From The Guardian
Pete Strange
Jazz trombonist who stamped his identity on the later Humphrey Lyttelton band
Peter Vacher
Wednesday August 18, 2004
The Guardian
Jazz trombonists are by nature a gregarious, often bibulous bunch, and Pete Strange, who has died of cancer aged 65, was no exception to the rule. He loved the company of fellow musicians, enjoyed a pint, but most of all lived to play first-rate jazz.
Strange's family were from Plaistow in east London, where his father worked for Cable and Wireless. The youngest of three brothers, Strange caught the jazz bug in the 1950s when one of his siblings brought home a Humphrey Lyttelton record. According to Strange's wife Cath, the invitation for him to join the later Lyttelton band as a full-time member in 1983 came as the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition.
Strange adopted the trombone at school in East Ham, after having started out on the violin, and soon found a coterie of musician friends who liked jazz, too.
He eschewed traditional jazz's cruder aspects, preferring the clean-cut Dixieland style. His enthusiasm came good when he joined banjoist Eric Silk's Southern Jazz Band, recording with them when he was 16 and then with clarinetist Teddy Layton two years later. Called up for national service in 1958, he became a bandsman in the Lancashire Fusiliers, serving in Cyprus. Strange knew the trad scene in Britain was "buzzing" and immersed himself in the jazz life, working with a host of less prominent groups before the chance came to join Bruce Turner's celebrated swing-style Jump band.
It was here that he honed his own approach, moving confidently from the "tail gate" style of Kid Ory to the more flexible manner of US greats Lawrence Brown, Dickie Wells, and, most of all, Tricky Sam Nanton, whose plunger-muted skills he learned to emulate. This led to the quintessential Strange solo method: big-toned, often rousing, sometimes complex, but invariably exciting, Lyttelton once describing his trombonist as "declaiming prodigiously".
After the Turner band foundered in 1964, Strange became a civil servant by day, although continuing to play as a freelance with any number of metropolitan outfits. He stayed with the Department of Health and Social Security as an assessor for 13 years. The call to join trumpeter Alan Elsdon's touring jazz band in the mid-1970s brought him back to full-time professional work; it also coincided with the beginning of his wife's parallel career in the civil service, this happy juxtaposition bringing much-needed financial stability.
The Elsdon band was popular, recorded regularly, and both men were also in on the start in 1978 of the Midnite Follies Orchestra, a 1920s-style revival orchestra, much given to period numbers (and to wearing rather chi-chi band uniforms) with vocalist Johnny M out front doing the "vo-de-o-do".
Strange, who had taken an arranger's course by correspondence, wrote for the Follies and increasingly for other bands, including the Great British Jazz Band (which he co-led with trumpeter Digby Fairweather) and the wonderful all-trombone group, Five-A-Slide. He was able to compose, arrange old and new material, and even managed to transcribe a series of solos by trombone genius Jack Teagarden that were published in folio form by EMI. He went on to win British jazz awards as an arranger and instrumentalist.
All these skills and more were put to good use when Strange joined Lyttelton. Most of the band's many recordings for Humph's own Calligraph label since then bear Strange's orchestrating imprint. He would often adapt an earlier chart for alternative instrumentation, or transcribe an old piece and re-present it, or simply originate a complete chart from scratch. Lyttelton (and the band's many fans) knew and valued his creativity as both soloist, and all-round good egg.
Rubicund and invariably cheerful, Strange loved the life he led, enjoyed his family (he lived long enough to see his first grandchild) and kept his sense of humour until the end. He is survived by his wife, his daughter Christina (known as Bina), and his son Paul.
· Peter Charles Strange, jazz trombonist and arranger, born December 19 1938; died August 14 2004
From The Independent
Trombonist for Humphrey Lyttelton
16 August 2004
Peter Charles Strange, trombonist, arranger and composer: born London 19 December 1938; married (one son, one daughter); died Banstead, Surrey 14 August 2004.
The trombonist Pete Strange joined the Humphrey Lyttelton band 21 years ago and stayed there until his death.
