Why not try our monthly quiz? If you get stuck with a question, you can usually find the answer with a little internet research. Answers are not given until the following month when you can find out whether you were right by clicking on the arrow beside 'The Answer Is' . [You might like to print this page to share at a Club or Pub Quiz].
How about sending us your ideas for ten Jazzquiz questions (with the answers)? If we use your questions we will send you a free jazz CD courtesy of Broad Street Jazz record shop in Bath. |
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JAZZQUIZ No 17 - August 2008 |
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Once again this month we will send a free jazz CD (courtesy of our friends at Broad Street Jazz) to the person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No. 17 received and opened after the closing date of Friday, 29th August 2008. Click here for our contact details. |
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| This month - a 'T Time' quiz - all of the answers to the following ten questions begin with the letter 'T'. (If you get stuck, you can usually find the answer by putting key words into your internet browser - Google, Yahoo, etc). | |
| Question 1: | Which Frank, born in 1906, played clarinet and saxophone, was a member of the 'Austin High gang' and was killed in a car accident just before his 26th birthday?
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| Question 2: | What was the 1939 Glenn Miller recording of a song written by Erskine Hawkins about a jazz and blues club in the Birmingham, Alabama suburb of Ensley named after a streetcar Junction? (Nothing to do with a dinner jacket!).
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| Question 3: | What advice did a Billy Strayhorn / Duke Ellington number give subway riders for the best way to travel up to Harlem?
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| Question 4: | Which Clark, born in 1920, was nicknamed 'Mumbles' , played trumpet, pioneered the fluegelhorn in jazz and played with Charlie Barnet, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Quincy Jones? (need a clue - click here).
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| Question 5: | What was the title of the 1959 album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet based on the use of time signatures?
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| Question 6: | Shortly before his death in Paris in 1959, Sidney Bechet dictated his autobiography - what was the title?
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| Question 7: | What is the name of the film that links Al Jolson and Neil Diamond?
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| Question 8: | What was the nickname of British tenor saxophonist Edward Brian Hayes who died in 1973 after a career leading his own band and playing with Ronnie Scott and Jimmy Deuchar amongst others?
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| Question 9: | The Art of piano playing - despite his poor eyesight?
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| Question 10: | A jazz standard by Vincent Yeomans and Irving Caesar from 'No No Nanette' with interpretations by Tommy Dorsey, the pianist from question 9, and a McVitie's Biscuits advertisement.
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JAZZQUIZ No 16 - June/July 2008 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No.16 received and opened after the closing date was Norrie Thomson from Scotland. |
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| This month the quiz questions are New Orleans. (If you get stuck, you can usually find the answer by putting key words into your internet browser - Google, Yahoo, etc). | |
| Question 1: | In which American State is New Orleans located?
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| Question 2: | New Orleans is situated on the banks of which major river?
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| Question 3: | What is the French name, translated as 'Fat Tuesday', for the carnival held in New Orleans on the Tuesday before Lent and Ash Wednesday?
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| Question 4: | Pianist Dr John sings about Voodoo and Gris-Gris in New Orleans. What is 'Gris-Gris': (a) A Voodoo curse, (b) A charm to ward off evil, or (c) an elderly Voodoo priest?
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| Question 5: | 'Dr John' is the pianist's stage name. What is his birth name?
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| Question 6: | Which one of these jazz calrinettists was actually born in New Orleans: (a) Jimmie Noone; (b) Johnny Dodds, or (c) Barney Bigard?
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| Question 7: | Many New Orleans streets feature in jazz tunes. Which two are named in the following anagrams?
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| Question 8: | What is 'Gumbo': (a) a swamp tree, (b) a stew or soup, (c) a type of footware?
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| Question 9: | In which year did Hurricane Katrina devastate New Orleans: (a) 2004, (b) 2005, or (c) 2006
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| Question 10: | Which New Orleans cornet player named Charles but called 'Buddy' or 'King' was a prominent musician in the city between 1900 and 1907 at which point he was admitted to hospital with schizophrenia? He stayed there until he died in 1931 and is buried in a pauper's grave in New Orleans.
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JAZZQUIZ No 15 - May 2008 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No.15 received and opened after the closing date was Tony Milliner from London (Tony's comments are in italics). |
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| This month the quiz questions are about jazz trombone players. (If you get stuck, you can usually find the answer by putting key words into your internet browser - Google, Yahoo, etc). | |
| Question 1: | What was the popular name of the trombonist Leader of the ‘Little Molers’ in the 1920s. His ‘proper’ first names being Irving Milfred.
