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The Washboard Resonators hail from Leeds in England and can be described as sounding and looking like ‘a ragtime street band meets a Hollywood musical on a theatre stage somewhere in around 1932’. Their favourite performers include the jazz, ragtime, hokum, blues, comedy and vaudeville sounds of Louis Armstrong, Blind Boy Fuller, Fred Astaire, The Washboard Rhythm Kings, Robert Johnson, Gene Krupa, Max Miller, George Formby, Tampa Red and The Memphis Jug Band. The spirit of these long gone artists and their music is summoned back to life every time Martyn and Jack take the stage with their mixture of old traditional songs and new songs written by the band. Formed in 2014 they started out busking while playing together in blues trio Leeds City Stompers. Word spread and quickly the duo was in demand, playing many times per week. This lead to many major festivals and shows such as The Great British R&B Festival and Upton Jazz Festival as well as completing tours of the whole of the UK every spring and winter.

Baby Jools is part of the new youth movement in old school New Orleans jazz. The Gloucester musician has spent much of his time as the drummer with Jim McIntosh and Max Collie, but the Jazzaholics have now been together for several years, thereby strengthening his own leadership duties. Baby Jools started playing drums at the age of six, rumbling around to the accompaniment of his father’s record collection. By the age of 17, he’d already joined our locally-based Millennium Eagle Jazz Band. He favours the authentically clunky sound of the 1920s and 30s, emphasising his collection of woodblocks and rolling out a particularly resonant snare and bass drum clatter. The Jazzaholics repertoire differs from most such outfits as they’re very likely to throw in a large shot of rock’n’roll. This club session should certainly guarantee a strutting and spinning Sunday afternoon. Baby Jools (drums), ‘Magic’ Mike Henry (trumpet), Jim Swinnerton (double bass), Paula Jackman (reeds) and Warren James (banjo and guitars).

Paula Jackman’s Jazz Masters, is made up of great musicians and great friends – ‘we enjoy our music and enjoy our time together. When a band has fun, you can guarantee the audience will too.’ We play Dixieland jazz from its roots in New Orleans through to its heyday during the British Trad boom.’

On a gig with the Harlem Jazz Orchestra, Zoltan and Sarah were talking and Zoltan said that he wanted to play a New Orleans Revival-style gig with himself and Sarah. Inspired, Sarah has formed a band of some of the best musicians in the UK who play in that idiom. She decided to highlight the 2-reed front line and go without a trumpet player but, instead, have Mike Owen join them, which makes the band about as authentic in the New Orleans dance hall style as possible.

Sarah Spencer – reeds, Zoltan Sagi – reeds, Mike Owen – trombone, Tom ‘Spats’ Langham – banjo/guitar, Jim Swinnerton – string bass, Graham Smith – drums

Saturday 28th September

Come along to celebrate and remember Brian Bates who dedicated his lifetime to promoting and playing jazz in the West Midlands.

The session will feature Spats Langham’s Hot Fingers and other musicians who will perform as a jam session format.