Burt Butler's

         Jazz Pilgrims


                         Burtie has played with many musicians and different bands. 
   
                               Here is his Hall of Fame of  Banjo and Piano players
 
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                      Banjo / Piano players of Burties hall of fame, read how they  started
                 then click on their name to hear the quality and musician ship of their playing.

                                  Dave Bashford           Chris Marney           Ray Perkins           Mick Morris

 

    

       
                                   
         David George Bashford - Guitar and Banjo      
playing Jazz me Blues recorded at the Theatre Royal,Margate,Kent,UK 
                                                                                        11thFeb 2006  with the Bill Barnacle Jazz Band playing Jazz me Blues,rest of
                                                                                        the band: Bill Barnacle crnt, Sean Maple tmb, Chris Rumsey clt
                                                                                        Colin Hodges bass, Mike Marsh drms and Dave 

                                      Sadly no longer with us, a great and well loved guy
                                                    17th May 1939   -   5th May 2006

I started playing music while still at school (about 15years old) when I aquired a ukelele banjo for half-a-crown (12.5p) I learned to play from the song sheets of the day where the chords are shown in little diagrams, tunes like Swannee River, when I'm Cleaning Windows etc.   My mother was not a great music lover and I used to practise in a nearby field where my first groupies were a herd of cows who used to form a circle around me and sway to the rhythms of the uke! One day there was a knock on the door and the visitor said he had heard that I was a banjo player and would I like to join his jazz band. At the time I thought jazz was Ted Heath! That band was known as the Tishomingo Stompers and eventually became reasonable proficient and popular in the East Kent area particularly at the Bear and Key, Whitstable, Kent where we ran our own club.  I then went to college to study chemistry continuing to play including a stint with the college band.  I moved up to London, sold my banjo until approached to join a band managed by Harold Davidson to cash in on the Trad boom (about 1960). I was auditioned on my only instrument at the time, a classical Spanish guitar where I had to play Sruttin with Some Barbeque. I got the job, bought another banjo and away we went, where being the only driver in the band I got £5 a week extra for driving .  That band folded and I gave up playing jazz, got married, pursued a career etc.  Years later (1975) the Mo Hovery Jazzmen needed a guitarist for a job on a boat.  I did the gig, joined the band and away we go again. Since then I've played in a lot of Kentish bands - Invicta, Preservation Stompers ,Pete Rose Jazz Band,  Bill Barnacle Jazz, Dave Link's Band culminating with several years touring the highways and byways of Europe with Max Collie until forced to give up the heavy duty travelling due to ill health. Now taking it easy with local bands and also Bob Dwyer's Hot Seven band.
                     
          

                     Dave had a wonderful send off, here are some of the photos at the church and at the golf club, his favourite watering hole:

                               
   Click on to above  picture/writing
             to see video of Church

           The funeral took place at St Alphege Church, High Street, Whitstable, Kent. It was estimated about             L to R  Dave Bone, Mo Hovery
           600 friends and family wished him a great farewell, Dave would have loved it.16th May 2006                       Sean Maple and Bill Barnacle

                            

                                                                   
                                                                               Dave's  family and friends with the band behind
         

                      On the 30th November Mel had a thank you, combined birthday party, for her friends who have been so kind to her
                      since the loss of her husband David.   Here are a few photos and a video of the Bill Barnacle Band playing etc:

                      
           The packed dancing area                 Vanessa and Samantha                             Samantha                                     Vanessa 
                                                                            David's daughters 

                                                                                        
                                                                                 Dave Corsby, Pete Rose and Dave Bone

                           Video of The Bill Barnacle Band                                                                    Bill's band playing Beale Street Blues
                           playing Tuxedo Junction                                                                                  with Colin Hodges on vocal
                           click on the title to watch                                                                                  click on title to hear

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                                             Chris Marney - Banjo

I first became interested in the music from the age of about 12 by an Acker Bilk LP bought by my Mum and Dad. Roy James has a lot to answer for, in that his banjo playing with this band inspired me to (eventually) take up the instrument. The wonderful swinging style of this band, from the late fifties Pye Nixa recordings through to their hit singles of the early sixties, became for me the main ingredient of what did, and still does it for me.The first band I played for was the Pete Rose JB, soon to become the Bill Barnacle JB, I have many happy memories of these times, and I am very appreciative of the breadth of jazz styles that this band intoduced me to. A 'Spider' Wellard recording of a session I did with a band led by Roy King led to an invitation to play with Max Collie, an astonishing thing to me, since the raucous, swinging sound of this band in its 70's heyday was, and still is one of my favourite things. I happily played most of the band's gigs between '92 and '98. Since then, I have played regularly with the Gambit jazzmen through to the present day. I was fortunate enough to be invited to play with Malcolm Walton's Blue Rhythm Kings whilst Dave Bashford was indisposed a couple of years ago, and it is a delight to me to continue doing the gig until he rightfully reclaims it ! Chris Marney 

