Claus Jacobi, a reedman, arranger, scholar of jazz history, and for the last decade the music director of Mike Durham’s Whitley Bay Classic Jazz Party died on April 23rd after a brief illness, he was 75. He led the Blue Roseland Orchestra from 1967 through the 80s. He released albums with his Bottomland Orchestra on the Stomp Off label in the 90s. He appeared on other Stomp Off Releases and on several European labels. Jacobi was also associated with the Red Roseland Cornpickers, King Oliver Creole Conservenblik, and Keith Nichols Cotton Club Orchestra. He made 700 transcriptions of early jazz titles available to the Syncopation Society of Berlin. He was behind many of the exciting themed sets at the Whitley Bay Jazz Party.
