Digby Fairweather

Digby Fairweather (born 25 April 1946, Rochford, Essex) is a British jazz cornettist and broadcaster.

Biography

Fairweather has been a professional jazz musician since 1 January 1977, but worked for seven years previously with several local jazz bands in the Essex area and recorded his first album in 1975. When turning professional, Fairweather helped found the Keith Nichols Midnite Follies Orchestra, started recording solo albums, and joined a quartet known as Velvet with guitarists Denny Wright and Ike Isaacs plus bassist Len Skeat. Before becoming a professional musician he was a librarian and he has retained a strong interest in jazz bibliography and archiving.

In 1979 Fairweather became co-director of the non-profit Jazz College along with pianist Stan Barker and he also joined the Pizza Express All Stars. In 1982 Fairweather began leading a quartet of his own and helped revitalize Kettners Five along with bassist Tiny Winters. His playing has been influenced especially by Nat Gonella and Louis Armstrong, and his Digby’s Half Dozen band provided the regular accompaniment for the singer George Melly in the later years of his career.^[1] Following that period, Fairweather's band has accompanyied former Manfred Mann lead singer Paul Jones in a series of blues and jazz gigs. Apart from his playing and bandleading, Fairweather has long pursued a parallel career as a broadcaster and writer on jazz.

In 1985 he worked in a Brian Priestley septet and authored the book How to Play Trumpet. By this time he was actively broadcasting for the BBC, deputising for Humphrey Lyttelton on the show Best of Jazz. In 1987 Fairweather founded the Association of British Jazz Musicians and the National Jazz Archive.^[2] That same year he became leader of the Jazz Superkings. Fairweather also helped bring jazz musicians into the British Musicians’ Union in 1990. During the early portion of the 1990s Fairweather was hosting radio shows on BBC Radio 2 called Jazz Parade and Jazznotes. In 1994 he began working with The Great British Jazz Band and continues to teach and do solo work. In 2008 he took up residency at Digby's Place, located at the Railway Hotel, Clifftown Road, Southend on Sea, Essex. Following the death of Humphrey Lyttelton, he was invited to succeed Humph as the Patron of the Birmingham International Jazz Festival.

Awards

• BBC Jazz Society Musician of the Year (1979)
• Benno Haussman Award (1993, Cork Jazz Festival)

Discography

• Jubilee (1993, Candid Records)
• Squeezin' the Blues Away (1994, FMR Records)

References

1. ^ "Singer Melly has early dementia". BBC. 2010-07-04. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6400999.stm. Retrieved 20-7-02-27. 
2. ^ "Press Releases". National Jazz Archive. http://microsites.essexcc.gov.uk/microsites/NationalJazzArchive/press.htm. Retrieved 2010-07-04. 

Further reading

• Fairweather, Digby (2002). Notes from a Jazz Life. London: Northway Books. ISBN 978 0953704019.  (autobiography)
• Fairweather, Digby (2005). Nat Gonella: A Life in Jazz. London: Northway Books. ISBN 978 0953704071. 
• Priestley, Brian; Ian Carr, Digby Fairweather (2007). The Rough Guide to Jazz. Rough Guides. ISBN 1843532565. 

External links

• Digby Fairweather
• The George Melly Sculpture Appeal in Brecon, Powys

Persondata
Name	Fairweather, Digby
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Date of birth	25 April 1946
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