For a long time now it's been hard finding musicians on the Costa Blanca who know how to play traditional jazz. Two years ago, none of the above musicians had much experience at playing trad jazz, but that has changed. First of the new set is Alejandro Villar. An established modern jazz/funk double bass player, he had played no trad jazz till meeting NJJB, and has since learned the style well and has even joined NJJB.
Then came The Costa Blanca Jazz Band. Drummer Geoff Britton, well versed in rock and swing, had little experience of playing trad jazz, He had nevertheless, investigated it thoroughly, so he had clear ideas about how a trad jazz band should sound. At the beginning of 2014 he formed the Costa Blanca Jazz Band (assisted by Mike Summers of NJJB - trumpet & music direction) and invited Grahame Shephard (clarinet & alto sax) Carlos Bou (banjo & guitar) and Xema Reig (bass) to complete the quintet.
These last three are all talented musicians who (except for Grahame) had no traditional jazz experience whatsoever. Grahame had played a bit of trad at the start of his music career, so many years ago, but had to reassemble his long-abandoned clarinet. Guitarist Carlos had to find a banjo and learn to play it from scratch. They now play trad jazz convincingly. It's a kind of miracle how quickly this has all happened.
Costa Blanca Jazz Band has its own gigs of course, but happily, Carlos was featured with NJJB on 6 May and Grahame on 3 June. They both did an excellent job. NJJB hopes so have the pleasure of performing with Geoff and Xema too..