WAKEFIELD THEATRE CLUB
I attended the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire and was there, man and boy, for eight years. Bradford University had a heavy emphasis on science and engineering but recognised that bias through a promotion of the arts – it appointed, for example, a Fellow in Theatre and a Fellow in Music to stimulate the arts in both University and town. And despite its industrial past, the city of Bradford itself and the surrounding towns were also active in promoting theatre, music and art. Wakefield was one of the smaller towns in the West Yorkshire conurbation but it had an active arts scene and one of its famous venues was the Wakefield Theatre Club which hosted some of the biggest musicians and variety acts through the 1960s and 1970s, including some of the biggest names in jazz. The Club became a bowling complex and was eventually demolished in 2016. But the memories linger on.
As a university student, money was not readily available and paying for treats meant foregoing other important commodities such as beer and cigarettes. But when I heard that Count Basie and Buddy Rich were coming to Wakefield within three months of each other, I was happy to deny myself the stimulants, at least in part, so that I could see my idols. For Wakefield Theatre Club was not just a theatre but also a club. There were no cheap seats per se. You sat in tiered semicircles around the stage, at a table and were served a full meal while watching the show.
So I went – twice. I am certain it was 1974. Count Basie performed in the summer and Buddy Rich later in the year. It was the most amazing period of my blossoming jazz life. Detailed recollections of the music are hazy but I am assuming it was all as much perfection as I could wish for.
The real treat, though, happened after the show. The Club Bar was at the top of the tiered seating and I and my friends lingered awhile after the show in the hope that some of the Count’s Kansas City magic would rub off on us. Sure enough, after while, the musicians from the band came wandering out and gravitated, as musicians do, to the bar where I was conveniently placed. And we got chatting. These were heroes all – Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Sonny Cohn, Eric Dixon, Cecil Payne. It was all a bit heady but I was able to maintain my senses enough to push my programme and a pen their way. And they duly signed.
But that was not all. Where was the Count? I asked if he would be coming out but was told that he probably would not. I said I was sorry and someone, I’m not sure who it was, took pity on me and asked if I would like to meet him. Well, that was the only invitation I needed. I was taken backstage and into a small dressing room where sat a diminutive man in high-waisted trousers with a beatific smile on his face. I sat opposite. We chatted. How was England? How far had I come? Nothing of consequence but a moment of magic that I could never have dreamed of. And if you look at the autographs on my programme, you will see the Count’s modest signature among the others.
The Buddy Rich concert three months later was much the same. The music was outstanding. The musicians congregated at the bar afterwards and although I did not have the foresight to get them to sign my programme this time, I did ask to meet Buddy and was agian invited to his dressing room. Another diminutive man but with a huge personality and a lot of stories.
And if you look carefully at the programme you will note that Buddy signed it, fittingly right across the bass drum.
PLACES OF JAZZ
The places where jazz is played – the clubs, the stages, the parks, the festivals – all evoke our jazz passions and create the memories that we carry away with us. Here we will look at some of these places but we will not stop at the venues themselves, we will also look at the cities and towns where jazz is a by-word, whether it be a metropolis like New York or Chicago or a Caribbean Island or downtown Yerevan in Armenia. For me, on a regular basis, it is my home city of Fremantle, where Jazz Fremantle is my venue of choice every Sunday afternoon. But everywhere I go I am looking for jazz and it is there, around every corner.
I hope we can explore the geography of jazz through these pages and highlight the venues and spaces that give jazz free rein and the streets and squares that offer a home to the music.