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                          Clarinet 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.

         Jim Searson        Chris Rumsey       Dave Corsby        Joe Licari               Paul Hoking
 
        Pete Curtis        Pete Bennetto        Bernard Stutt        Cy Laurie and Randy Colville            Bruce Roberts

        Ivan Gandon       Dennis Lear         Dave Bone        Geoff Foster        Alan Robinson

                                                                                            
     Jim Searson - clarinet, soprano, alto and tenor sax and vocals  playing and singing 'Lock my heart and  throw away the key'
                                                                                                                                                 from the CD Reigning Supreme, with the Canterbury Jazz
                                                                                                                                                 Pilgrims recorded 25th Feb 1999, band members Bill Phelan
                                                                                                                                                 tpt, John Finch tmb, Burtie Butler bnj, Alan Kenninton bass,
                                                                                                                                                 and Robin Beames drums.
His first band was the King's College Jazz Band, London, in the late Fifties. Band included Tony O'Sullivan on trumpet and both Jim and Tony were abducted by the infamous Uncle John Renshaw in the early Sixties and forced to labour in his Elastic Band and play such places as Cy Laurie's Club on Great Windmill Street and Club 51 on Great Newport Street. This band also included Bill Cole on bass. John played banjo (!) because he couldn't find a banjo player. Left London in 1964 and his place was taken by John Defferary who was referred to by Uncle John as "Tippers". Tipperary - Defferary, get it? Then spent five years in the RAF and a stint in an Army/Air Force band in Bahrain called the Arabian Gulf Stompers. This was a hot band by any standards. Then emigrated to Canada and lived on the Canadian/USA border near Niagara Falls and played in a band, resident at the Speakeasy in Niagara Falls, New York and run by Harry Bruns, who wrote "The Story of the ODJB". Harry was a good trombone player and not infrequently inebriated. Jim returned to the UK in 1975 when his decline began. Has been forced to gig around with practically every dubious jazz character south of Potters Bar! Favourite clarinetists - Daniel Howard and Omer Simion. Greatest dread - being shipwrecked with Cilla Black and Cliff Richard.

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                                        Geoff Foster - clainet , tenor and soprano saxes and vocal  

Sadly Geoff has joined the band in the sky   4th August 1934 to 8th June 2022

                                                                                Geoff playing "High Society" and vocalising in "When You Are Smiling "
                                                                                here with the Jazz Pilgrims at a Jazz Picnic in Chislet     
                                                                                 Band members are:
                                                                                John Sheppard tpt, Don York tmn, Mike Marsh drms,
                                                                                Burtie Butler bnj and Chris Thompson double bass

Born 1934, South London, and got hooked on King Oliver's Creole Jazzband at 12yrs old! I learnt the clarinet in the RAF in Germany 1955 to 1957, my first band the "Six Proud Walkers" ( which finished up seven ! ) having one of our concerts broadcast on 'British Forces Network'. On demob, I met up with old friends and formed a band and gigged with many others, eventually joining the Panama Jazzmen. I joined Kenny Barton's Oriole Jazzband in 1959, touring professionally with him until 1962 when my first son was born. Back to the day job! I continued playing when possible, my trio with Graham Barton, piano and Bill Wilkinson drums, being very popular with some clubs. I have played with many bands (not in order) incl :- "B" Minters Gothic Jazzband, Kenny Barton's Bands, Bill Brunskill's Band, Sonny Morris's New Crane River Jazzband, Chicago Rhythm Kings, "Dirty Rats", "One More Time" & " Jugular Vein" with Max Emmons, and from 1988, seven years with the "Classical" Frog Island Jazzband touring England, Europe and twice to New Orleans, also three visits there with my wife, one for our honeymoon, when I was also invited to play a set with the popular Medicare Madcaps, (combined ages 450 yrs) me being nearly old enough to qualify, and wearing a cap !! 1994 I formed the "Big Easy" band which played (mostly) what it said on the tin 'Easy', and which I brought to Kent when Pam and I moved here in 1998. I stopped band-leading in 2004, but carried on playing for everyone else, with old friend George Tidiman, when in Kent and with the Original East Side Stompers, and of course, Burt's Jazz Pilgrims, when asked!

