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Tom Baker's San Francisco Jazz Band

Band, AU
Jazz

From web link below: Widely acclaimed as one Australia's best ever jazz bands, the SFJB made its debut at the 1975 Australian Jazz Convention in Sydney and Tom Baker's hand-picked personnel included some of Australia's leading jazz musicians in its line-up. The repertoire included many Lu Watters and Turk Murphy standards, as well as numbers by other jazz greats like Clarence Williams, Fletcher Henderson, Freddie Keppard etc. There were some Australian originals too, like 'Wocka the fish' as played by Frank Johnson's Fabulous Dixielanders in the 1950s - a tune which pays tribute to Johnson's great trombone player, the late Warwick 'Wocka' Dyer. Tom and the band travelled to Sacramento (CA) in 1978 to play at the magnificent Dixieland Jubilee - a truly great jazz festival where the SFJB got a great reception. For various reasons, not the least of which was the cost of hiring an eight piece band, and the professional demands of most of the members being committed to other bands, the San Francisco Jazz Band ceased to perform in that format soon afterwards. Under the leadership of Paul Furniss, who leads the band on saxophone and clarinet, the band has continued to play as a five piece ever since. Periodic 'Re-union Concerts' of the original 8-piece band - wherever possible - have been staged over the years, and have included the 10th, 15th and 20th anniversaries of the band's foundation.

Members

	Len Barnard dr 1929-2005 AU
	Chris Qua eb, b AU
	Tom Baker tr, voc 1952-2001 AU
	Paul Furniss cl, as, ss AU
	Geoff Power tr, tb AU
	Mal McGillivray dr, wb AU
	John Bates tb, tu AU
	Dave Robison bj AU
	Hans Karssemeyer p AU
	Eric Holroyd tr *1970 AU

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