Saxophones
Trumpets
|
Trombones
Rhythm
Vocal
|
Pete Deane - Musical Director
Pete started playing in Bristol playing sax in the school band led by his maths teacher Les Pursey in the mid 70's - who also created the Bristol Schools Dance Orchestra with Jack Fear.
Progressing from this Peter toured Spain, Germany and the UK with a small jazz rock band from Bristol -- the Fred Bloggs Band --playing a complete mix of jazz and rock. As a student in Plymouth Pete played with small groups, both jazz and commercial, as well as re-engaging with a Plymouth Arts Centre big band. Moving on from this Pete did stints with truly commercial bands in Bournemouth and Weymouth before moving to Surrey and initially playing with the SJO on Tenor Sax during the early 1980's when the band was playing at Ripley and then Woking. Although Pete had a 10 year absence when he lived in Yorkshire he rejoined the SJO in 1999 and has played many roles with the band since then - playing pretty much all of the sax chairs at one time or another. Now (2017) Pete takes on the leadership of the band and is delighted to be given such a great opportunity -with so may skilled and talented musicians. |
Jim Philip - Baritone sax and misc reedsBorn and bred north of the Border in Aberdeen, Jim, initially inspired by the likes of Benny Goodman, the “Big Bands” and later by the work of Gerry Mulligan, Gil Evans and Miles Davis, took up clarinet and later tenor sax. In 1964 Jim struck out for the South to study Computer Science at the then Brighton College of Technology.
This was really his ‘cunning plan’ to get close to the London jazz scene. Jim found his way into ‘rehearsal band land’ with the likes of Barrie Forgie, Graham Collier and the Morley College Band. This led to seats with the New Jazz Orchestra, Chris McGregor and the Bobby Lamb / Ray Premru Big Band and occasional gigs with the likes of Maynard Ferguson. Jim formed his own Miles style quintet which performed at Ronnie Scott’s ‘Old Place’ and he played and recorded with Michael Garrick’s Sextet. Aiming for the high ground he joined fellow Scot Mike McNaught in his London Jazz Four (later renamed Atlantic Bridge). This group recorded for CBS and Pye Records and achieved a wider recognition for jazz by recording material from the pen of composer Jim Webb and the likes of the Beatles. In the early seventies Jim went back to the ‘Day Job’. He re-emerged some 30 years later and now plays reeds with the Surrey Jazz Orchestra, the Berks Bucks & Oxon (BBO) Big Band, and the Remix Jazz Orchestra (RJO). Jim remarks how different in personality these bands are. |