There’s a short season of films about jazz in Scotland at Glasgow University this month.
I’ve been a bit too slow posting about this, so the first couple have already been and gone. Just for information, they were a couple of episodes from STV’s The Jazz Series (although all these are available online) and a documentary on The Clyde Valley Stompers.
Still to come:
- Tuesday 16th April: Tommy Smith at 21
- Tuesday 23rd April: Birds of Paradise and Meeting Grappelli, two films about Martin Taylor.
- Tuesday 30th April: No-one but Me, an excellent documentary about Annie Ross. This is the 75 minute edit, which I think is the TV version.
They’re being shown in the Gilchrist Postgraduate Club (enter by the Main Gate on University Avenue, come through the doors directly in front, and the club is on the left). Admission is free, and the programme starts at 5.30pm – annoyingly, just that wee bit early to get there if you’re working until five in the city centre.
Each programme will be introduced by a research student from Glasgow University. Special thanks must go to Alison Eales for putting the whole thing together.
Now, there must be plenty more stuff out there. I know Tommy Smith presented a series of shows called Jazz Types in the early 1990s, but is there any surviving footage of the John Rae Collective? They were without doubt the key Scottish band of the late 80s (Colin Steele, Brian Kellock, Kevin MacKenzie and Phil Bancroft were all members) but seem to have left little evidence of their activities or even existence. And what about Gordon Cruickshank or Alex Shaw?