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Hot Banana
Warren James’ Johnny Cash Songbook
The Johnny Cash Songbook, The Story and Songs behind “The Man in Black”. Musician and entertainer, Warren James, presents the story and songs of Johnny Cash’s rise to fame as an original member of the Sun Record label, alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison. Johnny Cash was a member of The Million Dollar Quartet as well as becoming Rock ‘n’ Roll and Country music royalty within his life time. Cashs’ lengthy career, spanned 1954 to 2003, saw the release of 91 albums, 170 singles, and 14 chart topping hits.
Shooting Stars
The Shooting Stars were formed in 2008 from a nucleus of musicians from the Big Chris Barber Band. Collectively they share a love and respect of
all forms of jazz but have their roots firmly planted in the vintage, golden period of jazz history.
The band benefits from it’s unique position of being a relatively young group of musicians with an extremely deep and varied wealth of experience, who between them, have probably played at every major concert venue and jazz festival in Europe.
The Shooting Stars are as at home playing the beautiful melodies and stomping jazz from the 20’s 30’s and 40’s as they are playing mainstream jazz, swing and jump jive, where they exploit the band’s virtuosity with exciting solos and tight ensemble passages.
Kevin Grenfell’s Jazz & Boogie Band
A band once led by the wonderful, late Jeremy Huggett is now led by Kevin Grenfell. The band ‘Jazz & Boogie Band’ does exactly what it says on the tin by playing all your Jazz & Boogie favourites.
This lively and swinging band is great for both listening and dancing, and is guaranteed to give us a foot tapping session of Jazz & Boogie.
Jake Leg Jug Band
The Jake Leg Jug Band bring you the authentic sounds of 1920’s and 30’s America – Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Ragtime – and put their own twist on it. Songs of murder, betrayal, gambling, liquor and redemption. After self-releasing their debut album, the band signed to one of the UK’s top independent Jazz labels, recording 3 albums as part of the ‘Vintage Recording Project’ – essentially recording live around ribbon microphones, as it would have been back in the 1930’s. A further three albums were released in the last four years on the Green Bullet record label including their first ever live album. 2022 marked the 10th anniversary of the band and saw them play 100 gigs, taking in dates from Scotland to Cornwall and South Wales to Suffolk. 2023 is the bands busiest ever year and they bring their latest live show to promote their latest album Hello Central.
“A masterpiece of nostalgic music” Folk North West
“Expert musicianship and great arrangements….highly recommended” Just Jazz
“Instrumental virtuosity” Blues & Rhythm
“Good time music from a good-time group” The Jazz Rag
“Pick any track at random and prepare to be entertained ” RnR
“the album shows the tightness of a band that have spent many years on the road” Fatea
“A fine feast of good-time music” Blues News (Norway)
“The band mesh together like a well-oiled machine. Smokin’!” Spiral Earth
“Pretty damn good!” Blues Matters
The line up is: Duncan Wilcox (Vocals & Double Bass), Liam Ward (Vocals, Harmonica, Jug, Saw, Washboard & Kazoo), Warren James (Vocals & Banjo) plus a host of guest musicians.
Fugue & Groove with Amy Roberts
As one of the most versatile and in-demand rhythm sections in the country, our jazz trio brings an unmatched energy and expertise to every performance. Individually, we’ve worked with an impressive roster of renowned artists and established jazz musicians, including Amy Roberts, Alex Clarke, Greg Abate, Simon Spillett, B.D. Lenz, Ray Gelato, Kenny Ball, Idina Menzel, Ringo Starr, and Dave Stewart.
Our performances have taken us to some of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals, including the Umbria Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center (New York), Ambassadors Theatre, Glastonbury Festival, South by Southwest (SXSW), and La Bâtie Festival (Geneva).
Recent highlights as individuals include a live performance on BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour and appearances at one of London’s premier jazz venues, Pizza Express Jazz Club.
In addition to our role as a rhythm section, we are an established trio in our own right, presenting the innovative project ‘Fugue and Groove.’ This venture explores the fusion of jazz and classical music, delivering fresh and inventive arrangements of beloved classics such as Massenet’s Meditation, Mozart’s Turkish March, and Dvořák’s Humoresque. With solos showcasing our individual virtuosity, improvisational brilliance, and seamless interplay, we create a dynamic experience that is both lyrical and high-energy, ranging from evocative ballads to fast, driving swing.
Our performances captivate audiences with a mix of recognition and surprise, offering melodies that feel familiar but come brilliantly disguised. ‘Fugue and Groove’ is proving popular with audiences, blending timeless musical traditions with contemporary creativity in a way that continues to push boundaries and delight listeners.
Easy Street Spankers
The Easy Street Spankers started off as the New Toledo Jazz band playing locally in the Sheffield area. Pete Childes and Wil Robinson have always run the band together alongside Andy Bramhall and Rob Cotterell as founder members. The band changed their name to the Easy Steet Jazz Band, and Wil suggested adding “Spankers” to the name to give us a stand out difference to other bands (might have known it was Wil!)…….. and as they say the rest is history. The band line up is as follows; Wil Robinson – Trumpet, Eugene Farrah – Trombone, Peter Childes – Clarinet, Andy Bramall – Banjo/Guitar, Chris Bramall – Bass and Rob Cotterell – Drums. The band have been together for over 20 years playing as requested, your passion is our passion and all of us love our music.
Chanson Swing
“Chanson Swing” features the vocal talents of Sophie-Jayne Holder along with her husband Ben Holder on piano. As their name suggests there will be plenty of popular French ‘Chansons’, swinging jazz standards and a pinch of Spanish “Canción”! As a skilled linguist who spent a long time living in Europe, as well as being a classical flautist, Sophie-Jayne lends her musical ear and language fluency to beautiful chansons like La Vie En Rose, Hymn A L’Amour & La Mer, with Ben on piano adding an air of excitable energy to jazzy swing tunes from Gershwin, Porter & Carmichael to name but a few. For this show double bassist extraordinaire, Paul Jefferies joins “Chanson Swing” adding a rocksteady swinging bass, to make for an incredibly swinging jazz trio! An afternoon of swing, beautiful jazz ballads and chansons awaits!
Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Band
Sarah relocated back to the UK in January of 2017 and has been continuing to lead her ‘Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Band’ on both sides of the Atlantic, in Europe and in the USA. Sarah worked for a while for the long-established, Bob Dwyer’s Bix and Pieces band and is the other member of the front line of Mike Owen’s exciting and wonderful Scarlette’s Serenaders, which also performs internationally. In addition to these, she is guesting with many other bands all across the UK and Europe. Sarah Spencer’s Transatlantic Band performs powerful New Orleans jazz in the tradition of the great Revival. Drawing influence from bands of that era, as well as taking influence from more modern New Orleans music, blues, rhythm and blues and the greats of all eras of Jazz and Blues; like Henry ‘Red’ Allen, Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Jelly Roll Morton, Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, Louis Jordan, Louis Prima and countless others.