50 years of local jazz

Sometimes for a young person, something happens, or they see or hear something that, like a bolt out of the blue, will change their life forever. Such a thing happened to a young Les Nicholson.

Les Nicholson has been involved in local jazz for decades

Sometimes for a young person, something happens, or they see or hear something that, like a bolt out of the blue, will change their life forever.

Such a thing happened to a young Les Nicholson, setting him on a path that has seen him this year celebrate 50 years of playing jazz.

At the age of 10 his dad, himself a brass player in an Army band, bought Les his first trumpet.

“I watched people like Louis Armstrong on TV and played along, trying to learn,” Les told NQ Weekend.

“But then I heard Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen play Midnight in Moscow, and that was it.”

He now knew that he wanted to be a jazzman, and he has been a devotee of the genre ever since.

“Like most young cornet and trumpet players in Townsville, I started out in a brass band with what was then the Townsville Citizens Band, now Townsville Brass,” he said.

“A man called Peter Alloway taught hundreds of kids for virtually no remuneration and I owe my start in the brass world directly to him, something I will always be exceptionally grateful for.”

Les said he played in the 11 Flight Air Cadet Brass Band, which Peter Alloway also conducted as a Reserve Officer.

“It’s the way most brass players learn, but I wanted to play jazz. I remember one time we were playing Hello Dolly and in the solo part I started to improvise, and he didn’t know what to think.”

Les also played the guitar, saxophone and flute in rock bands, but it was jazz that he wanted to pursue.

“In 1974 I started the Pacific Mainstream Jazz Band – PMJB as it’s commonly known – and played my first professional jazz gig at the Townsville Motorboat Club on Valentine’s Day, 1974,” he said.

Les Nicholson from the Townsville Jazz Club promoting an event in 2016. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“We played Traditional and New Orleans style jazz, with emphasis on the masters: Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington.”

He said the band had played at festivals all over Queensland as well as the Australian Jazz Festival, and had backed many well known visiting artists, as well as recording albums and appearing on radio and television.

“Due to changes in personnel the band moved away from being purely Trad/New Orleans style and today on any given night plays a wide variety of jazz styles, including Swing, Latin and Modern Jazz.”

Les’ involvement in music was not limited to playing – he has over the years been associated with many organisations in Townsville, including as a member of the North Queensland Regional Arts Council, secretary of the Townsville Contemporary Music Society, President of Townsville Community Music Centre, and Director of the Palmer Street Jazz Festival, as well as writing a column for the Townsville Advertiser and presenting on local radio.

“My best memories though have been the people I have had the pleasure to play with – people like Don Burrows, Graham Bell, Bob Barnard.

“What I liked best is playing with people who were generous enough to let you play with them when you were nowhere as good as they were. Don Burrows was one of the best in the world, but he would play with us, he’d play with a school band – I really admired his generosity in that regard.

“The thing is that you’re transported by playing with the best, it lifts you to a higher level.”

Les said his father had once told him always to surround himself with musos who were better than himself, “So I did!”

Stokes-Nicholson Big Band. left to right Les Nicholson, Bob Hebden, Bob Passmore and John Ruffle. Picture: Lori Neilsen

In 1991 Les and his mentor, sax player Roy Stokes, formed the Stokes-Nicholson Big Band, which is also still playing today.

Each had his own individual reasons for wanting a Big Band, perhaps influenced by the difference in their ages with Roy being 17 years older.

Roy wanted to create an opportunity to keep experienced musicians playing challenging music so their talents didn’t go rusty, while Les wanted to provide an opportunity for music students of all ages to sit beside experienced jazz musicians to absorb the musical synergy that classroom teaching alone cannot develop.

“Sadly Roy got cancer and he had just two gigs with us before he passed away, but we still use the name as a mark of respect,” said Les.

He said there had always been an active music scene in Townsville, and that was continuing today.

“I’m very happy about jazz in Townsville, there’s been an influx of talent and the music scene is very vibrant. There’s a bunch of young people, some of whom came out of the Brisbane Conservatorium, who are coming through.

“The school music system is also incredibly healthy and it’s doing wonders for our kids – there’s some great orchestras and bands at schools like Pimlico High, the Cathedral School, and the Townsville Eisteddfod is the second biggest in the country after Sydney.

“The scene has always been strong but you need it to be nurtured, and in Townsville it is.”

As for his own performing, Les said it was a fact that after about the age of 60 a trumpet player started going downhill.

“Trumpet playing is very physical – the breathing is exacting and you use all the muscles in your mouth, which is enormous pressure.

“I’m not sorry that my best years are behind me – I’ve just changed my playing style to suit, so no more screaming trumpet, it’s now much more mellow so it’s within my physical capabilities.”

Les said with his 70th birthday approaching, looking back at his jazz career at times he would ask himself, ‘Where did that 50 years go?’

“But I wouldn’t change anything,” he said.

“If I can’t keep playing, I’ll find something else interesting to do – I’m that sort of guy.”

Originally published as 50 years of local jazz