1950s jazz in north west Lancashire

As teenagers, back in the 1950s, we moved seamlessly from the rock and roll era to jazz. That’s modern jazz by the way, not the raucous trad jazz, as in When the Saints go Marching in.

In north west Lancashire we were truly fortunate to have talented jazz singers and musicians playing on our doorsteps at the Empress and Imperial Ballrooms in Burnley and Nelson, every week. 

Saxophonist Johnny Dankworth, Musician of the Year in 1949 (later Sir John Dankworth) frequented Nelson regularly, as did Ronnie Scott and Tubby Hayes. Scott, of course, opened his own jazz club in Soho in the 1950s.  It still hosts the cream of musicians and singers to this day.

I always preferred trios and quartets with their more understated and cool presentations, but sadly the highly-acclaimed American Dave Brubeck Quartet, with Paul Desmond on alto sax, never made it to Nelson, and nor did the studious MJQ foursome who created a haunting piece as the theme tune for Odds Against Tomorrow starring Scary Spice’s former father-in-law Harry Belafonte, the sex symbol Shelley Winters and every man’s crumpet Gloria Grahame (played by Warren Beatty’s wife Annette Bening in the film Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool).

But these days I can almost dine out on the most overwhelming event ever.  My future first husband and I saw Ella Fitzgerald at Manchester Free Trade Hall for the first time in 1958. I got rid of my husband eventually but I kept the souvenir programme of the concert.

We were beside ourselves with excitement, because not only were we anticipating the most famous jazz singer on earth, but also the cream of jazz musicians too. 

Finally the band struck up and Ella landed on the stage carrying that trademark silk hanky she always used to mop the sweat from her brow.  She lit up the room as she took hold of the microphone and vigorously belted out The Lady is a Tramp. We were instantly besotted and overwhelmed, and later on her scat singing had us worshipping her unique skills.

During the evening we were entertained by the then revolutionary tenor sax players Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins, alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt, the Dill Jones Trio, Coleman Hawkins, playing his classic Body and Soul, Roy Eldridge, Lou Levy, Gus Johnson and the adored  jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gilllespie.

One surprise for me was when bassist Ray Brown left the stage when Ella came on to sing with Oscar Peterson’s backing.  I had no idea she and Brown had been married not many years before.

Apart from Ella and Stan Getz, my favourite performance that night was the inimitable Oscar Peterson, already popular on both sides of the Atlantic and the backbone of Jazz at the Phil.  Apparently he and Nat King Cole had identical voices, and while Nat often accompanied himself on piano, he didn’t perform solely as a pianist because Nat had agreed to stick to being a vocalist and Oscar to playing the ivories. Maggie B. Dickinson