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                              Chris Rumsey - Clarinet and Alto   Here is Chris playing some wonderful alto in The Preacher with the Bill Barnacle Band
                                                                                           which was recorded live at The Theatre Royal, Margate, Kent. Some lovely backing behind
                                                                                           Bills vocal, and just listen to Chris's solo - superb. The band members are Bill Barnacle crt/v
                                                                                           Séan Maple tmb, Dave Bashford gtr, Colin Hodges bass and Mike Marsh drms.
My Clarinet playing started when I was posted to Iraq with the RAF in 1953. I needed something to occupy my spare time with, so on a visit to Bagdad I purchased a very old clarinet for £5. I blew and fiddled with this instument for 2 years, eventually able to play some kind of tune! After leaving the RAF I bought an Alto Sax and gradually met likeminded people to play with. My first dance band started as a trio, than a quartet, quintet and finally a sextet. This  carried untill 1974 when for personal reasons I withdrew from commercial gigs. I started playing jazz in 1992 in a very small way, but luck was with me, I managed to play eventually with some of the top semi pros in the south east, they have said that as long as I keep paying them I can carry on playing with them! What a therapeutic hobby I have.

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                                  Dave Bone - clarinet - musical CV

I received a thorough musical grounding at the Canterbury Cathedral Choir School, and moved on at 13 to the Faversham Grammar School where, in my sixth form years,  I was introduced to Ken Colyer and Chris Barber 78’s, and gradually to the history of Jazz in America. I formed the 7-piece Tishomingo Stompers in 1956, and the band was based in the Bear & Key Hotel in Whitstable. The Jazz Club grew to about 500 members over the years and the band progressed in ability to the stage that it was the regular Support For professional bands at the King’s Hall, Herne Bay, such as Terry Lightfoot, Bob Wallis, Mike Cotton and Alex Welsh. As Rock & Roll and the Beatles began to woo the fan base away, I left the band with Bill Ambro to form a Quartet to play dance music and commercial gigs.  I decided that I should play vibraphone to give the band a novel sound, and Douggie Inkpen (Bs.) and Kay Nesbitt (Pno.) completed the group, and I played all over East Kent at a variety of functions, with a 2-year residency at the Imperial Hotel, Hythe. As rock music became dominant, my Quartet had to change, and a new band with me on Tenor Sax., Paul Jury (Elec. Pno.), Les Feast (Drs.) and Max ? (Elec. Bs.) was more able to satisfy the market. Residencies at the Cresidor in Upstreet and the Grand Ballroom in Broadstairs followed, with Cabaret backing a speciality. My trio left to plough a jazz/rock furrow, and Ian Cox (Elec. Pno.), John Roper (Elec. Bs.) and Phil Laslett (Drs.) completed the new line-up.  Many more gigs and a two-year residency at the Castle Keep Hotel at Kingsgate followed. Several personnel changes later, I gave up gigging, as in 1976 I became a novice Hotelier in a Guest House in Dover, and the two careers were incompatible! After a 5 year spell in Spain and an interlude in Oxfordshire (where I took up the Alto Sax and started teaching woodwind in a music store), I returned to Canterbury and bought another Guest House, and joined the Beverley Big Band, based in Herne Bay. After a few years, the Director left, and I was prevailed upon to take over until a replacement could be found! I conducted the band on and off for about 5 years, and still hold down the first Tenor chair.In recent years, I have been “depping” with various local Traditional Jazz bands, and after a wildly successful Reunion of the Bear & Key Jazz Club in January last year, I have hand-picked five musicians to form a new band calling itself the New Tishomingo All Stars, reusing the name of my first band, but reflecting the quality of the other group members.We set up regular monthly sessions in the cellar bar of the Bun Penny pub in Herne Bay, and played a summer season of weekly lunchtimes at a Hotel in Folkestone, before establishing Whitstable Jazz Club in the Stables Bar of the Duke of Cumberland Hotel in the High Street, where we now play monthly on Thursdays.

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                       Ivan Gandon - Clarinet - Reeds    Here is Ivan playing and vocalising Bourbon Street Parade with the Vocalion Jazz band
                                                                               this was recorded at the Jolly Knight, High Street Rochester, Kent. 12th September 2007
                                                                               band members are : Dennis Jenkins tpt, Jan Bryce tnb, Burtie Butler bnj, Paul Ferdinand bass
                                                                               and Mark Alexander drums

                                       Sadly Ivan passed away on 3rd July but had a wonderful send off - will be sadly missed by all

                                              Tony Pinks favourite track recorded yonks ago down at Sturry, in April 1974  

                                                  'Sweet Sue'  when Ivan closed the night off with Ian Turner sitting in,

                               along with Pete Gresham piano, Pete Turner drums, Tony Pink tpt, Pete Lamont tmb and 'Hairy' Dave Veryard bass.