Reciprocal loyalty and off-stage friendships mean that the band is like a family, with Lyttelton a benign father. It made an ideal home for Strange, a man who undervalued his talent but who flowered, with Lyttelton's encouragement, into a formidable all-round jazz musician. Already outstanding as a trombonist, in later years he became one of the most imaginative writers and arrangers in the field.
Strange's lack of self- confidence made him a worrier - he would needlessly book hotels months in advance and pore endlessly over travel details. His nickname, bestowed by the band, was "Worried of Banstead" and when the Lyttelton band toured the Middle East its bassist Paul Bridge bought the trombonist a set of worry beads. It was on the same trip, sightseeing with Lyttelton, that Strange was driven by car up a desert mountain.
"What will we see at the top?" asked Strange.
"Vultures," said the guide.
There was silence in the back of the car.
"They do wait until you're dead?" asked Strange.
First taught the violin, Strange began, aged 18, as a New Orleans-style trombonist in the banjoist Eric Silk's Southern Jazz Band in 1956. He and the band's trumpeter Alan Littlejohn already had leanings towards Mainstream, a jazz style regarded as sacrilege by the purists. While he recycled Kid Ory for the audiences, Strange was already listening to Duke Ellington records for solos by Lawrence Brown, a master trombonist. But even then he was forming his own sound and his early playing was notable for its clean, fat tone.
When Silk's clarinettist Teddy Layton left to form his own group in 1957, Strange went with him and over the next few years played in traditional bands led by Sonny Morris, Charlie Gall and the trumpeter Ken Sims, before making the most important move of his career so far when he joined the eccentric saxophonist Bruce Turner in 1961.
Turner and his trumpeter John Chilton were in a different league and, with Strange, made up the front line of the Bruce Turner Jump Band, a skilled, polished and potent mainstream band that provided the perfect setting for the trombonist.
Leaving Turner in 1964, Strange gave up full-time playing for a period, but worked for a variety of Dixieland band leaders including Freddy Randall, Joe Daniels and Ron Russell. He returned in the mid Seventies and worked again with Turner and Russell. He played for the trumpeter Alan Elsdon and the two men became founder members of the repertory Midnite Follies Orchestra in 1978. With trombonist friends, Strange put together and wrote for Five-A-Slide in 1980.
Strange's writing became a key element in Lyttelton's output and he wrote instinctive settings for the many vocalists who worked and recorded with the band, notable amongst them Elkie Brooks, Stacey Kent and Helen Shapiro. Americans too, such as the tenor saxophonist Buddy Tate, romped through Strange's charts.
Lyttelton's radio work chairing I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue for BBC Radio 4 and presenting The Best of Jazz for Radio 2 left his musicians time to freelance elsewhere and amongst Strange's distinguished writing in his later years were the scores for Val Wiseman's Lady Sings The Blues package, a celebration of the music of Billie Holiday. In 1994 Strange founded and wrote for the all-star Great British Jazz Band.
Strange and Lyttelton collaborated in composition too, and the trumpeter composed the piece that was to become the trombonist's finest showcase, "The Strange Mr Peter Charles". "We owe the title to a transit form which we were required to fill in on a trip abroad," said Lyttelton. "The headings were Family Name . . . Title . . . First Names . . . When Peter Charles Strange handed in his form, the title was there in block capitals."
Steve Voce
© 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
From icCroydon site
Final session for a jazz star
Aug 31 2004
By Joan Mulcaster
A TOP trombonist who travelled the world - yet loved to join jazz sessions at south London pubs - has died after a brave battle with cancer.
Pete Strange, 66, of Yewlands Close, Banstead, played stomping mainstream, swinging Dixieland and plaintive blues for packed houses in vast international concert venues.
But once home he relaxed with casual gatherings of musicians at The Lord Napier, Thornton Heath, The Gun, Surrey Street, Croydon, and The Glaziers, Crystal Palace.
Back in his distinguished "day job" he was not only an instrumentalist but also an imaginative and much sought after writer and arranger during 21 years with trumpeter Humphrey Lyttelton's band.
