SUBB	Member Profile
Name	John Davies
Instrument(s) played	Musical Director & Trumpet
Band Member Since	1978
Profile	John Davies was born in West Gorton on the outskirts of Manchester in 1944. His Dad was a sales rep and later a bingo caller and his mum was a nurse. He won a free place to Chetham’s school, was a chorister in the Cathedral’s statutory choir, and played french horn in the UK national Youth Orchestra at age 14. He left Chetham’s under a cloud round about the time he discovered flatted fifths, Clifford Brown, and traded the horn in for a trumpet. Shortly after, he transferred to the local Hyde Grammar School which had its own “Wes Montgomery” style trio in the form of Jack Tetlow (guitar), Adrian Kenyon (piano) and Peter Cartledge (bass). The trio became a quartet; then a drummer was added. Thereafter there was a continuing round of gigs in dance bands, at weddings, pub gigs and all that stuff. Jack and Adrian failed their exams, Jack then winning a place at the Royal Academy, and Adrian getting the residency at Rowntrees club. John finally got into Durham University ( a bit late in the day) where Tony Rushby from the Cambridge big band had his own quartet. The quartet became a quintet. From that band, pianist Colin Wood went on to play with Manfred Mann, and later Acker Bilk; and drummer Johnny Boucher joined Maynard’s band on percussion. Until the tax man caught up with him, John was well-off as a student, having also secured the piano slot with the resident band at the Caprice casino; backing such people as Lonnie Donnegan, Karl Denver, David Whitfield, Frank Ifield, and Pamela and her Performing Poodles….there’s another a story there. He also joined the Mighty Joe Young sextet at the New Orleans Club in Newcastle on trumpet, a venue where such people as John McMauchlin and Ian Carr both played. The sextet featured Geoff Hedley on tenor, Nigel Stranger (ex Long John Baldry) on alto; and the legendary blind pianist Peter Jacobson (16 years old at the time; and a complete genius) was on piano, shortly before going to London and recording with Bobby Wellins. A high spot was a full concert by the John Davies Quartet during the Newcastle Jazz Festival (circa 1966) with the other players made up from the local pros at the Oxford Galleries, the Dolce Vita and other places. Most of that stuff was very ‘Miles at the Blackhawk’ type of thing. Very cool. Dark green corduroy suit, Freddie Hubbard’s hat ( true!), and fag held between the fingers of the valve hand. It went OK though and bits were played on the radio somewhere. Good gig. In 1970 John moved to Glasgow and immediately caught up with drummer Bill Kyle. This led to a long term association, mainly with the groups Head (a jazz-rock-group) and the Kyle-Keddie sextet (a purist post-bop group), always in the company of Bill Kyle and Gordon Cruickshank. (Gordon was the best sax player I ever played with. He died prematurely a few years back). The earliest version of the band (Bill Kyle, Graham Robb bass; Howard Copeland,alto sax; and JD) won the Dunkirk International Jazz festival; and thereafter there were several appearances on Humph’s “Jazz Club”; a couple of TV broadcasts, and regular gigs at Jazz festivals and venues throughout the UK. There were two gigs at the 100 Club. Among the gigs was a live Jazz Club broadcast with Jack Bruce (who turned up about four hours late, plonked the music down and more or less said ‘play’), a week during the Edinburgh Festival with his own quintet plus Jim Mullen, and concerts as ‘second band’ to Gary Burton, Chick Corea and Ian Carr’s Nucleus. He also played second and solos with Graham Robb’s big band Windjammer on a number of arts council sponsored tours, with Paul Eshelby on lead. Then it all went sour for a number of reasons. The embouchure collapsed, never (thus far) to return; the family engaged ‘self destruct’; too much booze and stuff went down the hatch. So wotcha gonna go when you can’t play any more? Phone John Parkes. “Hey, Parky. About that idea of yours. You know. The one about forming a University band…..”