Dave
tells me, "The band was started about 4 years ago, when the Head of Music,
Robert Richmond, encouraged some of the youngsters from the school's concert
band to get together to play some jazz arrangements. Robert himself is a very
talented pianist, and is interested in many different forms of music. The band
features Lily Whitfield on trumpet and Sophie Flint on tenor sax. Both are very
excellent musicians, who play in a wide variety of bands (They both play with a
quartet called 'Huevos' which has had regular gigs around the area, and Lily has
played recently with DizzyHack, a 16 piece big band which now regularly plays
jazz/swing/funk at The Bowerham Hotel in Lancaster on the first Tuesday of each
month.) The line-up includes clarinet, trombone, piano, alto sax, tuba and
drums. The band has played a number of gigs outside school, including a concert
at Lancaster Priory which was part of the last Lancaster Jazz Festival, but most
of their concerts are associated with school events. They were chosen, from a
number of school bands which also auditioned, to play for a National Education
Conference in Birmingham last year. They mostly play written arrangements,
although Lily and Sophie are quite capable of improvised solos. On their recent
CD, the numbers include Washington and Lee Swing, Five Feet Two, Alabama
Jubilee, Basin Street Blues, Bill Bailey and St. James' Infirmary - all fairly
traditional tunes - with a 'small band' arrangement of 'Little Brown Jug', and a
swing version of S'Wonderful. The band is currently in South Africa, as part of
an international exchange programme which the school is involved with. The only
downside to this really exciting development is that some of the band, including
Lily and Sophie, Daniel Mawson (Also Sax) and Simon Saunders (Drums) will be
leaving at the end of the school year. No doubt they will continue their musical
careers elsewhere, but Robert Richmond is trying very hard to discover and
encourage new young players to join the band so that it can continue next year.I did get the band to play at Carnforth Station one lunchtime session in December 2009 - they went down very well indeed with the audience there, as you might imagine. I think the CD sold out. The Headteacher would be delighted to think that the band's reputation has been spreading - and so would Robert, who has worked very hard, and is a very modest man"!