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| Question 2: | This trombone player was born in Aarhus, Denmark. He participated in the first of the 'Birth Of The Cool' sessions in 1949. (Need a clue? click here).
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| Question 3: | What was the full name of trombonist J.J. Johnson?
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| Question 4: | Which trombone player and bandleader with the first names Weldon Leo sang 'Rocking Chair' with Louis Armstrong, had a musician brother Charlie, and appeared in the movies 'Birth Of The Blues' and 'Jazz On A Summers Day'?
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| Question 5: | American valve trombonist who worked with Gerry Mulligan and Jimmy Giuffre. (Need a clue? click here).
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| Question 6: | Frank ? - A fine trombone player who found fame with Stan Kenton in 1952-54. Left in 1954 to join the band of Kenton's trumpeter Conte Candoli. Played with many jazz 'big names' until, like his third wife, he committed suicide.
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| Question 7: | British trombone player and bandleader responsible for arranging the first UK tours of Big Bill Broonzy, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee in the late 50s/early 60s. His band has included Pat Halcox, Lonnie Donegan and Monty Sunshine.
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| Question 8: | Jazzwise magazine called him 'the most exciting British trombonist for decades'. Leader of Badbone & Co., as far as we know, he is no relation to saxophonist Sonny.
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| Question 9: | Tricky Ellington trombone player who pioneered using the plunger mute and who with Bubber Miley developed the band's 'jungle sound' at the Cotton Club. I prefer Quentin Jackson - more 'Yah, Yah'!
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| Question 10: | This trombonist and bandleader was born in Woodland Plantation near LaPlace, Luisiana in 1886. He composed 'Muskrat Ramble' and 'Savoy Blues' and played with King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds and Jimmie Noone.
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JAZZQUIZ No 14 - April 2008 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No.14 received and opened after the closing date was Tom King. |
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| This month, can you identify the following tunes each of which has a colour in the title? (We are looking for the title of the tune - not just the colours). | |
| Question 1: | Duke's two colour fantasy. (Need a clue? Then click here).
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| Question 2: | On the street of the large coloured fish (or actually a mammal related to the whale).
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| Question 3: | W.C. Handy's sad canine with jaundice?
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| Question 4: | A French colour from Miles Davis's 'Birth Of The Cool'.
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| Question 5: | Count Basie number about a child from an overdrawn finance institution?
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| Question 6: | Has anybody seen my gal? (She's not very tall).
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| Question 7: | Fats Waller's girl - she's perfection, goodness knows!
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| Question 8: | Gerry Mulligan's tune about all the prospectors heading for them there hills? (Need a clue? Click here, then click on the first album's play button under 'discography').
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| Question 9: | Chet Baker played the De Sylva-Kern tune about searching for what every cloud has.
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| Question 10: | Georgia claimed her, Georgia named her.
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JAZZQUIZ No 13 - March 2008 |
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Sadly, there was no winning entry for Jazzquiz No. 13. |
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| This month the questions are about jazz in New Zealand and Australia. Many of the answers can be found in Roger Strong's article on 'Kiwi Jazz' but one or two may need a little internet research if you do not know the answers. | |
| Question 1: | In 1930, who was thought to be the first band to make a jazz recording in New Zealand?
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| Question 2: | Which American bandleader and clarinettist made a surprise visit to New Zealand to entertain troops in 1943?
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| Question 3: | Which American trumpeter recorded with Mavis Rivers in Auckland in 1947?
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| Question 4: | Which jazz musicians came to New Zealand from the American West Coast in 1960?
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| Question 5: | In which year did Louis Armstrong first come to New Zealand?
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| Question 6: | Which New Zealand Big Band played at the Montreaux Jazz Festival in 1980?
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| Question 7: | Which New Zealand pianist went on to play with Woody Herman?
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| Question 8: | What is the surname of the Australian multi-instrumentalist known as 'Lazy Ade'?
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| Question 9: | At the age of 19, The Seekers' lead singer, Judith Durham, recorded her first EP with which trombone-led Melbourne jazz group?
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| Question 10: | Which Australian drummer, who also played trombone and trumpet for a brief time, recorded his first composition on the famous Humphrey Lyttelton/Graeme Bell recordings and went on to write a Tolkein-inspired suite that included the piece 'Bilbo Nods Off'.
