Every band needs a leader and this dubious task falls to Louis. In truth, he revels in it and it comes naturally to him. His other passion apart from music is fishing and invariably ends up as association secretary, editor or whatever.

Living in Wrexham and regularly supporting events of the North Wales Jazz Society, I suppose it is natural that he is a committee member and as such, supports Trefor Owen & Maureen Hopkins as they regularly present top class jazz in the area.

 Before mentioning Louis’ actual playing there is one more organizational feat to mention and that is the Jam Session held monthly at Alexander’s. Now in it’s seventh year it came about in a strange way. The current band So What Now is a reincarnation of the original So What which unfortunately had to stop playing. Louis, deciding against starting another band, thought he would concentrate his playing at various jam sessions in whatever towns they existed. The problem he soon found was, that apart from a couple of “off the wall“ Manchester sessions, none existed so what was he to do?

You guessed it – start his own, and this is what he did with the cooperation of Alexander’s and it has become a rallying point for local musicians.

So that’s the organizer but what about the musician ?…….

Starting in his youth, Louis has been involved in various band situations and started in blues bands as vocalist/ harmonica player.In the early 60’s when pop changed to soul, he became a self taught sax player in a large soul band. A lengthy break then followed until he took up his horn again to play in a Manchester based band which only played charity but all this did was to rekindle the flame of regular gigging and the search was on.

To cut a long story short, he joined the legendary Zoot Serious & the Bellyful of Bop on alto sax where he spent a very happy 9 years, playing “rampant rhythm & blues with soul”.

With a long interest in jazz and blues it was natural to want to play jazz sax so he attended courses at Arden College in Manchester and having gained a grounding, formed the original So What with a class colleague “ to allow further learning”. Further learning be damned – let’s get some gigs was the cry and the rest is history.

After the eventual break up, the need for a band still lurked within Louis so out of the friends who helped him with the jam sessions was born So What Now. Within the band he gets great satisfaction from playing the classic standards and admits that he is totally committed to developing a similar sound and style to his idols Lester Young and Dexter Gordon.

Colin has a wealth of experience and this is invaluable to the band.

In his formative years he reached an advanced stage in Trinity College music but had to put this aside as it interfered with school work.

His first introduction to jazz was in the late 1940’s, playing regularly in small groups with stars of the day. Early 1950’s saw him playing trombone for almost 3 years with the Chester Orchestral Society, an instrument he subsequently took into the RAF military band. A spell on piano in the RAF dance band was terminated due to a posting but picked up his playing career again in the mid 1950’s, playing sometimes 6 nights a week at major ballrooms in the Crewe and Cheshire area.

This continued into the mid 60’s when he spent  almost 4 years in a jazz trio, backing nationally known artists. This was followed by a lengthy residency at the Chester Grosvenor ballroom and restaurant.

Colin’s professional career then took over until the late 80’s although he found time to play with the Radio Denmark big band at the Tivoli Gardens Jazz Centre,Copenhagen !

On picking up his playing seriously again, the next 20 years saw periods playing with the big bands of Bill Basie, Allan Lloyd, Merseyside and Freddie Smith. He also played with many smaller groups in the same period.

All in all then, what a varied and interesting career during which so many skills were developed, so evident in So What Now performances today.

Email Colin
colin.gibson71@btopenworld.com

Burt learned to play six string guitar at the age of 25, later moving onto first upright bass then bass guitar. Much of his playing  centred around Liverpool and on one of his regular gigs at Peel Hall Labour Club,was often visited by Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers. Gerry was always asking Burt for playing tips and on meeting years later said to him, “ so you’re the guy who made me rich”.

One of the loves of Burt’s life was his Gibson L4C for which he paid the princely sum of £125 but today would be worth thousands – wish I still had it, he says !

Before  involvement with other bands he formed his own and played residencies at The Latin Quarter, (the first Liverpool club to have a glass dance floor), Robley’s Royal restaurant, The La Bussola, Grosvenor Arms (Pulford), Cabin Club, Corinthian Club, Pink Parrot Club, The Blue Angel and the Harlequin Ballroom.

Also a big band man, he’s enjoyed playing with Bill Gregson’s Band at the Tower Ballroom (New Brighton), The Orrell Park Ballroom (L’Pool) with the Johnny (fingers) Jones orchestra, Freddie Smith’s Big band (Victoria Hotel,New Brighton) and Frddie Corbett’s Band at Reeces ballroom.

He’s also had experience backing stars of the day such as Faith Brown, singer with Johnny Jones and Ken Dodd, singer/comedian. Burt has also been involved in recording sessions at Granada TV studios with Johnny Hilton, Amos Smith and Bob Duffy – doing jingles for television.

Obviously a hugely experienced player, Burt creates a really solid foundation to So What Now – invaluable ! 

Email Burt
bertramdonn@msn.com

We have a new sampler CD,
available on request.

Email: saxylouis@aol.com