Vocalist Elaine Davies is also a multi-instrumentalist, playing saxophone, flute and clarinet, and the audience will be able to experience all of these at the Bridport Arts Centre Jazz Café on Friday 16 January. (She also plays the piano but this role will be filled on this occasion by the jazz café impresario Philip Clouts).
Elaine appeared on prime time TV during the many years that she was with the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra, and when she eventually moved to Devon she played in the Algy Davies Quartet, supporting many visiting national jazz musicians.
Elaine Davies is the musical director of the Carlton Big Band and the Carlton Swing Band. She also has her own jazz quartet, is a woodwind teacher in Devon, and a jazz educator. She plays the lead tenor saxophone in both bands as well as being a vocalist in the band.
Elaine is from the West Midlands and is a multi-instrumentalist. She started playing piano at the age of seven, clarinet at eleven, and saxophone since she was fifteen, then the flute at eighteen. She is also a classically trained singer, and joined Opera South West when she came to the West Country, enjoying playing such prestigious leading roles such as Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ at Buckland Abbey.
Instead of touring with the Ivy Benson Band, she chose instead to come to Plymouth to take up a Head of Music teaching position. She first got the bug for jazz when she started doing jazz club gigs in Birmingham with her saxophone teacher, Mike Burney,(Lead tenor saxophonist in Syd Lawrence Orchestra) while still at school. Having tuition from Don Rendell at Whirtley Hall, Sheffield, and master classes from Alan Wakeman and Stan Sultzman at Glamorgan College, Elaine soon became passionate about playing jazz. She was a member of the original Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra for many years, on lead tenor, making an album with Kenny Baker and the band, and appearing on prime time TV with MYJO.
Since moving to Plymouth, she met her first husband Lloyd (Algy) Davies at a jazz club. He was a superb jazz trombonist and Elaine played saxophone and flute in the Algy Davies Sextet, which often featured stars such as Don Rendell, Dick Pearce, Harry Beckett and Bobby Wellins. Elaine has played with many other bands such as Tour De Force, Joey The Lips, Soul Station and various jazz bands, and supports the Cavitron Fund by playing saxophone at their Fundraising Luncheons. She is kept busy being a bandleader and saxophonist, and teaching woodwind instruments in schools.
She will sing and play a variety of well loved jazz from the “Great American Songbook.”
Friday 16 January 8pm
Bridport Arts Centre, South Street, Bridport, DT6 3NR
Box Office 01308 424204 £10
