Trad jazz
Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain that flourished from the 1930s to 1960s,[1] based on the earlier New Orleans Dixieland jazz style. Prominent trad jazz musicians such as Chris Barber, Freddy Randall, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine[1] performed a populist repertoire which also included jazz versions of pop songs and nursery rhymes.[1]
"Traditional jazz" redirects here. For the original style of jazz, see Dixieland. For the dance, see Jazz dance.Britain[edit]
In Britain, where boogie-woogie, "stride" piano and jump blues were popular in the 1940s, George Webb's Dixielanders pioneered a trad revival during the Second World War, and Ken Colyer's Crane River band added and maintained a strong thread of New Orleans purism.[2] Humphrey Lyttelton, who played with Webb, formed his own band based on the New Orleans/Louis Armstrong tradition in 1948 but, without losing the Armstrong influence, gradually adopted a more mainstream approach. By 1958 his band included three saxophones. During the 1950s and well into the 1960s the "Three B's" Chris Barber, Acker Bilk, and Kenny Ball were particularly successful, all making hit records. Other successful bands including Terry Lightfoot, George Chisholm, Monty Sunshine, Mick Mulligan, with George Melly, and Mike Cotton – who "went R'n'B" in 1963–1964 – made regular appearances live, on the air and occasionally in the British charts, as did Louis Armstrong himself. More light-hearted versions were offered by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, the Temperance Seven and the New Vaudeville Band. Dixieland stylings can be found here and there on records by the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, the Small Faces and the Kinks, while the Who actually performed trad jazz in their early days.
In the 1950s a number of provincial amateur bands had strong local followings and occasionally appeared together at "Jazz Jamborees". These bands included the Merseysippi Jazz Band, still active, which toured overseas, Second City Jazzband (Birmingham), Steel City Stompers (Sheffield), Clyde Valley Stompers (Glasgow), the Tranquil Valley Stompers (London) and the Saints Jazzband (Manchester).
Chris Barber gave a stage to Lonnie Donegan and Alexis Korner, setting off the craze for skiffle and then British rhythm and blues that powered the beat boom of the 1960s