Jazzer’s Videos

You are very kind Jack.
I would love to think you are right.
I walk around the beautiful park where I live, pretty well every day, and I still sing or hum jazz lines to my favourite chord sequences.
I’ve always done that.
My jazz phrases were inspired by the beauty I was walking through that day.

I would sing to myself,
get it right,
my right hand would me ghosting
the valve or the slide positions,
then walk home,
jump in my car,
get up on stage,
and - out they came.

I can’t get out of the habit of
‘dipsy-doodling’ music.

 

Dark Eyes

 

When a Woman Loves a Man

My own band,
‘Dave Hewett’s Condonians.’

A tribute to the great Eddie Condon Band.

 

Our lovely Dave xxx

 

@Jazzer

The only other time I've seen and heard a trombone solo was at the Rainbow Room in New York City.
Maybe it was you, Dave!

Tuxedo

PS- My son played the trombone in High School, unfortunately gave it up when he went to University.

 

No I’ve never played in New York.
The only gigs in the States were a two week stint for the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee in the 90s,
and a guest at a jazz night in New Orleans.

I learnt about brass in the Salvation Army, where I played cornet from age 10 to 18y.
Taught myself trombone - never had a lesson.
I picked up my brother’s ‘bone, worked out where the shifts were for myself, and was jazzing within a couple of months.

Trombone is a very tough task master to learn on - like any musical instrument though, you have to live alongside it until it all becomes second nature.
But then you can ‘fly.’

 

@Jazzer

Love the Dixieland--- really got me toe tapping. Brought back some good memories of New Orleans before hurricane Katrina.

You're very talented Dave, I'm really glad I got to 'meet' you!
Hmm, I guess I never realized the Salvation Army was not just an American organization.

This is a great thread, I'll be back. Thanks for sharing- TC

 

“St James Infirmary Blues”
Just me and my old mate Lenny playing at a Rotary Club dinner a couple of years back.
I demonstrate taking the bell off of the bone, and playing with just the slide and a glass tumbler, to turn the sound forward.
When you halve the trombone the slide positions are all different.
Tricky to do, but a nice little party trick.

St James Infirmary

 

The perils of both trying to get behind one mike....

 

The sound is a lot more mournful. Is there a story that inspired the lyrics for St James Infirmary?

I have to say, I seem to equate brass with an emotional experience and at both ends of the spectrum. Happiness- Dixieland Jazz, Marching Bands, Big Bands and the like over to extreme sadness as in tear jerker when a bugler plays taps in all its simplicity.

 

Louis Armstrong’s superb version.

Louis Armstrong: St. James Infirmary

 

Jazzer do you sing?

 

No Sam.
I used to be a soloist in the choir at church, but with my upbringing I lacked the confidence to attempt singing to a proper audience.
I had to battle trepidation to appear on stage at all in the early days.

 

Louis Armstrong - to me, the god of music, jazz, and humanity.
His self-appointed task was to make the whole world happy - and he came closer than anybody else in history.
Having heard my first notes at about fifteen years of age, I recognised god - the only god I could ever believe in, and the only god I ever wanted.

The face he showed the world was full of joy.
Sometimes, in pictures, you could see beyond this mammoth task he had set himself, to a more reflective face of sadness and humanity.
Long live Louis Armstrong.

 

As with ‘St James Infirmary Blues’ (see above)
this version of Walt Disney’s famous melody
“When You Wish Upon a Star” comes from a fund raising charity event for a local Rotary Club.
Myself and my dear old mate Lennie Quinnell.
(Trombone and Baritone Horn + Guitar.)

When You Wish Upon A Star

 

Great videos Jazzer, you got some big ole lungs on you there haha

Love Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan and many more

 

I hope you are well @Jazzer! I forgot to wish you a happy holiday and new year, but better late than never!

 

Thank you Jack

Very Best Wishes to you bud xx

 

Ballad Medley

Nice ballad medley by one of my lineups from a few years back.
Me on manually operated pneumatic pitch adjuster.
(Trombone - for those with a challenged vocabulary.)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKEzH50Kb-8▶ 0:05

 

Hahahahaha..............xx
Really cracked me up TC xx

 

“Muskrat Ramble”

Muskrat Ramble

 

My dear Mannie, thanks for the genius logo.
I was playing the melody of your home town I believe, or close by?

 

I had a month long engagement in Düsseldorf in 1961, and happened to see a band of university students playing on the street in Koenig’s Alley, the posh part of town.
They sounded pretty good.
Noticing my trombone case, they asked me to join in with them.
Ten minutes later we were surrounded by police.
They all knew the escape routes, but I got nabbed and taken to the nick on my own.
I knew no ‘German’ lingo.
They kept me in the cell for about three hours before letting me go.
I was sweating.
I had signed an exclusive contract not to play any other venue within five miles of the club.
I had to get back to the other side of the city, changed into a ‘monkey suite’ and up on stage by 9pm.
Just made it.


Dave x
Jazzer

 

‘Yesteryear....’

 

Walking around Amersfoort today and I spotted this planter with a painting of the legandary jazz great Stephan Grappelli on the side.
I shared the stage with him at the Montreux Jazz Festival In 1972 - 47 years ago.
(I have to admit - I was bloody terrified! Hahaha.)

 

All The Way

Bruce Adams - Brilliant Scottish flugelhorn player, featuring on “All The Way,”
written by Jimmy Van Heusen,
at Sylvie’s Place Jazz Club 2009.

 

Love supreme...
You are an amazing person.
What a life... super impressed by your artistry, humility, and kindness.

Shame we are here... but such is life. I'm glad you're here, and many others too.

 

That’s very kind DL;
as you say, there are many lovely people on here, and when you think that we are nearly all struggling with this “!!! SHIT !!!” yet we continuously look out for each other.

Now look - the deal is - ‘I showed you mine - how about you showing me yours.’

(Bit like the girl who took me up the woods when I was nine - when I’d never seen one before!
I have to tell you - I was impressed.)

You are the sculptor I believe.
Now I was a purely natural jazz muso, but I could never draw, paint or sculpt.......so how about it buddy?? x