Many of the young vocalists who performed with Lyttelton's outfit - Helen Shapiro, Elke Brooks and Stacey Kent among them - found Pete Strange's settings and scores a springboard to success.
Lyttelton - now in his eighties --inspired the young Pete.
His widow Kath Strange said: "Pete heard Humph as a youngster in Plaistow, North London. He had been playing the violin, moved to the trombone, had some lessons but was largely self-taught."
After a spell as an 18-year-old in the Eric Silk Southern Jazz Band, National Service loomed.
Pete joined the band of the Royal Lancashire Fusiliers, was posted to Cyprus and gained valuable experience.
Once back on civvy street the fifties' London jazz scene snapped up Pete's talent - by then honed and perfected by army tuition.
From then on he was in constant demand for traditional bands led by Sonny Morris, Charlie Gall, Ken Sims, the Bruce Turner Jump Band, in Dixieland bands of Freddy Randall, Joe Daniels, Ron Russell and Alan Elsdon with whom he eventually founded the Midnite Follies Orchestra.
He met Kath at a London jazz club, they married to move into first Cosdach Avenue, Wall-ington, Milton Road, Carshalton, and finally Banstead.
He was becoming an established and respected all-round jazz musician whose name was instantly recognisable throughout the profession, even before he began to work for the legendary Lyttelton.
Yet, on the road he suffered so much lack of confidence colleagues affectionately nicknamed him "worried of Banstead."
This week the whole spectrum of the musical world - jazz, military, pop, light music or classical orchestral - are mourning the premature departure of Strange, the ultimate trombone player.
His instrument is one of the most difficult in the brass section. Yet it was rarely heard in the Strange household said Kath.
She said: "Do you know what: he hardly ever practised - only when he felt he had to."
Turning to writing in the nineties he composed many memorable scores including Lady Sings The Blues - a celebration of the music of Billie Holiday.
Mrs Strange said: "His whole life was music and he met so many people, playing twice for Princess Diana.
"But he really looked forward to the sessions in local pubs where he made so many friends."
She's uncertain if the cancer of oesophagus he suffered could have been the result of passive smoking from inhaling in clubs and concert halls.
Mrs Strange said: "We do not know and Pete did also smoke himself."
Kath and the couple's son and daughter cared for him at home with the help of nurses from the Princess Alice Hospice, Esher, until his death on August 14.
Pete Strange's funeral was on Wednesday August 25 at Randalls Park Crematorium and Mrs Strange had requested donations instead of flowers to The Princess Alice Hospice or The Musicians' Benevolent Fund.
From The Times, Thursday 9th September 2004.
LIVES IN BRIEF Pete Strange, jazz trombonist, was born on December 19, 1938. He died on August 14, 2004, aged 65.
Not only was Pete Strange the trombonist in Humphrey Lyttleton's band for more than 20 years, but he was regularly introduced to audiences as the band's "staff arranger", on account of the elegant scores he produced.
Some were scaled-down versions of big-band material, in which he had a clever knack of voicing Lyttleton's septet so that it sounded like a much larger ensemble, whereas others worked up Lyttleton's ceaseless stream of original melodic ideas into fully-formed arrangements. Although Strange's characteristic modesty meant that he seldom featured himself, when he did take a solo, he demonstrated his authoritative command of the swing and mainstream styles.
Strange was a Londoner, and a self taught trombonist, who made his first records as a teenage member of Eric Silk's band in 1956. After making further discs with Silk's clarinettist, Teddy Layton, Strange joined Bruce Turner's Jump Band in 1961. At the time of the boom in traditional jazz, Turner's suave swing group was unfashionable but musically brilliant, and in addition to making numerous records, recorded the soundtracks for many cinema advertisements.
On leaving Turner, Strange worked with some of Britain's best-known jazz musicians, including Monty Sunshine, Freddy Randall, and Digby Fairweather. His big-band experience came from the Midnight Follies Orchestra, which he joined in 1978, appearing on the band's celebrated disc Hotter then Hades. He demonstrated his skills in his own band Five-a-slide, alongside four trombones and a rhythm section.
