Sussex Jazz Kings at The Concorde

Dave Stradwick, the well-known player of hot, traditional, jazz trumpet, leads the band. Early in 2000, Dave and Lesley Stradwick moved from their London home to Sussex for a “quieter life!” Dave had been the leader of Vintage Jazz for many years and also played with other busy bands. A decision was made to leave Vintage and so cut down on the workload to give time to renovating the Sussex house. It soon became obvious, that people missed his humour fronting a band, and he decided to form a new band, The ‘Sussex Jazz Kings’. It started with a ‘low key approach’, but natured the ‘fun element’ for which Vintage had been renown...

read more

Dave Stradwick, the well-known player of hot, traditional, jazz trumpet, leads the band. Early in 2000, Dave and Lesley Stradwick moved from their London home to Sussex for a “quieter life!” Dave had been the leader of Vintage Jazz for many years and also played with other busy bands. A decision was made to leave Vintage and so cut down on the workload to give time to renovating the Sussex house. It soon became obvious, that people missed his humour fronting a band, and he decided to form a new band, The ‘Sussex Jazz Kings’. It started with a ‘low key approach’, but natured the ‘fun element’ for which Vintage had been renown. Inevitably this, combined with the fine musical ability of the chosen musicians, resulted in the band becoming more and more popular around the M25 area and beyond. Dave now concentrates on leading his own band again. The band has been resident band in a club at Box Hill near Dorking, Surrey’ they regularly play to a crowded club and take the opportunity to introduce new numbers, judging their reaction before inflicting them on unsuspecting audiences elsewhere. In many peoples opinion, the band is now a fine exponent of happy traditional jazz, in the broad New Orleans style. The ‘jazzers’ come back every week, so the band must be doing something right. The band now plays at all major jazz festivals and tours the country to perform at most great jazz clubs, in the last few years they have had many bookings across Europe and beyond.

show less