The Shipstone St Jazz Orchestra

About

Peggy's Skylight | Tickets: £6-£12
Sunday 13th April 2025

* Doors at 1pm
* Performance from 2-4pm

The Shipstone Street Jazz Orchestra is a 17-piece big band which brings the best of swing and Latin to local audiences. Led by Tony Lovell and featuring vocalist Sandy Bailey, they're celebrating their 20th year with a programme of toe-tapping vocal and instrumental classics by the jazz greats.

The Shipstone Street Jazz Orchestra has its origins in the music department of the former Clarendon College Nottingham. In September 2002 the college launched a big-band evening class for its full-time jazz students and interested amateurs. After a couple of years the class was divided into full-time students and enthusiastic amateurs, and James Joseph, a local jazz musician, took on the class of nine enthusiasts.

In the summer of 2005, the amateurs declared independence from the college and The Lion at Basford came to the rescue. The landlady offered The Lion's function room for rehearsals on condition that they would perform at The Lion. The group decided to call itself The Shipstone Street Jazz Orchestra because The Lion is close to Shipstone Street. The band performed regularly at The Lion's Sunday Jazz Cafe as well as other local concert venues. They were joined by professional vocalist Sarah Simmonds, well-known for her classical and jazz performances as well as being a popular singing teacher.

In October 2006 James emigrated to Japan and the band appointed Paul Deats and Jon Wakefield as joint bandleaders. In 2019 Jon moved on, and Paul left to concentrate on establishing Peggy's Skylight. So drummer Andrew 'Woody' Wood took over the baton.

Lockdown in March 2020 led to some changes including the cancellation of all gigs for about 18 months. When rehearsals re-started The Lion's function room was too small for social distancing so the band moved to a larger hall in Bilborough. By that time some members had left for health and work reasons and numbers were low. But the band gradually recruited new members from the local area as well as the Nottingham Music Hub, the schools music service. The younger members have given a new perspective to the band as well as reducing the average age by several decades!

In 2021 Woody had to leave due to his increasing professional workload and Chris Toon was appointed as bandleader. He was followed by Tommy Cundell in October 2022 and in November 2023  current bandleader, Tony Lovell, came on board. The band continues to go from strength to strength and recently played the first concert in Wollaton Hall's new music series.

Recently Sarah has been joined on vocals by Reg Hands, the band's keyboard player, and Sandy Bailey, a regular on the Notts/Derbys jazz circuit. For this gig Sandy and Reg will be providing the vocals.

The band is delighted to celebrate its 20th year at the region's premier jazz club!

Book tickets:
https://peggysskylight.co.uk/events/shipstone-st-jazz-orchestra/