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