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I originally became interested in jazz and swing when playing my parent's wartime (II World War) collection of 78s on an old wind-up gramophone. Like most teenagers, I was very fond of the popular British big bands of the day but I was also interested in Revivalist jazz. I liked most styles of jazz and I still do! They all fit into the jazz jigsaw. Factional infighting or a concentration on one form of jazz is not going to help the music to continue its growth.
My interest in jazz deepened in the mid Fifties, on the eve of the British Trad Boom. My first experiments in playing jazz were as a drummer but I felt one could be more expressive as a front-line player and I took up the trombone.
As a trombone player, I am rather poorly self-taught. But as a student of jazz my tuition was somewhat better. In the mid Fifties I was lucky enough to spend a few terms with Owen Bryce at Hendon Technical College. Owen gained a name as a notable trumpet player with the historical British revivalist band The George Webb Dixielanders. The eccentric Bruce Turner ("the dirty bopper"), a wonderful clarinet and alto sax player, was sometimes a deputy for Owen providing an alternative perspective on jazz for those eager young pupils. That was enough teaching to get me through the halcyon days of the Trad Boom. I had a very good apprenticeship in The Bodega Jazz Band, a New Orleans styled band, before undergoing National Service where I played a little military music, some Dance Band music with Band 61 and a lot of jazz with The Bob Mains Jazzmen. Back in civvy street I become the leader of a semi-pro Dixieland/Mainstream band - The Mike Graham Jazzmen.
At the end of the Sixties I immigrated to Australia, for a time lived in Hong Kong and the U.S. on work transfers, and did not play any jazz for twenty-five years; picking up again when I should have been old enough to know better. In order to get back in the swing, I attended workshops with Freddy Wilson in Sydney, took trombone and arranging lessons from American teacher Rory Thomas and went to Jazz Outreach classes at the NSW Conservatorium of music. Then I formed my own seven-piece mainstream/swing band, originally called Razzle Jazzle but later to become The Swingtet, and we hit the pubs and clubs. Since then I have also played with other bands and had long stays with Brush With Fame and Mainstream band '38' Express.
In recent years the pub and club activity has lessened and gigs have fallen away due to the effect of poker machines. Many diehard Australian traditional jazz fans now congregating at the jazz festivals that are held regularly in country towns. In recent years have concentrated on this scene playing with Major Fieldgood, The Victims Of Night Starvation, Goodtime Jazz, Jazzorama and The Jazz Generators. We are mostly ageing musicians playing to a mostly ageing audience but there are several very encouraging youngsters coming along. I do feel that, if 'hot' jazz is to survive, we will have to support and encourage these younger players. That is what I am concentrating on these days.
My new band formed after the move to Queensland is the Southern Bay Stompers. This is a very professional band and I am expecting great things from it. Watch this space!
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