Doug Richford in North Wales 1975

Douglas Frank Richford (1920-1987) was a British jazz clarinetist, and saxophonist.

Early career

Starting piano at age 7,^[1] he became a fan of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, taking up the clarinet at 13.^[1] A pupil of American clarinetist Danny Polo before the war,^[2][3] during Army Service in World War Two he played in the Lion Swing Stars.^[1] Following the war he led a 14-piece big-band, the Streamliners. After a stint with the River City Jazzmen in the early/mid 50s,^[1][4] Richford had his first professional job with George Chisholm and Tommy McQuator.^[2][3] In the later 1950s he was a member of Sonny Morris's and then Nat Gonella's bands;^[1] and from 1959 to 1961 Bob Wallis's Storyville Jazzmen,^[1][5][6][7] with whom he recorded.^{[8][9][10][11]}

Doug Richford's London Jazzmen

Richford started his trad jazz band in July 1961,^[1][12][13] which debuted in Coventry.^[14][15][16] A week later, the boozy London Jazzmen played on a riverboat near Liege for Belgian TV.^[13] Trumpeter Trevor Jones,^[17][18] trombonist Eric Dalby, future illustrator Toni Goffe on double bass,^[13] 18-stone big Pete Deuchar on banjo,^[19][13][20] and Kenny Harrison on drums,^[3][21] were in the initial line-up.^[16][22] Clarinettist Gerry Turnham joined later that year.^[23]

Represented by the Lyn Dutton Agency Ltd,^{[6][24][25][26]} and financed by publishers Chappell, the DRLJ recorded in November 1961,^[27] and released in January 1962 on Parlophone records,^[13] their first single Yip-I-Addy-I-Ay/On Sunday I Go Sailing.^[28][29][30] The band was by then Pete Deuchar, Toni Goffe, Kenny Harrison, the legendary Nat Gonella trumpet/vocals,^{[31][32][33][34][35][36][37]} and Bill Hales trombone.^[38] After Colin Bowden took over as drummer,^[39] it was probably their second single that was recorded at Abbey Road studios, Cascading/12 Over the 8 - both Richford originals.^{[40][19][13][41]}

The band played in London, often late at night at Studio 51, known as the Ken Colyer Jazz Club off Leicester Square,^{[42][43][44][45]} and around England throughout its 1961-64 life.^{[1][46][47][48][49][50][51]} They appeared four times on the BBC Light Programme,^[13][52] alongside / introduced by Humphrey Littleton, Diz Dizley and George Melly.^[53][54][55] Trumpeter Nat Gonella was replaced in mid-1962 by young Australian Dick Tattam in his first professional role.^[56][19][57] Guitarist Paul Sealey also played with the band;^[58] vocalist Beryl Bryden appeared with them too.^[59]

As well as travelling in Britain, in 1963 the band visited Denmark,^[60] where three tracks were recorded by Copenhagen-based Storyville Records,^[61] - Spooky Takes A Holiday, Running Wild and Beedle-Um-Bum.^[62]

Later career

After the Trad boom ended, as The Beatles changed popular music,^[63][64] Richford took a trio for a summer season in Jersey in 1964.^[1] Ironically Richford had appeared repeatedly at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, whilst the Beatles were still a local Merseybeat band performing there.^[65][66]

Richford returned to full-time music in 1978 to tour Germany with Steve Mason's Dixielanders,^[1] and then played "residences" in Zurich.

Personal life

Richford was born in 1920 in Camberwell, London, where in 1945 he married Ellen Rolf; their son Lincoln Douglas Richford, born 1946, is a land reform campaigner in Scotland.^{[67][68][69][70]} Doug Richford died in West Sussex in 1987.

References