hello welcome to the Super Bone Channel
we're interviewing top trombonist from
around the world
and next up from London is Jeff Williams
oh hi Jeff
you say hello Jeff plays with
Mississippi swamp dogs here in London
and a very in demand trombonist and a
bit of a character as you'll see Jeff
first question for you favorite jazz
trombonist and maybe a recording okay
well I've got to I can I couldn't get it
down to one this is gonna be boring
because I'm sure every trombone player
that you ever ask will include Frank Rosolino know ya
cause he's just just just an absolute
jaw-dropping master what I love about
him that here's a guy who's got so much
technique but the technique doesn't get
in the way of his communication doesn't
get in the way of his artistry it all
adds to it just makes him you know such
an amazing players these planes full of
joy and humor and happiness and then at
the same time it can be unbelievably sad
and and of course you know he was
obviously a bipolar nutcase as you can
see how he ended up but yeah I mean he's
one of the few players that has a
ridiculous technique that I loved
listening to because he still has that
amazing emotional connection with his
plane on the other end of the scale is a
trombone player who uses very little
technique but it's just a beautiful
beautiful lyrical player called George
Chisholm who was a Scottish trombone
player who played with Louie and played
with Benny Carter and played with Fats
Waller so he goes back a long long way
but you hear him play and his plane is
so beautifully fresh his plane is full
of humor and sadness and energy and it's
just just a wonderful original play soon
as he plays you know exactly who it is
same as Rosolino know as soon as they
played with a note or two you know
exactly who you listen to and the best
tracks that sum them up for me Frank
Rosolino know it's is that rainy day from
the Bobby Knight album called Cream of
the Crop and it's virtually impossible
to get hold up and then something which
is a lot easier to get hold
and really worth checking out if you
haven't is George Chisholm playing
Stardust and interesting about your
schism he's like a lot of those players
who played with Ellington is that he was
a crafter of solos so he would have
crafted and improvised a solo over a
period of time until he adapted it
changed it - it was absolutely a work of
art and then once he got it down
patenting you exactly how he wanted to
mold and form this solo
then he kept it which he's a wonderful
professional thing to do because here's
a guy who can go out may have an
allowing round with his wife on the way
to the gig he may have he may have a
stomach bug or whatever he's feeling but
he knows he's got this beautiful work of
art in the bag which he can pull out on
the gig and just play there's quite a
tradition in jazz a lot of people think
every time you play you've got to come
up with something new and it's not the
case you know it's not the case at all
it's coming out with
something that's from your personality
and something that's full of emotion and
full of that kind of connection that
that people can sort of pick up on
there's an amazing version of Roy
Eldridge a trumpet player playing after
you've gone yep and of course he was the
link between Louie and Dizzy and Louie
and Dizzy like I know them talking like it's typical jazz trombones talking
about Miles like we know these people you
know yeah I mean did once have a pee
next to Dizzy Gillespie when you're having a pee it's
not the easiest social situation to turn
around and say hello
no you're not going to shake you say
exactly but I also have a pee with McCoy
Tyner this is not I didn't have a
question about the famous jazz people
that you've had with the best anyway
where the hell was I yeah and in the
middle of the solo Roy takes this
break and the break is like it's like a
journey from Louie Armstrong to Dizzy
Gillespie it's absolutely amazing you
can hear the history of jazz trumpet in
that break from the top of living
through two days and it is just it just
sums it up for me you know
and there's a variety that you need it
as a trombonist obviously you've got the
Mississippi Swamp Dogs the way the band
came about was because I was doing a lot
commercial work a lot of corporate work
and a lot of weddings and parties and
stuff and it was all very commercial and
it was making some great money on it and
then we had a crash in 2008 and it all
kind of slowly disappeared and dried up
my plane was getting very stale I mean I
was just sort of playing for money I was
basically a musical whore but I wasn't
really sort of making any head road with
my jazz playing at all and after a
