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 

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......

The last 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... and he slotted in as usual playing lead and as he brought his trumpet with him brought some tunes it with it...John is an excellent jazz trumpet player sought after for jazz gigs.

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....

As I mentioned in the last post, I've negotiated 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 wont be available to come along for the foreseeable future and as mentioned John Wilson will also be an occasional starter.

We welcome them both should they find time to attend.

The dates....

Wed. 22nd August

Wed.26th September

Wed.31st October 

Wed.21st November

Wed.12th December
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.
Jim Morrell our usual drummer was on a cruise and we welcomed Chris Gentle to play some snare drum.... 
A pictorial records follows....

Ed Condran and John Packham, Colin McCormac behind.....

Gary McFetridge...

Tayzin, Shardyn and Makrim...all brothers....

Hugo Pfandler, foreground....

Bill MacLean....

David English.....

John Wilson.....

Cliff Parsons and John Wilson....

Hugo and David....

Cliff.....

Where to find Club Ashfield......
5 Charlotte Street, Ashfield...
Rehearsal timings..... 6pm for a 6.45pm start, playing through to 9pm.
Admission free....

Jazz Banjo..the 4 string banjo.. in Sydney!! The Sydney Banjo Band holds monthly rehearsals....view previous ones, see the latest, Wed.20th June 2012, and find out when the next rehearsals are...

A little late with this post so my apologies.....

The Sydney Banjo Band had a regular rehearsal Wednesday 20th June at Club Ashfield with a few minor changes to the routine.

We'd tried a semicircle before and then several straight rows, as the seating position, but those at the rear had difficulty in hearing the tunes being played in, despite us using an 8 bar intro.

So we reverted to the semicircle seating idea where all of the players can see the lead players and we gain eye contact.

The audience is not left out as the semicircle opening faces them....

The following photos illustrate what happened....

I've negotiated 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 wont be available to come along for the foreseeable future and John Wilson will also be an occasional starter.

We welcome them both should they find time to attend.

The dates....

Wed. 18th July

Wed. 22nd August

Wed.26th September

Wed.31st October 

Wed.21st November

Wed.12th December

Early in the evening view of the band, less DQ on camera and the young guys, Hugo etc....

Jim Morrell on drums to keep the band "honest" timewise....

John Bates on tuba also for rhythm and singing in some tunes, with Tayzin beside on electric bass.

The "backline" of the semicircle...JB obscured, Tayzin on bass, Stephan Simmonds, Ed Condran and John Packham.

Colin Davies, more well known as the bass player in the Bridge City Jazz Band, on a newly acquired bass ukulele....

Paul Baker played much of the lead and sang as well....

Come back Paul....

Lto R...John Packham, David English, Paul Baker, Bill Maclean and Hugo Pfandler.

Bill Maclean on lead....

Hugo Pfandler.