I was born in 1935 on Valentine’s Day. I first got interested in music through radio programmes as that was all we had in those days. I started off by trying to play the mouth organ at the age of 8 or 9 and progressed to the recorder at school. It was around about that time when a relation gave me an old banjo. The music teacher at school was a banjo enthusiast. He helped me to put new strings on my banjo and taught me how to play chords. Also around that time I joined the Royal Marine Cadets band at Chatham and learned how to play a Fife. At the age of seventeen we heard a band playing down at the Strand in Gillingham. They were sitting on the sea wall playing out across the river and my friend told them I had a banjo. They asked me along to practise and that was the beginning of my curiosity with jazz music. From then on I never looked back. There were never enough musicians in those days to make up a full band so I started to learn to play a clarinet and have been playing the clarinet and saxophone ever since. In the sixties I started playing with a dance band quartet and we used to do working men’s clubs and village halls all over the Kent countryside as far away as Ashford and Gravesend. Without writing down the names of all the musicians I’ve played for, my musical ‘career’ has stretched from the Medway Towns up to Lincolnshire and back again. I have been playing for the Vocalion jazz band since 1984. The lads in the band come from as far away as Ashford, Whitstable, Faversham, Bromley and Gravesend. We play at the Jolly Knight in Rochester High Street every other Wednesday and occasionally do private jobs

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    Dave Corsby - Clarinet - Alto - Baritone sax. 
                                                                    Here is Dave playing clarinet with his own quartet - Jitterbug Waltz  (Fats Waller) this was recorded
                                                                   16th November 1995 in Deal, Kent by Ken Peers, this is taken from the CD ROLLCALL , the other
                                                                   members of the band are: Jim Reid piano,  Andy Wall bass and Les Feast drms. If you wish to purchase
                                                                   this CD you can go to Dave's Website  -  www.davecorsby.com

                                                                   or you can email Dave on: dave@davecorsby.com        or phone:   01843 841501

Learnt to play jazz at the Cave Club Ramsgate, the Louis Armstrong Dover and Pink Shell Club Deal. Studied saxophone with Cyril Reubens (Squadronnaires) and Bob Driscoll; clarinet with Malcolm MacMillan (Sadlers Wells Orchestra); flute with Jean Rumfield; harmony with Eric Gilder (Ivor Mairants School of Music) and Ian Cox (Prof. Royal Marines School of Music). First professional band: Chianti Jazzmen, Coronation Ballroom Ramsgate playing opposite Ted Heath, John Dankworth, Chris Barber etc. Bandleader various line ups including Dave Corsby Big Band, Brass Tacks (seven piece), Mission Impossible 16 Piece Big Band. Member John Burch Octet; Steve Parkin's Parkin Lot; Paul Booth's Harbour Jazz Orchestra.

Dave has written a great book

JAZZ IN THE STICKS   click here to read

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                                                                                           June 1942   -   November 2014    72yrs of age

                                                   Dennis Lear - clarinet      Here is Dennis's  distinctive style of playing on these three tracks taken from the CD recorded
                                                                                  live at the 'Duke of Cumberland', High Street, Whitstable, Kent on the 21st December 2007
                                                                                  band members are: Mick Stansell tpt, ,    Séan Maple tmb,    Burtie Butler bnj,
                                                                                  Mike Porter-Ward bass and Barry Knight drms and yours truly on clarinet.    
                                                                                  so click on the titles to hear.
                                    
                                                                                   Avalon               Marching through Georgia                Royal garden blues 

                                                                          here is Dennis playing a nice version of  'Trogs Blues'  with the Thameside Stompers

In 1957 my brother was conscripted into the Army.  Being a classical pianist and almost gaining his LRAM he thought having a second instrument he would get into the Army band.  They placed him in the Medical Core!  This left me with a clarinet which I began to learn.  Influenced by such bands as Chris Barber, Alan Elsden, Freddie Randal, and the many bands flourishing in the 60’s, my interest in jazz was born. My musical career has been as follows: Early days with the Tuexedo Jazz Band.Then joined the Tony Pink Band which included gigs at Victoria Palace and the 100 Club.  Backing artists such as Frankie Vaughan.  Billing in shows with such as Val Donican, Mike and Bernie Winters, Susan Maughan and George Melly. I was asked to ‘just a jam session’ in the 1970’s.  This was the basis of the Thamside Stompers Band which has lasted (with a host of changes) ever since. Now retired from full-time employment in education I get great pleasure from playing and hope the phone continues to ring.