couple of years I realized I was getting
too old gray and fat to sort of
appear at people's weddings and certainly didn't
want to kind of play the
repertoire that people who were getting
married in 2010 in 2015
wanted to hear you know so I said I need
an age-appropriate band I need some
insight and I want to be able to play a
wide-ranging music as possible so I set
up this New Orleans band the swamp dogs
and of course if you think of the music
that emanates from from the deep south
yes it's everything this funk
there's blues the soul this jazz sort of
rock even so that the swamp dogs kind of
play a bit of everything so okay we're
able to really play everything and the
great thing about it of course is you'd
only have a one song away from something
you like so if you're not a big fan of
funk well you might be a big fan of jazz
gospel yeah and New Orleans rumba and so
it goes also it's a chance to play a bit
of everything
fans been great it's been really
successful we played at Ronnies many
times we do the hideaway down and
stretch them and the Pizza express and
we're currently doing very very well
admire in my kitchen they're all very
new kitchen around this table
let's let's get on to your career
obviously a little bit of a mystery to
me Jeff isn't someone who's put a lot of
stuff up on the internet about his own
career so we have to ask the man himself
can you give us an insight into your
journey through
music your first teachers influences
through the years I first play the
trombone at school that has school on a
brass band picks up a trombone it's at
12 it's a real old peashooter probably
from the turn of the century it was absolutely knackered can hardly play typical school
instrument I took it home and my dad sadly
passed away a few years ago he's always
been a fantastic engineer looking apart
and reselling it together and and dents
out of it
and it's just a bit of tubing as far as
he was concerned you know it held no
mystique to him
you know instinctively knew what to do
with it and I learned self-taught I was
looking enough at our school that there
was the bass trombonist with the Halle
orchestra yeah a bit of a legend he's
called Neve Roberts who's also passed
away who actually did lessons at a
school for 50 pence a lesson and he was
a phenomenal trombone player he was taught by Denis Wick down at the guild hall well I
had three or four lessons with him just
to sort of find out how to hold it and
stuff and I just played in brass bands
and then I got interested in jazz from
when I was about 15 put the telly on and
the Glenn Miller story came on TV and
that was that was great episodes by the
age of 15 or 16 I started going on to
concerts and gigs coming from Manchester
we had the Free Trade Hall which was a
big venue at the time I saw the Gil
Evans band which was astonishing I saw
the Count Basie band with Ella Fitzgerald
and Al Gray and that was an amazing
experience and had some friends who were
at Cheatham school and music we had a
little kind of band that we kind of got
together with a couple of them Mike
Linden was in the band he went on and he
was level 42 his keyboard player but I
only ever play for fun I did the old gig
in Manchester came downstairs and I was
working for a living I did a million
jobs none of which I liked I hated and
that got about the age of 30 and I
thought this is you know I loved playing
but you know this I hate work hate
working for a living and I spoke to my
wife and said you know I'd really like
give up work and learn play properly and
take a plane yep
and she was amazing she says yeah why
not so we can't it downsize so we had a
lovely house which we sold and we bought
a tiny little place in West Norwood
which is where we live now we had a
holiday and then we came back and moved
in a holiday we inadvertently got
pregnant but can I put the knockers on
it for another couple of years
yeah so had to get the kids kids had
to come first so I carried on working and
then finally about the age of 34 35 I
was able to give up and you know run
play I want to see Eric Crees who was
playing with the LSO at the time and I
went down to see him and told him my
intentions and he just told me what I
was doing wrong and told me how to put
it right sounds simple doesn't it when
the hard work starts so and then I just
sorta basically would shaded and would
shed it out of the blue I got a call to
go an audition for a West End show I
just met someone at a club he
recommended me for the gig and got the
gig and then I joined the Reg Alarta 
band for a year 18 months but I was
still working on my playing I still had loads to kind of improve on and I was very
much the weak link in that band so after a year
