While the name “John Petters” may not be familiar to many American trad jazz fans, it is a well-known one to their British counterparts. Petters was born in Stratford, East London, in 1953 and is a self-taught drummer. He formed his first band while at college in Harlow, Essex, and started gigging in the early 1970s. He has formed many bands and combos as time has passed and has issued many jazz CD’s by these groups, a number on his own label, Rose Records. In addition to being a bandleader, he is known to sing on occasion with his groups. He also has promoted jazz festivals, jazz concerts, and jazz club dates, as well as written jazz articles and lectured and presided over broadcasts on the subject. In addition, he has been working with Upbeat Recordings on Jazz Reissue CDs, assuming the mantle of the late Mike Pointon. Clearly, he is a kind of “Renaissance man” of traditional jazz in the UK.
On this CD Swinging down Memory Lane,Petters curated the content, playing drums on all of the tracks with groups of various sizes from trios to septets. While a number of the musicians appear on several tracks, no two tracks have the identical personnel. These combos include many visiting Americans, such as Kenny Davern, Yank Lawson, Art Hodes, Wild Bill Davidson, to name a few. Of the British personnel, I’m sure several will be familiar to most readers of TST: Ken Sims, Wally Fawkes, Ken Colyer, Mike Pointon, for instance. Sadly, many are no longer with us, but their artistry is still available here.