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JAZZQUIZ No 12 - February 2008 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No.12 received and opened after the closing date was Norrie Thomson. |
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| This month the questions are about female singers - can you identify them? By all means use the clues in the questions to search your computer for the answers. |
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| Question 1: | Her mother was just thirteen when this singer was born in Baltimore on 7th April 1915. It was Lester Young who later named her 'Lady Day'.
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| Question 2: | She came from Newtownards in Northern Ireland to sing with the Chris Barber band in 1955. George Melly described her as Bessie Smith reincarnated.
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| Question 3: | The daughter of sitar player, Ravi Shankar, her 2001 album 'Come Away With Me' was a big success. She stars alongside Jude Law and Natalie Portman in the film 'My Blueberry Nights'.
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| Question 4: | She was discovered as a teenager at an amateur contest at Harlem's Apollo Theatre in 1934 winning an engagement with Chick Webb's band. When Webb died in 1939, she took over nominal leadership of the band.
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| Question 5: | Born in Tennessee, she was heard by Ma Rainey 'the mother of the blues' who took her into her troupe. She made her first record 'Downhearted Blues' in 1923 and went to to become perhaps the greatest blues singer from the 1920s.
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| Question 6: | She came to Europe from America as a language student and met the saxophonist, and subsequently her husband, Jim Tomlinson, in Oxford. After a year at the Guildhall School of Music, her singing career was supported by Humphrey Lyttelton. She won the BBC Jazz Award for Best Vocalist in 2002.
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| Question 7: | Born in 1924 in Newark, New Jersey, she toured with the Earl Hines band in 1943 and 1944. Singer Billy Ecksine left Hines to form his own band and invited her to join him in 1944. She was known as 'Sassy' and 'The Divine One'.
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| Question 8: | She was born Ruth Lee Jones in Alabama in 1924 and became known as 'Queen of the Blues'. Legend has it she wore mink in all weathers and carried two .45-calibre pistols. She sang at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958.
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| Question 9: | Born in South London, she started singing professionally aboard the QE2 liner as a teenager. She won 'Best Vocalist' at the 1997 British Jazz Awards and her album 'He Never Mentioned Love' is a tribute to American singer Shirley Horn.
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| Question 10: | Her parents were appearing in a vaudeville show when she was born in London in 1930 - just hours after the matinee performance. Sister of Scottish entertainer Jimmy Logan, Charlie Parker was godfather to her son by Kenny Clarke. She teamed up with Dave Lambert and John Hendricks in the 1950s.
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JAZZQUIZ No 11 - January 2008 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No.11 received and opened after the closing date was Roger Strong. |
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| This month we give you lines from various numbers sung by Fats Waller. What are the titles of the songs? | |
| Question 1: | ' Gonna write words, oh, so sweet
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| Question 2: | 'At night you may be weary
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| Question 3: | 'Gotta sew a button on my vest
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| Question 4: | 'If there is and you know her
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| Question 5: | 'No friends or relations on weekend vacations
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| Question 6: | 'I don't stay out late
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| Question 7: | 'When I'm takin' sips
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| Question 8: | 'Millions of hearts have been broken
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| Question 9: | 'And every day he sends me blueprints
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| Question 10: | 'From your ankles up, I say you sure are sweet
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JAZZQUIZ No 10 - December 2007 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No.10 received and opened after the closing date was Tony Milliner |
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| This month the quiz is about Charlie Parker. (If questions 6 and 10 particularly seem a little obscure, you can find the answers by using your search engine - e.g. Google, Yahoo, etc.) Good luck! | |
| Question 1: | Charlie Parker was born in 1920 in Kansas City, his father a failing vaudeville singer and dancer. At Lincoln High School, Charlie joined the school marching band and was given which instrument to play? - Baritone, Tenor or Alto?
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| Question 2: | When he was 14, his now single mother used her savings to buy him a more manageable alto sax. With other pupils, he formed 'The Deans of Swing' band and then at 15, he married his pregnant girlfriend. Leaving his mother and wife he went to New York, pawned his sax and took a job at Jimmy's Chicken Shack. Eating as much chicken as he wanted, he was given which nicknames? (4 letters and 8 letters)
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| Question 3: | Returning to Kansas City at 20 when his father was killed in a street fight, Charlie was offered a job as lead alto player in a band being put together by a boogie woogie pianist that would go on to prepare the ground for be-bop. Who was that bandleader?