and a half I was unceremoniously dumped
the next one we've got for you Jeff is
we'd like to find out a funny story
you've already told a few already but
funny story from maybe a gig that you
did that didn't go solo one of the gigs
I do sometimes would be a Jewish wedding
band called a taste of honey did you
just call it a waste of money and this
balance was very very well known on the
on the Jewish function circuit and it
was run by a Jewish guy really sweet guy
and his wife played keyboards in the
band this band used to employ great
players I mean this was a an amazingly
good band of musicians but there were no
chaste and there was like one microphone
in front of the horns and he honestly
from behind the kit we do like we do
some
dinner music we play a few songs and
then we do a lot of juice tunes
none of which on you and I was advised I
was advised before I did the gig nobody
else he talks to you just not your head
and say yes you know so Yoshi lean over
the gig and say something in Hebrew
system oh let's do a *unintelligible* and
I'd nod my head and say yes you know and then we
go straight to some kind of thrash
I've got it now it's in a minor right okay
yeah go right down head down away you
know and I remember Sid Gould one night coming
over leaning over and he says do you know
says you can get very average musicians
and if you really rehearse them well you
could commit them sound really good
he said here's one of the few bands that
you can get really good players and make
you sound really bad the dance will
start you know and everyone been getting
up on the floor and this was a bit that
absolutely dropped my jaw it was
jaw-dropping but he had a room full of
very very successful people because
these gigs were always at places like
the Inn on the park or the Hilton Hotel
and the band would be playing and they
used a lot of backing tracks so you can
imagine they'd have about five or six
really good singers really great session
singers people that work the claps and
acts that would come on and on a
suddenly night they've come out and
they're singing this song they bring it
backing track and we stand in front of a
microphone most of the time miming
whilst it's all on the track behind us
so in the course of this there'd be a
nice slow song and you'll see the
drummer who's band it was and his
wife who played the keys they both loved
up they adored each other to this it was
very sweet they get off their
instruments and they'd go down the dance
floor and dance so there's no one on the
drums there's no I'm on the keys and
dancing away with the audience you see
and people have come up to the percent
are you'll see the bad sounds were
wonderful tonight you know and uh you
know you do an Earth Wind and Fire
number it sounds like Earth Wind and
Fire
you know you
it sounds like the Four Tops you do it
Justin Bieber
it's just just like Justin Bieber in the
room marvellous band Yosi Aires its lovely to
see you too and our thanks thanks very much
much hang on a second look
there's no musicians on stage that's
mean you can't you see what's going on
so always a fun night it was always a
fun night for all their own reasons
sounds like an absolute character
brilliant Jeff well it's been good
interviewing your so far for
Super Bone
let's just we like to pump up a current
project can you tell us a bit more about
something you'd like to tell us about
well we're all in limbo at the moment
aren't we I mean we're all very much
stuck at home and we can see it as a
complete disaster all we can see it as
an opportunity and one thing that that I
really really want to do with the swamp
dogs next is put together a gospel album
I mean gospel is a big part of the deep
south tradition and the band isn't just
about New Orleans it's also about the
deep south I'm an atheist myself but I
love gospel music and I'd like to bring
an album up we've got an album already
called songs from the swamp available on
all good digital platforms in the
description
yeah and through my through my website
as well Mississippi swamp dogs calm and
so yes so I'm looking to put together a
gospel album and I'd really like to
perform it in churches Brian thank you
so much for joining us really appreciate
it
we will pop those links in the
description for everyone who wants to
find out more about the Mississippi
swamp dogs not hopefully we can get out
of this isolation and get to a gig of
yours Jeff but have an enjoyable swim in
Hawaii or somewhere where thank you so
much we've enjoyed it thanks for asking
me Mike it's been a real pleasure and
I'm honored to be in such esteemed
company
no worries thanks Jeff stay tuned for
more Super Bone videos coming up
thank you
