Category: TENBY JAZZ

Another first for us, a jazz lunch in August! And who better to help us experiment than Duski.

Duski are: Aidan Thorne – bass, Dan Messore – guitar, Joe Northwood – sax, Mark O Connor – Drums/percussion

Jazz progressivistas, they’ll take you on a journey through the American Songbook and capture some of their favourite composers, including music by Pat Metheny and pianist Brad Mehldau.

If you’d like a foretaste, try this. If you’d like to be part of a driving vibe, high above the sands of Tenby’s South Beach, then come along on Sunday 14th August.

We were due to be enchanted by this amazing band of musicians, through their heartfelt, irresistible joie de vivre that would have transported you from the jazz clubs of 1930s Paris to the grand cafés of Europe and South America.

Sadly, it is not to be; we have, however, put a marker down with them for next year.

Meanwhile, with vaccinations around the corner, we’d like to wish you all the best Christmas you can muster and let’s all hope 2021 will be a year to remember.

Led by two legends of the Welsh jazz scene, this exciting band would have performed a wide ranging selection of material drawn from the 1950s up to the present day.

They emphasize swing in all its forms, from relaxed up to break neck speed, all played with effortless style. Ballads flow and Latin tunes groove with unison horn lines.

You could have expected expect Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon and more …… 

But for now, please listen to some of the foregoing great artists of yesteryear, especially one of my all time favourites Dexter Gordon, and think back to some of the superb lunchtime sessions we’ve had over the years.

I hope one day we can revive the very essence of live chilled jazz in a truly salubrious venue. Until then, may you all stay safe and strong.

The band were due to play the great songs duets of Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong including They Can’t Take That Away From Me, A Fine Romance, I Won’t Dance and many more. Plus the great solo songs from Ella including Manhattan, My Funny Valentine, That Old Black Magic. Louis will be belting out Just One of Those Things, Hello Dolly and Wonderful World. Ah, brings a tear to the eye.

Well, hopefully they, too, will be able to make a return about this time next year. Until then, all the normal stays: safe, healthy, strong etc.

We would have enjoyed the band’s youthful effervescence as they got stuck into some Bebop, Hard-Bop and classics from the golden era of jazz. It would also have been our contribution to the Tenby Arts Festival, also cancelled.

The band has promised to come back next year, on 19th September, so that’s good news.

This delightful quartet will not be bringing their fine gypsy jazz renditions to us this year, in common with these challenging times. But we have agreed a replacement gig next year, so please reserve Sunday 18th July 2021 for JAZZ.

Tudor Thomas and his friends would have been playing brass, strings and enough numbers to tire out your tapping toes. Dixieland / Swing or Trad Jazz to some, Good Time Jazz to others, good ol’ jazz to all, they’ve agreed to come back next year, so Sunday 27th June 2021. That’s a commitment!

This would have been a first appearance in Tenby of a new band to us, albeit featuring some musicians from other bands you’ve seen before: Mike Kennedy from New Orleans Hot Potatoes & Greg Sterland from Duski. The band hails from the Bristol area and revels in their delivery of contemporary trad jazz.

You would have loved their performance. So, despite the bad news of the concert being another COVID-19 victim, the good news is they’re coming back next year. How about that as a light at the end of someone’s tunnel?

Another concert hits the COVID-19 dust. We’ve invited Maddi back for next year, so all is not lost!

The concert would have featured mostly the manouche (gypsy jazz) sound made famous by the great Django Reinhardt, and bluegrass and country swing made famous by Chet Atkins, Tony Rice and Doc Watson, the band’s set will also include music from the bebop and jazz of Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck and Wes Montgomery. Some journey!

The band is:-
Madi Stimpson – guitar & vocals
Ken Moore – guitar, sax & harmonica
Marko Miletic – double bass
Geoff Walker – sax

If you haven’t caught one of Maddi’s previous ‘grunge’ gypsy jazz gigs, this is a must  see. If you have, you’ll be coming anyway.