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| Question 4: | Be-bop was a name taken from a phrase of scat singing in a 1927 number 'Hotter Than That' by which trumpeter?
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| Question 5: | Charlie remained in Harlem when the band returned to Kansas City. Already on heroin, he was invited by drummer Kenny Clarke to play at a club managed by Teddy Hill that would become a famous 'experimental jazz laboratory'. Here, musicians played so fast they saw off many young pretenders. What was the name of the club?
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| Question 6: | Charlie went on to join Earl Hines' band where Dizzy Gillespie played, and then on to a band put together by Billy Eckstein that included Sarah Vaughan as featured singer, but Charlie quit preferring to put together a small combo. He developed a reed tone, lucid, intimate and without vibrato using a very stiff reed normally used by military bands. The reed was called a ---- Five. What is the missing word (4 letters beginning with 'R')? ser
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| Question 7: | Recording now famous tracks for the Savoy label with Bud Powell, Max Roach and Miles Davis, Charlie played one number at such a fast pace there was little time to play with the beat. Some of the notes were so short they could hardly be conventionally notated and tricking the listener's ear into 'hearing' notes not actually played. The number was called -- -- (2 words, two letters each).
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| Question 8: | Charlie became unreliable through his use of drugs and went for treatment at Camarillo. He came back and Norman Granz arranged for him to make a record for Mercury with strings and woodwind. In 1948, Miles and Max Roach quit Charlie's band. Two white musicians then joined him - Al Haig came on piano, but who was the Jewish trumpeter?
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| Question 9: | Billy Shaw opened a club on 52nd Street with tame finches in bird cages that hung from the ceiling. The club was called '--------, The Jazz Corner of the World'. What is the missing word (8 letters).
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| Question 10: | Charlie married his fourth wife, Chan Richardson, and was befriended by Baroness Pannonica de Koenigswater. They both tried to look after him, but his health worsened. He died on the 9th March 1955 aged only 34 watching the Tommy Dorsey Show on TV. He had seemed to be haunted by a stanza from Omar Khyyam (sometimes spelt Khayyam):
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JAZZQUIZ No 9 - November 2007 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No. 9 received and opened after the closing date of Saturday, 22nd December 2007 was Roger Strong. |
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| This month we have taken the letters of ten tune titles and jumbled them up. Can you unravel them? We have given you the number of words in each tune, the name of the composer, and a cryptic clue for each of them. | |
| Question 1: | Title: queer fan cain (2 words)
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| Question 2: | Title: shell fui (2 words)
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| Question 3: | Title: pres is all neet (3 words)
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| Question 4: | Title: sad about top heel (3 words)
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| Question 5: | Title: thong achte time (3 words)
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| Question 6: | Title: dig round minth (2 words)
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| Question 7: | Title: smitain (3 words)
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| Question 8: | Title: put fit reele (2 words)
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| Question 9: | Title: make feck thin (3 words)
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| Question 10: | Title: lampe froth leepp scarp (4 words)
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JAZZQUIZ No 8 - October 2007 |
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There was no winner for Jazz Quiz No 8. |
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| This month can you answer the following questions about piano and keyboard players? | |
| Question 1: | Which piano player took time out taking five?
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| Question 2: | Which British Brian who played with Sandy Brown might potentially play in the key of vitamin C?
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| Question 3: | Who played softly as in a morning sunrise with Milt, Percy and Kenny?
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| Question 4: | On Humphrey Lyttelton's 1956 'Bad Penny Blues' did Stan Greig play piano or drums?
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| Question 5: | Which New Orleans piano player named politely after a cylindrical pastry (or more likely after his manhood), is reputed to have said "I have been robbed of three million dollars all told. Everyone today (1939) is playing my stuff and I don't even get credit. Kansas City Style, Chicago Style, New Orleans Style - hell, they're all ........ style."
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| Question 6: | Which substantial pianist insisted he was not misbehaving but saving all his love for you?
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| Question 7: | Not of the religious order or type of fish his surname suggests, he recorded '....... Plays Duke Ellington' (1955) for the Riverside label, then in 1956 was able to record his own music on 'Brilliant Corners'. In the late 1960s he suffered mental health problems and died in 1982.
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| Question 8: | This Austrian Joe died on 11th September 2007. He played electric piano, accompanied Dinah Washington, played with Cannonball Adderley, and later collaborated with Miles Davis. (He has more or less ended up on our Who's Who Page).
