Colin Yates’ musical resume straddles the Atlantic, encompassing two very different styles. He was born in South Yorkshire, a county famed for collieries and their march- and hymn-playing brass bands.
As a child he was drawn to the “bright, bold” sound of the trumpet. His aunt played one in a Salvation Army band—as a 10-year old, in the mid-1940s, he would “mess about” with the horn. “I remember my dad saying to me: ‘If you’re serious about learning, I’ll buy you one,’” Colin recalled, sipping a half-pint of bitter in the Phoenix Sports and Social Club, one rainy Monday just before Christmas.
The Sheffield venue is a second home to the veteran jazzman. It was founded as a recreation center for a now-defunct steelworks, where he worked during the 1950s. Now it serves the general public, hosting clubs and events—including monthly concerts by the Colin Yates Big Band. “I’ve played in both brass and jazz bands,” said Colin, now 83. “That’s quite unusual—most people get involved in one or the other. It was a great musical education, though.”
Colin first joined a brass band in 1947, soon after first picking up a trumpet—but his tastes were already leaning towards jazz, which he first heard on American Forces Network, through his father’s radio. Stan Kenton and Woody Herman were particular favorites. “Kenton’s band was bigger than normal,”
