The Group 

The complete Jazz Appreciation course lasts two years, but each session is a complete entity.The sessions are at my home on the first Wednesday afternoon of the month, from September until June, starting at 2-00 PM, for two hours of music, together with an explanatory text.
The September session will always be ‘traditional’ in style, and the December always light -hearted. Swing, be-bop, big bands, specialist instrumentalists, as well as traditional styles are all featured in sessions. There are twenty sessions in total, plus two DVDs, so if you enroll for a third year, you can hear some of the sessions twice. I feature almost nothing classed as ‘avant garde’ but most other jazz genres are included(I do have a copy of Ornette Coleman’s ‘Shape of Jazz To Come’ but it is not featured at all!),
If I have more than ten people for the course, I will consider splitting

The Leader

The leader is Dave Timpson, who plays no instrument apart from the record player. My first record was Lonnie Donegan’s Rock Island line, which in my case led directly to an interest in American folk music and New Orleans jazz (in addition to Rock ‘n’ Roll).

By  the time I was 16 I was curious about other forms of jazz, and had bought records by Art Blakey and the MJQ. I now have an extensive record collection covering most musical genres, including quite a lot of classical music. 

If anyone asks, I’m not  keen on opera , nor Hollywood style musicals (though there are even exceptions here.). From a young age (around 11 years) I also had an interest in pre war popular music and have about 400 x 78 RPM records.