It was strange to be back, after all these years, in a band that I used to criss-cross France with, reading Alfred Jarry en route to a Parisian club or a mosquito-plagued festival in the bay of Marseilles. It’s good that Chris McGregor’s amazing music lives on, and that the 100 Club could be filled with people who still cared about The Brotherhood of Breath. Let’s hope that someone will risk putting this riotous band onstage again.
The Mick Collins Legacy Jazz Orchestra didn’t quite manage to round off the month with that gig at the Ivy House, due to some shenanigans with labour relations at the pub, but that has apparently been resolved, and the band will try again in a few weeks.
On we go.
Jazzman John Clarke has been mentioned many times in these reports. It was one of his events that sparked the first trombone poetry chronicle. He enlivened countless poetry events with his irrepressible outbreaks of beat poetry. Now he’s gone, unbelievable as that seems. Those who can get there can pay their respects on Friday, and swap stories and stanzas later
Friday 12 October
Jazzman JC John Clarke (1948 – 2018)
Funeral: 10.00
Honor Oak Crematorium, Brockley Way, London SE4 2LJ
The Birds Nest, 32 Deptford Church St, Deptford, London SE8 4RZ
Possible trombone poetry offering between 17:00 and the 19:00 finish.
Saturday 13 October, 19:30
Leeds Grand Theatre
46 New Briggate, Leeds LS1 6NZ
Friday 19 October, 19:00
LONDON LATIN JAZZ FESTIVAL
Pizza Express-Jazz Club
10 Dean St., Soho, London W1D 3RW
Saturday, 20 October, 19:30
Mercury Theatre
Colchester CO1 1PT
Friday 26 October, 19:30
The Roses Theatre
Sun St., Tewkesbury GL20 5NX
31 October 2018, 19:30
Theatre Royal Winchester
Jewry St, Winchester SO23 8SB