Palm Court Jazz

We provide bands for all occasions.

To Contact us:

To contact Palm Court Jazz email pcj@othernews.co.uk for the moment, and when we have designed an email 'form' to put on the site you will be able to email straight off the site.

For the present, the easiest thing available for most visitors will be to copy and paste our email address onto an email and send it to us.

About PCJ

Palm Court Jazz has been going since before 1981, but was first registered in England under number 2736808 on 15th. September 1981, so it is about time it had it's own website. It was originally the name of a band, but the trading name is useful.

The original Palm Court Jazz (which was well known in it's day) can still be booked for functions, but in more recent years people have asked for what they call 'old-fashioned jazz' (they usually know what they mean). Being by now quite old-fashioned people (if you combined the playing experience of all the players available though this site it would come to a few hundred years!) we can do this without too many problems - and at short notice if we are not already booked. The bands currently available through this site all play rather quietly, making them suitable for restaurants, hotels, etc.

Combos from a solo pianist upwards, including the original PCJ (good period of notice needed), LETSwing (which plays a broader range of styles and includes elements of reggae, rock and roll, 'drawing room rock', singalong, Motown, folksy stuff, own material, harmonised singing, etc) and old-fashioned scratch jazz bands playing old standards like Georgia on my Mind, Darktown Strutter's Ball plus some own material (A Separate Reality, Sinclair Rag, Peckham Calypso - numbers for the 'specialist lister'), Gabriele Gad piano, or Gabriele Gad and Hugh Harris combo (piano and saxophone).

Palm Court Jazz was a band of the 'yuppy years', described by the Observer as being the band for 'the most tickety-boo bash of the season'. Plays mostly Charlestons and other 20's/30's stuff. Many pinocolladas were drunk by our audiences, who wore red braces with their dress suits. They were far too rich to be respectable, but were often enjoyable for their excessive energy, quick minds (often even when drunk) and loud humour. We also did many outdoor 'concert bowl' and marquee gigs in the summer, to which the general public were invited. These were usually funded by the local council who wanted entertainment in the park. We also did weddings, and corporate functions of various types from the firm's Xmas party thorugh to the launch of some new product. Still available if there is time for a couple of rehearsals first.

LETSwing got it's name originally from being a LETS band, but like UB40, which got it's name from the Unemployment Benefit card of it's day, it has gone on to become a band performing for the public generally. Vocals, guitar, saxophone and variable other parts. Minimum three players is practical, though obviously the repertoire and sound gets better with more. A typical LETSwing lineup would be piano, sax, two or three vocalists (other band members joining the vocals from time to time), guitar, bass. Gets quite booked up - particularly during the party season. Largely, but not entirely, swing and jazz, reggae, bluebeat, ballads, etc.

Scratch bands are made up from the pool of skilled and experienced players who are constantly on the British and European jazz circuit and move from band to band. Most of them have so much experience that when you put a band together for an occasion it is difficult to know that they haven't been playing together for years - something the British are well known for even in large orchestras. The only thing that suffers is any special arrangements (in the musical sense of the word) which they could not possibly predict. Heavily trad and mainstream rather than 'modern'.

As a matter of policy we would not normally book any gigs which did not have one or more of our regular players in the band. This gives us the chance to have some quality control. There are plenty of duff bands out there who are willing to have a go and take your money for boring you stiff, and we are trying not to provide any of them.

PALM COURT JAZZ, 25 SE5 8BN, UK.

9 sept 2001.