THE TAVERNERS BIG BAND

The thirteen talented musicians, mainly from Dorset and Hampshire, have added new hits to the Miller/Basie/Ellington format that has won them an enthusiastic and loyal following at home and abroad for their public performances.

   Acclaimed as they are, their beginning was modest.  Over Christmas 1983 some old instrumentalist friends from their days in local youth music, notably Hampshire County Youth Orchestra and Bournemouth Youth Big Band, toured the pubs of Christchurch in Dorset with carols and RNLI collection tins.

Throughout the evening the traditional carols took on an increasing jazz sound, and as the impromptu carollers recovered their breath and lubricated their embouchure in their favourite inn, the idea of a forming a big band was born. 

With glasses of ale they baptised the new arrival on the music scene in the name of the Castle Tavern, formerly traditional British Pub, now a trendy winebar.

   The Taverners’ first public airing came the following spring, a charity concert sponsored by the local Rotary Club at the town’s Regent Community Centre.  It was an overwhelming success and the first of many to pack the former cinema.  It also set the band on a career that has taken them to other venues, among them Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music in London, and they have backed the international star Andy Sheppard at the Blandford Music Festival.  They have also performed in France, Germany 5 times, and Gibraltar.

 The British military bastion provided their most unusual auditorium, the huge St Michael’s Cavern deep inside the Rock where a large gathering, including the Governor, heard the sounds of the Swing Era Greats echoing off the wet, rugged walls.  The Taverners, at full volume, proved that the Rock was, indeed, impregnable!

Then it was spring, but the annual Regent Centre concert that autumn, while it was equally enjoyable, supported a charity that was tinged with sadness; it was the Mayor’s appeal fund for the families of the two Christchurch firemen killed while on duty in 'The Great Storm'.   This is a reminder that in their twelve years the Taverners have helped raise thousands of pounds for good causes, ranging from Mencap to  Cancer Research, the Macmillan Unit at Christchurch Hospital, Rotary's anti-polio campaign, and the Round Table’s children’s playground at Mudeford.

    In their tenth anniversary year the band began another annual gig that has become  part of the town’s community life and a tourist attraction – a free open-air concert promoted by the Regent Centre Association and the borough council on the beautiful bank of the River Stour unflatteringly known as the Quomps.  Stomping on the Quomps in August 2008 entertained an audience estimated between four and five thousand people.

   Nationally, the Taverners have won recognition by repeatedly reaching the finals of  the prestigious BBC Big Band Competition, and in 1992 they came fourth. At their 1997 appearance Chris Ricketts won the Don Lusher prize for top trombonist, and on another other occasions Andy Urquart (trumpet) and Alan Melly (Tenor sax) have won the top soloist award. 

   Inevitably the line-up has changed over the years. The students who formed the early nucleus of the band have graduated into full-time music or other occupations, and some of the players have shot into the front rank of their profession.  Steve Watermanis now one of the UK’s leading jazz trumpeters; he was featured artist on the Taverners’ most recent German outing.  Also acclaimed in the top jazz world are trumpeter Ian (Woody) Wood, who studied at the Royal Academy, and Matt Senior, Trinity College scholar, whose drumming talent is accompanying West End shows.