This video of Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra is from 1936 and features American clarinetist Danny Polo. The great arrangement of ‘Limehouse Blues’ is by baritone player Sid Phillips with some virtuoso section work near the end.
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Kenny Baker was led trumpeter for Ted Heath's post-war big band and later led his own bands Baker's Dozen and the Best of British Jazz with fellow Heath alumni Jack Parnell and Don Lusher. Here he is featured in a 1982 performance of Duke Ellington's 'The Shepherd' with Stan Tracey on piano.
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Baptiste's 1999 debut album had already won him a Mercury Prize nomination and a Mobo award, so perhaps it should have surprised nobody when his 2003 suite 'Let Freedom Ring!' went that bit further earning him BBC, Mobo and Parliamentary Jazz Award nominations. This performance derives from the 2008 British Jazz Showcase at the IAJE in Toronto and features great solo spots from pianist Andrew McCormack (born 1978) and trombonist Trevor Mires. Also in the band is Baptiste's mentor and Dune Label-mate Gary Crosby (born 1955) on bass.
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Beryl Bryden was most associated with the repertoire of Bessie Smith performing much of her repertoire alongside some of the UK's finest UK traditional jazz musicians, including Chris Barber and Humphrey Lyttelton. This amateur video is from 1985 and features the Swiss band, the Harlem Ramblers. The song 'Ace in the Hole' by Dempsey and Mitchell was written in 1909 and was a favourite of European revivalist bands.
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Kit Downes first attracted attention in the band Empirical which won the 2007 EBU Jazz Competition and went on to perform at the British Jazz showcase at the IAJE 2008 in Toronto and at Newport, Montreal and New York jazz festivals to great acclaim. Downes has gone on to great things - featured in Stan Sulzmann's Neon and Troyka as well as with his own trio (featured here on the track Skip James recorded at the South Bank Centre). Scottish bass player Calum Gourlay and drummer Dave Smith make up the trio, whose debut album 'Golden' was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2010.
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