We're often given to speculation on long drives to gigs as to how and why a certain town or area becomes a UK 'Jazz Mecca' when so many other areas remain cultural deserts. Cornwall is truly remarkable for its vibrant jazz scene and has been for many years, thanks to flagship clubs like The 51 Club and Bude Jazz Club, and it's really great to see the fine Bude Jazz Festival now reaching its 32nd year. It's partly down to a wide catchment area of jazz enthusiasts, of course, but even more so to those unsung heroes of our music - the dedicated (and unpaid!) club chairpersons, committees, and treasurers, their hard-working publicity machines, and the extremely brave and determined souls who h

We hadn't played this illustrious and long-standing Club since their venue was changed from the cavernous and rather impersonal Livestock Market at Harnham, so it was a real pleasure to be invited to play our first session in the club's splendid new HQ in the Michael Herbert Hall at Wilton. With a spacious stage and an excellent acoustic, we all decided immediately how much we preferred this excellent new base, and were gratified to see the club's keen dancers setting about their athletic business after only a very few choruses of our opening number. It was good to receive lots of positive feedback from enthusiastic club members in the interval - they clearly approved of our acoustic appro