The four string banjo in Sydney, NSW...Jazz banjo.....The Sydney banjo band rehearsing at Club Ashfield in Sydney...details of the last two rehearsals...30th January 2013 and 27th February 2013...and future dates.

Again following are overdue photo reports on the Sydney banjo Bands rehearsals on Wed. 30th January 2013, at which night we welcomed a visitor from the Toronto Banjo Club in Canada...Patrick Longhurst...he borrowed a Vegavox 1 plectrum banjo for the night and settled in well with the tunes we had on the rehearsal sheet.
Then on Wed. 27th February 2013 we recently had another rehearsal with a much larger, for us attendance of musicians, withe Jiom Morrell on snare drum and John Bates on tuba to assist with rhythm and time we had a baritone ukelele, a Les Paul accoustic guitar and an electric bass with some 13 banjos....
Again we had Ted Gerome from The Pittsburgh Banjo Club playing some lead together with Cliff Parsons, Bill McLean, David English and myself.
Firstly the future rehearsal dates booked are....

27th March
17th April  ( changed from 24th April)
29th May ( changed from 22nd May)
26th June
31st July
28th August
2nd October.....note none in September as DQ is o'seas,back Wed.25th Sept.
 
 Again, all at Club Ashfield...see below for directions to the venue and we play in the bistro/function area on the first floor,  which is open for meals from 5.30pm to around 8.30pm...drinks of course from the bar at Club prices.
The rehearsal starts at 6.45pm through to 9pm with many arriving earlier for a meal or to socialise...
Lets look at the 30th January Club Ashfield rehearsal....
For this evening the main leads were taken by Paul Baker and Cliff Parsons......

 David English brings in "Bye Bye Blues"...perennial banjo favourite....

David, Hugo,John, Ed and Cliff....

 

Paul and Cliff play lead...

 

Toronto Banjo Band member Patrick Longhurst.....

 Barry Graham sings for the band.....

Then on Wed. 27th February as mentioned above, we had Ted Gerome back with us...he'll be with the group for the next rehearsal on Wed.27th March before he leaves for home in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, USA and re-join his friends in the Pittsburgh Banjo Club for their weekly rehaearsal.

Ted Gerome, RHS....

Cliff and Bill enjoy a comment...

 

Michael plays while John Packham looks on...

 Gordon Brown joined us for the first time with his B&D plectrum...

 

David and Ed with several of the  three brothers Makirum and Shardyn 

( Tayzin out of view)...they have a busy schedule now playing, having attended the big National Country music festival at Tamworth NSW in January where they won the best young band award and the award for the best children's CD...

Their website is The Brothers Three....

On ya guys!!!

 

Where to find Club Ashfield....

5 Charlotte Street, Ashfield, beside the Ashfield Railway Station on the northern side... 

 

The four string banjo in Sydney, NSW...Jazz banjo.....The Sydney banjo band rehearsing at Club Ashfield in Sydney...details of the last two rehearsals...12th December 2012, 9th January 2013, The 67th Australian Jazz convention...and future dates.

Again your Sydney banjo band organiser, DQ, has been a bit slack of late updating the Club site.........following are overdue photo reports on the Sydney banjo Bands rehearsals on Wed. 12th December 2012, Wed. 9th January 2013 and the several gigs at the 67th Australian Jazz Convention at Forbes, NSW 26th -31st December 2012....
Firstly the future rehearsal dates are....

30th January....
27th February
27th March
24th April
22nd May
 
 Again, all at Club Ashfield...see below for directions to the venue and we play in the function area on the first floor, beside the bistro, which is open for meals from 5.30pm to around 8.30pm...drinks of course from the bar at Club prices.
The rehearsal starts at 6.45pm through to 9pm with many arriving earlier for a meal or to socialise...
Lets look at the December Club Ashfield rehearsal....

 John Bates on tuba...

 John Packham, Bill McLean, Ted Gerome and Michael

 Barry Graham on his Les Paul guitar....
Then in the week betweek Christmas 2012 the 67th Australian Jazz Convention was on at Forbes, NSW...started in 1946 as a gathering for musicians to socialise and have a blow together it continues today in much the same format...
I've entered the Sydney Banjo Band at the previous two conventions with several of the Sydney regulars and welcoming banjo players from out of State who were playing in other jazz bands to play with us and the first gig saw some 15 banjos with some lead played by Ron Cook from Canberra on piano and John Bates on trombone... Reg Packer from Swan Hill sang in some songs and the band went down well.
The second gig saw around 8 banjos available again with help from Ron and John...

 Reg Packer sings a lead....Peter Allen from Geelong, Victoria was persuaded to play and played lead for some numbers....

 

Back from the Convention we held another rehearsal at Club Ashfield on Wed. 9th January 2013....it was a quiet night with only six banjos available with Ted Gerome playing lead with Bill Maclean....

 Gary McFetridge....

 Barry Graham....

 John Packham, Bill MacLean and Ted Gerome...

 Jim Morrell...

 Colin Davies, baritone uke  and David English....

 Colin Davies...

Club Ashfield.....where is it....see below.

We meet around 6pm to socialise before playing from 6.45pm to 9pm in the first floor function area beside the Club's bistro...

All welcome...admission Free....

The four string banjo in Sydney, NSW...Jazz banjo.....The Sydney banjo band rehearsing at Club Ashfield in Sydney...details of the last two rehearsals...31st October and 21st November 2012....and future dates.