                                                                 A great photo of Dennis                                        with Grandson William

                                                                           Sadly Dennis passed away in November 2014

                                                              Dennis's Obituary in the JAN/FEB 2015 Kent Jazz Folk magazine

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         Joe Licari - Clarinet
                                          Here is Joe playing 'That's a plenty' with Jimmy Andrews on piano and Chuck Slate on drums, this was recorded
                                          Dec 9th, 1984 at Watching View Inn, Watching, NJ. U.S.A.  If you wish to purchase this fine CD or others go to
                                          Joe's website         www.joelicari.com

                                          Here is Joe playing 'Avalon' at Arthur's Tavern NYC on You-Tube - stomping stuff - as Joe remarks you can
                                          ' heat your toast on this one'    click here to watch

                                                                                                                                      
               Paul Hoking ( King ) - Clarinet and vocals    Silver threads among the Gold  at the Louis Armstrong 16th April 2006
                                                                                                                         with Denny Ilett tpt, Barry Weston tmb, Trevor Williams bass,
                                                                                                                        Chris Marchant drms and Burtie Butler bnj
Learning the clarinet from an early age, as a young eighteen-year-old in the mid-seventies, he by chance called into the Salisbury Hotel in Barnet, North London, and listening to the Shirley's Blues Blowers playing, he mentioned to Shirley that he played the clarinet and was immediately told to go home and get his clarinet, which he did. He was so good that after five weeks he joined the BB band and also Bernie Tyrell's Salisbury Stompers, who were also resident at the Salisbury Hotel on another night. Also Paul had spent 7 years in Africa which started as an invitation from Mickey Ashman to do a months contract for the ex-pats out there run by ex - banker type chappies, but Paul fell in love with an African lass, got married and ran a bar. But things were not to be as it all turned a bit sour, she ran off with his clarinet and money, so Paul had to start saving for his fare back home. He is self taught and, with the slow deterioration of his eye sight, playing the clarinet gives him and those that listen to him a great satisfaction.
 

                                      Alan Robinson - clarinet and piano

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                                    Pete Curtis - Clarinet- Saxs    This is Pete playing a great jazz classic with his own band In the good old summer time.
I started playing as a banjo player in about 1957 but eventually moved over to reeds. I started with the Medway Jazz Band based in Tunbridge Wells which was associated with the Tunbridge Wells Jazz Appreciation Society and which ran a very popular club at the Camden Arms, Pembury and later over the cinema in Tunbrige Wells. I played banjo for a number of bands at that time, notably Megs Etherington's Indiana Jass Orchestra in Eastbourne. I have been playing  reeds in and running the New Orleans Echoes for about twenty- five of it's thirty years both as a jazz band and as a New Orleans style parade band. At present I am also the regular reeds player in The Blue Rhythm Kings, The Rising River Jazzmen and Dennis Armstrong's Great Northern Jazz Band touring the country playing at clubs, festivals and and jazz weekends. You can log on to my website for more information about
the                 New Orleans Echoes

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                    Pete Bennetto - Clarinet and sax's      playing Jazz me Blues at the Orangery, Whittlebury Park,Whittlebury
                                                                                                              Northamptonshire, 3rd June 2005. members of the band: Malcolm Walton tpt,
                                                                                                              John Finch tmb, Dave Bashford bnj, John Bayne bass sax and John Cottis drms.

Pete hails from Devon, and first appeared on the 1950's jazz scene as a teenager in Exeter with the Saratoga Jazzband (led by Geoff Cole, later of the Ken Colyer Band). After obtaining a B.Sc. and doctorate in chemistry, and while following a scientific career,he played in the ?80?s and 90?s in the Original Victoria Jazzband, with trombonist Dave Chandler (an old Ilfracombe buddy, and at the time a member of the Covent Garden Orchestra). The Victotia band was the forerunner of the current 'Lamb and Flag' band, now in its 12th year in Covent Garden. Pete has also been reedman in Steve Lane's Red Hot Peppers for the past fifteen years. Finding the day-job an interference, Pete took early retirement ten years ago from lecturing and research at King's College London, and moved to Hertfordshire with his wife and three cats to concentrate on playing, arranging and composing. He performs on over a dozen varied CD and tape recordings, and has appeared at jazz festivals or as a guest at many venues in the UK and continental Europe, as well as in Australia, New York, Montreal and Tokyo. Some recent efforts as a recording producer can be sampled on         www.london-jazz.co.uk
 

