During 1981, thanks to the influence of Roy Hubbard, I was asked to dep several times with the Zenith Hot Stompers, and I eventually joined the band in October of that year. My renewed partnership with Roy lasted for 23 years, ending only with his emigration to Spain in December 2004.
I’ve summarised my subsequent career below - if and when time permits I may expand this into a more flowery literary form ...
- October 1981 - February 2005
- With Zenith Hot Stompers. The band made many tours of Holland, which sometimes spilled over into Germany or Belgium, also visited Sweden and Finland, and in 2003 finally made it to the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee. Humphrey Lyttelton was a frequent guest with Zenith; two of his Birmingham appearances, at the old Waterworks Club and at the Repertory Theatre, were captured on video, and in November 1982 he joined us in recording the album Zenith Joys at Zella Studios in Edgbaston.
- Two other giants of British jazz recorded with the band: Wally Fawkes (Fidgety Feet in January 1992) and Chris Barber later the same year. Other guests over the years included Bill Alred, Gene Connors, Gene Rodgers, John Barnes, Pat Halcox, Monty Sunshine, Cy Laurie, Johnny Parker and no doubt many others whose names my declining powers of memory are unable to retrieve from the mists of time; but my personal all-time hero was Wild Bill Davison.
- October 2002
- Joined Harlem Jazz Orchestra on 3rd trumpet.
- May 2005
- Joined Big Bear Stompers on 2nd trumpet.
My most ambitious venture to date is a band which I call the Savoy Ballroom Five, whose core repertoire is the tunes recorded by Louis Armstrong with small groups in 1928. This band first appeared at the Bude Jazz Festival in 2008, with repeat performances in 2009 and 2010 in which Jeff Barnhart triumphantly took on the challenging role of Earl Hines.