The HM 1920/30s Jazz Orchestra ref: 3009.3

This band was founded by musicians whose passion and experience lay in playing big band jazz of that “Long Weekend”, the inter-war period of the twentieth century.

They have regularly featured in festivals, clubs, dancehalls and theatres throughout Europe, including a long run of performances of their show “A Night at the Cotton Club” at London’s Barbican Centre. Here and elsewhere the musicians have been proud to share the stage with the crack dance team the Jiving Lindy Hoppers; star singers Madeline Bell, Adelaide Hall, Lillian Boutté and Marilyn Middleton; and distinguished guest soloists Bob Wilber, Doc Cheatham, Benny Waters, Eddie Durham, Al Casey, Kenny Davern and others, many of them veterans of the great vintage bands that are their inspiration.

The band's repertoire catches the flavour of a time when pioneer musicians with the creative vision of Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman and Luis Russell forged a new music from the hot sounds of the south, the limitless resources of orchestration, and big city sophistication.