Dear Jazz Friends
Spring is at last in the air, and there are some excellent events coming up. But before I get to that, I mentioned last time that Somerset's Dillington House is soon to close as an adult education and concert venue. It was great to mark my association with it over the last decade with a "Tickling the Ivories" course (with lovely participants) and a sensational sell-out concert in which boogie maestro Julian Phillips and I shared the grand piano for "Ragtime meets Boogie". Great fun, and we hope to repeat that success somewhere, sometime.
Moving on, the Sunset Cafe Stompers are at Dorchester Arts on Friday (14 April). It's close to fully booked at the time of writing, so please come to make it a sell-out! In June the band is at Ilminster Arts, and a couple of weeks later at Cheap Street church Sherborne; for the latter we welcome top-flight trumpet player Enrico Tomasso as our guest.
As a smaller group, we'll be helping to celebrate the Coronation in May with afternoon appearances at two excellent while different hotels - The Grange, Oborne on the Saturday and The Moonfleet Manor near Weymouth on the Sunday.
Steve Graham and I have two more upcoming dates with the amazing blues and gospel singer Julia Titus (Swanage festival and Culmstock), I'm also looking forward to some splendid dates - Emma Fisk (violin) and then David Horniblow (clarinet) at Sherborne - and (coming up soon, 21 Apr) Weymouth's own international clarinet star Mike Snelling at the lovely church at Upwey, near Weymouth. The Sunset Cafe band returns to Upwey in August, and we also revisit Langford Budville that month. Both venues gave us a great reception last year.
See also Axminster, Harmons Cross and Thorncombe for a variety of concerts - great places to visit in the summer months
Finally I must mention that I've been invited to address the prestigious Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, on 26 May. Be There or Be Square! (actually I'm not sure that is their real motto). I'll be playing and talking about ragtime.
Thanks for subscribing, and I look forward to seeing you at some of these events and others listed below.
Mike