TSCD781 THE AFRICAN DIASPORA'S CONTRIBUTION TO ENGLAND'S OWN JAZZ OF THE 1930s AND 1940s

BLACK BRITISH SWING tells the story of the most exciting jazz musicians in 1930s and '40s England - how they came to Britain and took the popular music scene by storm. It is all too easily forgotten that Britain had its own hot jazz scene in the '30s and '40s when the American Kings of Swing seemed to take centre stage. The music was so popular in Britain that it lured the West Indian Jazz musicians here to record and tour to wildly enthusiastic British audiences. These audiences were stunned to find that these musicians were not pale imitations of American musicians, but great artists in their own right, able to match anything, anywhere in their day.

Rare recordings, from commercial discs, radio broadcasts and previously unissued acetates, show why the all-black big bands of Ken "Snakehips" Johnson and Leslie "Jiver" Hutchinson were the envy of the British mainstream. There were also swinging group sessions including killer tracks by Lauderic Caton, Britain's pioneer of the electric guitar - recorded more than twenty years before the 1960's beat group explosion.

The CD contains a 40-page booklet with many rare photographs of the musicians and an 8000 word essay on the Black British Swing scene by Andrew Simons, Jazz Curator of the National Sound Archive at the British Library. Outstanding audio restoration and re-mastering has produced astonishing sound quality - recreating the fire and excitement of these cutting edge performances.

"What a fantastic piece of history" Gary Crosby, Time Out

"handsomely presented with copious notes ... high quality of research ... revelations inherent in the music" Jazz Review

"This unusual and appealing compilation looks at black British dance bands of the 1930s and 1940s and its full of pleasant surprises - a must-have." The Yorkshire Post