Tony was a jazz singer from Hucknall, Notts and not to be confused with the Tony Jackson, singer and bass player who was a member of Liverpool band The Searchers and then The Vibrations and who coincidently died in Nottingham in 2003.
Tony Jackson was inspired by the Skiffle craze of 1957 and took to jazz singing applying his talents to many bands in the Nottingham area. His voice was compered to the American “shouters” like Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing and liking people like Ray Charles and Joe Williams. His taste in jazz leaned towards the big band sound of Ellington and Basie. He was also an artist drawing cartoons in a modern style.
In 1959 he sang a summer season at a Jersey holiday camp. He guested with the Giles Thibault Modern Jazz Ensemble at Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera with Beryl Bryden in the audience. Giles Thibault wrote the song that was the basis for the international smash “My Way,”. Beryl sang with Lonnie Donegan and the Chris Barber band.
One of his longest and most loyal commitments was with Derby group the Arthur Coyne Jazzmen playing the Strutt Arms in Milford. Arthur was the older brother of Kevin who would have his own music career in the rock days of the 1970’s.
Graham Newton remembers “Went to see Arthur Coyne’s Jazz Band playing there (The Duke of York, Burton Road) in the very early 60s. Ended up “poaching” his drummer, Mick Lancashire to join the band I was in, The Heralds”.
Tony often sang with Tommy Saville’s Riverside Jazz Band at the Town Arms on Trent Bridge. Monday night Jazz sessions at the Town Arms on Trent Bridge was founded by West Bridgford born Clarinettist John Crocker.
Tony also founded the Folk Songs and Blues Club at the Imperial Hotel on St James’s Street in Nottingham in 1962 but that was short lived because of his singing commitments.
Tony also sang with the Leen Valley Jazzmen for a couple of years and later Ray Cranes Jazz Band who were the first group to play the newly opened Boat Club venue in November 1962. He sang with the Richard Hallam Blues band, the second group to play the Boat Club, getting close to winning the National Amateur Jazz Contest in 1963.
He also played with the Nottingham University Jazz Band and other gigs further afield in Birmingham and Leicester. By 1966 Tony was freelancing in London clubs with a trio and sometimes singing with the Bruce Turner Jump Band which was probably because of his association with Ray Crane who also played with Bruce.
By the early seventies Tony and his wife Valerie had been staging mixed media events in Derbyshire, they lived in Castle Donnington, one show being called “Outburst“: a jazz, folk and poetry show at Derby Playhouse.
They self published two home made books “limited copy book because it gives the opportunity of having peoples work published regardless of standards“. One, from 1969 was an illustrated book called “Jazz is alive and well and can be found in Nottingham: A Souvenir of Jazz in Nottingham in 1969“. Another published in 1972 was about Derby in verse called “We hate Nottingham, We hate City too, We hate 89 others – but Derby we love you“. Trying to present a picture that year it had contributions from local writers, Tony Jackson, Catherine Turner, Christina Burrell, Judi Follows, G.F. Martin, Liz Thornhill, Christina Hall and Gordon Bell. I’m not sure what Tony’s old friends back in Hucknall would have thought about the title particularly if they were football fans.