Well your Sydney banjo band organiser, DQ, has been a bit slack of late updating the Club site....
We've had two rehearsals over the last month or so with some 12-14 banjos playing.
Before I go into these, let me list the forthcoming future rehearsal dates...
 Wed.12th December
2013 all Wednesdays again....
9th January
30th January....
27th February
27th March
24th April
22nd May
 
 Again, all at Club Ashfield...see below for directions to the venue and we play in the function area on the first floor, beside the bistro, which is open for meals from 5.30pm to around 8.30pm...drinks of course from the bar at Club prices.
The rehearsal starts at 6.45pm through to 9pm with many arriving earlier for a meal or to socialise...
October 31st saw Paul Baker, Cliff Parsons  playing the melody lead for the group with all forming the rhythm backing chordally....
John Bates on tuba and Jim Morrell on snare drum gave the usual sterling service in keeping time for the rehearsal and of course John played melody solos on the tuba and sang for us as well...
Lets have a look at some photos from that nights....

Jim Morrell and John Bates, the rehearsal's "rhythm kings"....

A band panorama showing most of those in attendance on the night....

 

Three young brothers, regular attendees...Shardyn, Makarim and Tayzin who play semi professional gigs elsewhere as "The Brothers Three" did a feature of a song they had written....

On ya lads...!!

Hugo Pfandler on his White Swallow tenor banjo with Ed Condran foreground....

John Packham brought along a recently restored banjo ukelele.....

John Packham, Cliff Parsons and Paul Baker.....

Mum of "The Brothers Three", Alita Fahey on 6 string banjo.....

Barry Graham on his Gibson "Les Paul" guitar...owned by Barry from new....

Then we had a rehearsal on Wed. 21st November....
Ted Gerome was in Sydney from Ligonier, near Pittsburgh, PA...John Wilson loaned him a tenor banjo for his several months in Sydney....
We had Bill Maclean, Cliff Parson, Ted Gerome and John Wilson play melody lead for the night with some 14 banjos in total....

Ted Gerome plays some lead with Michael on his Irish tenor banjo.
Michael plays Irish banjo elsewhere and dropped in for a hour or so....

John Wilson plays a chorus on trumpet..Cliff Parsons to the left and Ted and Michael to the right...

Colin Davies with a baritone Uke...Colin is more at home in the Bridge City Jazz Band playing double bass...

Centre is Bill Maclean and to the left, David English playing a lead chorus on "Bye Bye Blues"...

Where is Club Ashfield...?
5 Charlotte Street, Ashfield, Sydney...on the immediate north side of Ashfield Railway station....

The 4 string banjo in Sydney, Jazz Banjo- The Sydney Banjo Band, rehearsing at Club Ashfield monthly...details of the last, future and earlier rehearsals......last rehearsal Wed. 22nd August 2012-

As per the last rehearsal in July, the August rehearsal for the Sydney Banjo band saw a return of John Wilson for whom illness and the distance he travels to get to our venue....he lives close to Newcastle, north of Sydney some 150km has often prevented him attending... and he slotted in as usual playing lead and as he brought his trumpet with him brought some tunes in with it...John is an excellent jazz trumpet player sought after for jazz gigs.

Again we continued with the semicircle seating idea where all of the players can see the lead players and we gain eye contact which works well for us.

The audience is not left out as the semicircle opening faces them....
We had a pleasing sized audience with new faces, all enjoying themselves.

The following photos illustrate what happened....

Below are the practice nights at Club Ashfield for the rest of the year....

All Wednesdays, all at Club Ashfield, all at the usual timings....6pm for a 6.45pm start finishing around 9pm.

Paul Baker hopes now to come along for the occasional rehearsals and as mentioned John Wilson will also be an occasional starter.

We welcome them both should they find time to attend.

The dates....

Wed.26th September

Wed.31st October 

Wed.21st November
 Wed.12th December...likely a Christmas breakup and party for us....
Following this last practice, John Wilson was admitted to hospital and had three stents inserted into heart arteries...he is recovering and says he feels like a new man again...
Fantastic....
We hope to see John playing more with Jazz gigs as well as the banjo band rehearsals....

Lead for the night was shared with Cliff Parsons, Bill Maclean, Gary McFetridge, Hugo Pfandler on harmonica and John Bates vocalising as well as providing rhythm and timing on tuba.

David English did a nice solo in "Bye Bye Blues".....

Jim Morrell our usual drummer was back and we thank Chris Gentle for filling in earlier.

A pictorial records follows....

 Cliff Parsons on melody lead and Jim Morrell on snare drum...

David English, foreground, solos in "Bye Bye Blues"....

A panorama view a little earlier in the evening....

Barry Graham popped in with his acoustic guitar....

The young guys are multi-instrumentalists and as well as banjo. Makyrim had his mandolin.

Bill Maclean on melody lead with John Packham backing on rhythm banjo...

As mentioned above, rehearsal starts 6.45pm through to 9pm with many gathering 5.45/6pm for a meal or drink...

Club Ashfield, 5 Charlotte Street, Ashfield, beside the Ashfield Railway Station on the northern side...

Chords provided for all... bring a banjo and music stand....

Admission Free...

We are a member of the US "Banjos Unlimited"...you can join the Sydney Banjo Band for $25 and receive four copies of the magazine ..

"The Resonator"...contact me...

Dennis Quinlan... vegavoxbanjo@gmail.com