                                                                                                                      
                                                Bernard Stutt  - Clarinet  playing Lonesome Blues this was taken from "The world is waiting for the Sunrise"
                                                                                            CD by the Sussex Jazz Kings recorded live at their jazz club on Box Hill, Surrey circa 2006. 
                                                                                        
I first became interested in jazz at about the age of fifteen and soon began to love the sound of the clarinet. I acquired my first clarinet at the age of seventeen, given to me by my mothers uncle, who taught clarinet at Shrewsbury School. It was one of those old brown Simple System clarinets, probably high pitch. I quickly realised I needed lessons as I had no musical knowledge or ability whatsoever, my teacher was in the RAF central band at Uxbridge and he immediately sold me a Bohem system clarinet for £10. On being called up for National Service in late 1957 I signed on to join the Kings Royal Rifle Corps Band for six years. This was also to escape from my job which I did not like, with the Decca Navigator Company. Within a few weeks I was transferred to the Ox & Bucks. Light Infantry Band as they were very short of members. I spent a year in Cyprus, following by a wonderful two and a half years at Knook  Camp nr. Warminster. I started to play in bands in Winchester, Salisbury and Bath and then joined the Lazy River Stompers playing in the villages around Radstock, Frome and in Bristol. In 1962 I went to Penang in Malaya for my last two years in the army and managed to run the "Greenjackets Jazz Band" made up from the military band members, which became accepted by the Bandmaster so we managed to rehearse during normal working hours ! On Demob in late 1963 I moved to Chelmsford and joined the Dick Phillips Band which included Owen Diplock on banjo and Johnny Baker on trombone  ( now plays drums ). Having moved to Harpenden I joined the Frog Island Band for 22yrs. The band began to specialise in King Oliver's Creole Band and Morton numbers, and developed a small but interesting repertoire. The band was invited to play in New Orleans several times but I only went once in 1982 due to work commitments. Although a little rugged, the band was very well run and was very successful playing at the majority of the jazz clubs and on the continent. In 1988 I joined Bob Dwyers Hot Six the band concentrated on hot 5 & 7 numbers in the first few years but with various personnel changes the band played more Bix and dance band numbers which was not to my liking. In 2005 I joined Dave Stradwicks Sussex Jazz Kings. The band plays a wide variety of classic and 'New Orleans' numbers, so a big learning curve for me. Favourite clarinet players - Johnny Dodds for his sheer drive together with his superb tone and 'blues' on all numbers, slow and fast. George Lewis for the sheer beauty of his tone and phrasing , both great inventers of very different styles. Favourite British bands of the mid 50's to early 60's, Mike Daniels Delta Jazzmen, the Cy Laurie band and Steve Lanes Southern Stompers.


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                                                    Cy Laurie and Randy Colville  who are sadly no longer with us, at the Whitstable Playhouse Theatre, Whitstable, Kent
                                                   with the Invicta Jazzband  on the 23rd July 1988  a classic recording with some wonderful clarinet playing by
                                                    Cy and Randy  so click on to the title to listen to   

      the members of the band are :                                           
      Dave Link  trumpet    sadly no longer with us                 Shine      vocal Dave Link and wonderful clarinet from Randy
      Randy Colville  clarinet  sadly no longer with us            Royal Garden Blues   
      Kenny Pyrke tmb  also sadly no longer with us              Stevedore Stomp
      Burtie Butler  banjo                                                              Once in a While      Cy Laurie with the rhythm section
      Mike Porter - Ward  double bass                                       Wolverine Blues
      John Cottis  drums                                                               Paper Moon       vocal Kenny Pyrke                                                         
                                                                                                       Everybody loves my Baby        wonderful duet with Cy and Randy just classic
                                                                                                       When I grow to old to Dream
                                                                                                       Muskrat Ramble
 

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      Bruce Roberts - Clarinet and Saxes   here is Bruce on Soprano Sax playing one of my favourites that he executes so well, Indian Summer,
                                                                    with the Bill Barnacle band on their tape "Indian Summer" recorded in the early 80's. Band members are
                                                                    Bill Barnacle cornet, Séan Maple tmb, Chris Marney bjo, Colin Hodges bass and Jimmy Tagford drms.
                                                                    so click on Bruces name to hear

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