Strange joined Lyttelton's band in 1983, first appearing on Humph's reunion with clarinettist Wally Fawkes It Seems like Yesterday. He took a central role on recordings such as Echoes of the Duke (with Helen Shapiro), Long Tall Tenor (with the American saxophonist, Buddy Tate), and At The Bull's Head named after the riverside pub in Barnes where the band plays regularly.
Perhaps the best insight into his writing skill is to be found on a 1996 recording of OK Band, Let's Move It! that he made under his own name with Lyttelton's rhythm section, on which he overdubbed all the melody parts himself.
Some personal tributes.
I was deeply saddened to hear of Pete's death and would like to record a tribute to a distinguished Old Boy.
Pete and I first met when we were both five years old attending Monega Road Infants just after the war. Pete went off to Salisbury at the age of 7 and I went to Shaftesbury. We met up again at EHGS although we had both belonged to the doorstep comic swapping group. A mutual interest in non pop music led to joining Charlie Collins's School Orchestra if only to get our hands on previously unattainable instruments. Such instruments could only be viewed in Slemmings shop window in the High Street but few dared to venture into the shop because it was said that Slemmings was queer whatever that meant.
Pete asked innocently if he could learn the trombone (without divulging that we had been listening to illicit Kid Ory 78's bought in East Ham Market). Much to Charlie's delight I opted for the double bass an instrument previously unloved by aspiring musicians.
Peter's neighbour Ron Sanders (I think he was an Old Boy) was already heard to be practicing New Orleans cornet solos and Ron Marks across the street in Strone Road could be heard pounding on a drum set in splendid isolation. Seek out a clarinet player (David Elves and later Ted Clark) a gifted pianist Brian Scarborough and a brilliant banjo player Kenny Chambers and the Apex Jazz Band was born vintage 1954.
We must have been one of the earliest revivalist bands to form in East London. We practised in Pete's front room on Tuesday evenings only stopping for the Goons at 8.30 when we laughed ourselves sick and copied all the voices. We played each week at the Woodgrange Working Men's Club for ten shillings with which we bought records. We must have had other gigs but I can't remember them.
Fridays we would go up to Town to hear Humph at Red Lion Square then later to Cy Lawrie's Club where we were allowed to "guest". Pete clearly had outstanding ability which was soon spotted. The rest we know.
Over the years I have come across Pete playing at promotions exhibitions etc. I had only to send up a card with a single name on it for him to come to the mike and say "Jerry! where the hell are you!"
Only a few of our web correspondents will have known him. His contemporaries would have been Roger Protz and Don Martin possibly Ray Shawyer. My old pal Mike Nolan who died this year was a great fan.
Greatly loved and greatly missed.
Brian (Jerry) MathsonBrian is right: I was a contemporary of Pete's. I recall that, like me, he suffered from having a surname that invited weak jokes and nicknames. I bumped into Pete two years ago when the Humphrey Lyttelton band played at the Great British Beer Festival at London Olympia. I was given a message that the trombonist in the band was Pete Strange, who had been at school with me and would like to see me. I went to the stage area, listened to the first of two sets by the band then went backstage and asked for Pete. He came over, trombone under his arm and told me I hadn't changed a bit. I didn't remember having grey hair and a beard when I was at EHGS!
We reminisced for some time about the school, Uncle Joe, the move from the town hall to the new site, and -- inevitably -- the fortunes of West Ham United. Pete had fascinating stories to tell of his travels and adventures
as a jazz musician. Humph joined us so I had the pleasure of meeting the great man. I asked Pete quietly if Humph would play Bad Penny Blues as a request in the second set but Pete said Humph's lip was no longer up to performing difficult pieces.
I enjoyed the second set. It was only when Pete died and I read his obituary that I realised he was far more than a good trombonist but a brilliant arranger and the mainstay of Humph's band. He will be badly missed.
Roger Protz
Jim Briggs
4th October 2004