Policy Statement
This event is being organised by a local committee of musicians and jazz fans.Our aim is to promote jazz on the Isle of Wight. Members of the committee will not receive any financial reward. Audited accounts will be made available after the event.
The committee will cover the cost of the main venues and headline acts. This will be funded by sponsorship, ticket sales and other fund-raising activities.
Any subsequent profits will go towards funding future events and a donation to charity (IW Mountbatten Hospice).
We will encourage other performances during the period. However, we will not act as agents. It will be the responsibility of the performers and venues to negotiate between themselves.
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Dave Shepherd
Dave became interested in the clarinet at the age of sixteen after hearing The First English Public Jam Session recorded 6 November 1941 (the recording featured Harry Parry playing clarinet on I Found A New Baby). After leaving the army in 1949 he turned professional and in 1951 joined the Joe Daniels' Hot Shots. Dave joined the Freddy Randall Band in 1953, played with the band until early 1955. Then Dave decided to go to America, playing in New York with many of the best U.S. musicians at that time.He returned to the UK in late 1956, toured with Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic, and worked with the Oscar Peterson Trio, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Eldridge, Sonny Stitt, Lou Levy, Gus Johnson and the Dill Jones Quartet to name a few. During this time he formed the Dave Shepherd Quintet and began broadcasting on BBC Radio as well as working with the The Jazz Today Unit and touring with Gerry Mulligan, Billie Holiday and Mary Lou Williams.
During the middle of 1972 the Northern Arts Council approached him to join a band called Britain's Greatest Jazz Band. The band was formed from a nominated group of British jazz musicians for a tour in the far north of England from 28 July - 1 August 1972. After the tour the band decided to remain together and called themselves the Freddy Randall/Dave Shepherd Jazz All Stars, which played several concerts and numerous BBC Radio broadcasts.
After Randall disbanded, Dave played with American jazz legends such as Bud Freeman, Yank Lawson, Ruby Braff, Wild Bill Davison and Barney Kessel. In the 1980s he toured with the Benny Goodman Alumni Sextet (Pete Appleyard, Barney Kessel, Bobby Rosengarden, Major Holley and Derek Smith) before becoming leader of the Pizza Express All-Stars.
watch dave and digby at The Spice of Life