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| Question 9: | At a Squeeze, this pianist sounds like he might find precious stones in a land of bulb fields.
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| Question 10: | Ray Castent is an anagram for this pianist who, born in London in 1926, was house pianist at Ronnie Scott's Club after it opened in 1960. He wrote the Suites 'Under Milk Wood' and 'Alice in Jazzland'.
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JAZZQUIZ No 7 - September 2007 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No. 7 received and opened after the closing date of Friday October 26th 2007 was Roger Strong. |
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| This month we are asking you to complete the following questions about jazz trumpet/cornet players. | |
| Question 1: | Which cornet player was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1903?
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| Question 2: | Who recorded 'Sketches of Spain' with Gil Evans?
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| Question 3: | Who lost his arm when it became caught between two streetcars?
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| Question 4: | Who was the first of Duke Ellington's 'Jungle Style' trumpeters?
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| Question 5: | Which of Duke Ellington's trumpeters played 'growl trumpet with particular expressiveness'?
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| Question 6: | Which trumpeter had the nickname 'Sweets'?
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| Question 7: | Which trumpet player called 'Brownie' was killed in a car accident in 1956?
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| Question 8: | Which American West Coast trumpet player played the solo in Johnny Mandel's 'The Shadow of Your Smile' from the film 'The Sandpiper'?
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| Question 9: | Which trumpeter who played with Ornette Coleman was involved in Carla Bley's 'Escalator Over The Hill' project?
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| Question 10: | Which cornet player born in Florida in 1931 had a brother named 'Cannonball'?
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JAZZQUIZ No 6 - August 2007 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No. 6 received and opened after the closing date of Saturday 22nd September 2007 was Tony Milliner |
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| This month we are asking you to complete the names of the following ten bands. We have shown the numbers of letters in the missing word(s). | |
| Question 1: | Red Nichols and his ---- (4) ------- (7)
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| Question 2: | Red Mackenzie and the Celestial ------ (6)
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| Question 3: | The Mound City ---- (4) ------- (7)
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| Question 4: | Spike Jones and his ---- (4) -------- (8)
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| Question 5: | John Chilton's ----------- (11)
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| Question 6: | King Oliver's Dixie ----------- (11)
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| Question 7: | Art Blakey and the ---- (4) ---------- (10)
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| Question 8: | Lonnie Liston Smith and the ----- (6) ------ (6)
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| Question 9: | The Bruce Turner ---- (4) Band
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| Question 10: | Woody Herman and his ------------ (12)
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JAZZQUIZ No 5 - July 2007 |
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The person sending us the first correct ten answers to Jazzquiz No. 5 received and opened after the closing date of Saturday 25th August 2007 was Gerry Salisbury |
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| Question 1: | Venuti and Lang played violin and guitar as part of the 'Chicago' jazz scene. What were their first names?
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| Question 2: | Which clarinet player's book first published in 1952 was entitled 'The Trouble With Cinderella'?
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| Question 3: | Charles Mingus' number 'Goodbye Pork Pie Hat' referred to the headgear of which saxophonist?
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| Question 4: | Tony Coe's album 'Coe-Existence' features Tony on saxophone and clarinet, Trevor Tomkins (drums), Ron Rubin (bass), Frank Riccotti (percussion on one track), and which pianist?
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| Question 5: | Which Rodgers and Hart number from the 1928 show 'Present Arms' and with lyrics that start: 'I'm a sentimental sap, that's all' has been much recorded by jazz musicians?
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| Question 6: | Nick La Rocca was the leader of which band that was the first jazz band to record 'Livery Stable Blues' in early 1917?
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| Question 7: | What was the name of the leading 'whites-only' music venue in Harlem on Lennox Avenue and 142nd Street where Duke Ellington played from 4th December 1927?
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| Question 8: | Which pianist who had played in the final group of Louis Armstrong's Hot Five recordings later hired Charlie Parker to play tenor saxophone with his band?
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| Question 9: | Sidney Bechet first met a New Orleans trumpet player in Russia and hired him to lead the trumpet section in his band. They got together again in 1932 after Bechet had served a prison sentence. The trumpet player died in 1939. What was his name?
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| Question 10: | Having divorced his first wife Daisy Parker, Louis Armstrong married the piano player in King Oliver's band. She went on to play piano in Louis' Hot Five. What was her name before she was Mrs Armstrong?
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