid-60's were you doing any artist particularly regularly or were you doing lots of gigs?

 

Lots of gigs, yes. There weren’t any regular jobs then at all except the Glen Miller thing.

 

So that lasted for three years did it?

 

Freda– It went on and off, on and off.

 

Did you get involved in any of the Jazz scene in Essex at all at that point, because you had the Studio Club, The Middleton and London Hotel.

 

I used to play at the Blue Boar. We used to do Sunday in the early 40’s or early 50’s. That was in Southend and I remember doing the carnival there, the Be Bop at Jazz Towers.

 

Was that every Sunday you did the Blue Boar?

 

Yes.

 

Who was that with?

 

With a trumpet player who went to Australia, little Benny Goodman was the drummer then. 

 

Do you remember who the trumpet player was that you played for at the Blue Boar?

 

I’ve got a photograph of him but… he went off to Australia and Les Still was the Bass player who also went to Australia.

 

And Still was local was he?

 

Yes. He was a very good Jazz bass player and also his son was in a touring band, Tessie O’ Shea. We always used to do concerts on Sunday and always used to do........ you wouldn’t think of him as a bass player but he was very, very good.

 

I guess there was music going on in all the pubs in those days and of course there was hundreds of pubs.

 

Yes because Den Dorsey was in the band at the Blue Boar.

 

And that was playing Be Bop was it?

 

Well what we thought was Be Bop. Early stages of it.

 

So 60’s, were you involved in the local Jazz community at that point?

 

No, I was doing the sort of straight stuff then. But Kenny Baxter’s daughter used to come to me for sax lessons. He wouldn’t teach her himself. She went over to Portugal.

 

So even though you were based here you were still in Eastwood were you?

 

We had moved in here.

 

Freda– We’ve been here since we were married, he only came for 5 years and we’re still here. It suits us. Our son and family live in Buckinghamshire.

 

So from the 60's/70's onwards then was your main work jobbing as a musician? You didn’t go off touring any more did you?

 

No. With Dennis Hayward we used to do some long trips for concerts though. Then used to do a broadcast from Gravesend.

 

Was that with Dennis Hayward that you did this radio broadcast?

 

Yes.

 

But as you say, you’ve never particularly retired though, you’ve just carried on playing?

 

Freda – Yes, always something turned up and he loves his music so…

 

So we were just talking about the Blue Boar weren’t we. Do you remember any other venues around at that time?

 

Yes, there was a place at Chalkwell Park on the main road. The Arlington.

 

That’s where Kenny Ball first played with his Jazzmen.

 

But there used to be a Sunday Club. Don Rendell was down there.

 

Freda– It was wonderful because him and Don Rendell went to school together and we hadn’t seen him for years and years and we went down to the Arlington because he was playing there and he just came up and said “Hi Mauri, how are you getting on?” as if we’d seen each other the week before and this is typical of musicians! A sort of close community like a village.

 

He wouldn’t go with the big band, when the Seven folded he went off but he did one or two broadcasts.

 

Yes because it doesn’t necessarily follow that if you’re a great soloist you’re going to be good in a section.

 

Oh he’s good in a section.

 

I know, but some aren’t though are they? They haven’t got the discipline because you get some players that are just section players that wouldn’t dream of doing a solo. So was Arlington going in the 40’s then was it?

 

Yes, it must have been.

 

Freda – It was mainly 50’s and 60’s but it was probably going in the 40’s I don’t know.

 

Yes, Arlington Hall was around in the 20’s, not as Jazz but as a venue.

 

Freda – I think it was in the 70’s when Don was there.

 

Do you remember any venues in the late 40’s?

 

Yes the Ekco, that was quite a venue.

 

Freda – The cinemas down here used to run on a Sunday for concerts. Then Ritz cinema......

 

Oh well Stan Kenton came three times to Southend you know. They had a big reunion and we went up to this little hotel with a theatre behind it and Lenny Niehaus brought the band over. Funnily enough when Gave Baltazar, who was the lead alto then, came to Southend we saw him just opposite that cinema. He’d got the four melaphoniams in it as well in the 40’s when I was working at The Palace.

 

Wow, and he played the concert at the cinema did you say?

 

Yes.

 

Was it is Ritz, which is more or less opposite The Palace hotel?

 

Yes he played the Ritz.

 

Freda – For my eightieth birthday my son paid for us to stay at The Palace for a night because that’s where we met and it’s totally different now but it was nice. For our 50th anniversary he bought us a trip on the oriental express. He’s a good boy.

 

Could have been a good trombone player too. Even when he was very, very small. He could make a terrific sound.

 

Freda – When he was at university he used to book all the bands. He never became a musician, he’s got his own computer business. He never took up the music side of things.

 

Dixieland, or some people prefer to call Trad, obviously came through very strong in the late-40's and it seemed to me you were taking more of an interest into the Be Bop and the big band. There seemed to be quite a big division between people that liked the Dixieland Trad and those that like the Modern Jazz. Did you ever delve into the Dixieland side of things?

 

No. Although Nat Gonella was a bit that way, you know. No I’ve never been really into that, I prefer bands with sax sections.