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                                                                                                                                Folkestone Music Festival,    July 2006

                                                                                              Mick Morris Guitar & banjo

1956 - I was 12 years old and had always loved music but the lessons I'd had on violin and piano hadn't quite done it for me. Then all of a sudden there was skiffle and rock & roll and everything changed overnight. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to be Lonnie Donegan or his guitarist Denny Wright - or maybe Bill Haley or his guitarist Franny Beecher - but it was definitely one of them. The following year I formed a skiffle group, The Asteroids, and entered the Dover Carnival. That's where I first met Bod Bowles. His jazz band was following us in the procession drowning out our feeble sounds! In 1958 the BBC started to broadcast 'Guitar Club' and I was inspired by the playing of players new to me - Ken Sykora, Ike Isaacs, Dis Disley and many others. The skiffle group folded and I joined first a local dance/jazz band (The Melody Makers) and then the original Rolling Stones (the Dover-based group which had started out as a skiffle & blues band in 1956). Bod took over the Grapes (Louis Armstrong) and when the jazz sessions started I'd go along and soak it up, eventually plucking up the courage to join in. I guess that's when it finally dawned on me that it was the instrument I'd fallen for rather than any one type of music. Next came some years in the house band at Tofts Jazz Club, Folkestone, supporting and playing alongside some great musicians like Georgie Fame, John Mayall, Clapton etc. and also accompanying visiting variety artists. I was never a 'regular' member of Bod's band but often helped out, playing whatever they were short of - usually either banjo, guitar bass or drums. That's how I met Bill Barnacle and went on to play with him in both his own band (1975) and in Whirligig (1977) whilst keeping my own outfits going throughout the 80s and 90s. Since 2006 I've been reunited with Bill, playing banjo and guitar in his band as well as with the Stour Valley Jazzmen. I still do a few other things as well - some Irish banjo here and a bit of gypsy jazz there - and I love it all as much today as when I first started out!

                                                                        
                                               Mick with First guitar    August 1957                                             The Asteroids, Dover Carnival      August 1957

                         ''Ole Miss" The Bill Barnacle jazz band                                     "Nuages"  Mick Morris Trio
                              Recorded 19 Oct 2008 at the Louis Armstrong, Dover                               Recorded 10 August 2007 St. Bart's Studios, Dover
                            Personnel: Bill Barnacle (cornet), Pete Rose (clarinet),              Personnel: Mick Morris (guitar), Jacques Bethencourt (rhythm guitar),
                                     Sean Maple (trombone), Mick Morris (banjo),                                                      Dave 'Spike' Jones (electric bass)
                                        Colin Hodges (bass), Mike Marsh (drums)

                                             "When Sunny gets blue"                                                          "The Revs"   Whirligig  
                              Sybyl Talbot & Mick Morris
                
Recorded at Sybyl & Sean Talbot' home, December 1979                      Recorded live at The Louis Armstrong, 1977 Personnel: Bill Barnacle (cornet),
          Personnel: Sybyl Talbot (vocal), Mick Morris (acoustic guitar)                         Walter Thatcher (tenor), George Sketcher (Soprano), Robin Basford (piano),
                                                                                                                                                          Mick Morris (guitar), Neil Basford (bass), Mike Marsh (drums)

                                         
                                                                                                            Click on to the above titles to listen to the tracks

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                                           Ray Perkins - Piano

I first became interested in music listening to my father playing piano, and so I went to piano lessons for a few years, and also I was influenced by pianists like: Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson etc. Also I like all the 40's, 50's swingbands - Basie, Ellington, Shaw, Goodman and in particular I loved listening to the Benny Goodman trio's and quartets etc. There were many solo players influenced me like Errol Garner,Ben Webster, Satchmo of course and Clark Terry. Many English bands caught my attention like Dankworth Seven , Alex Welsh and Ted Heath. Over the years I have collected records of all these artists and indeed I do still listen to them from time to time and I must say there are a lot of local players I have enjoyed gigging with over the years so all in all music has played a big part in my life and hope I can go on playing for a few years ' who knows' I may be lucky. At the present time I play in Lyn Falvey's Touch of Class  who sings all the jazz standards, and I do have quite a variety of bands I gig with so all in all I enjoy it all.

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