The New Black Eagle Jazz Band • Black Eagle Skuffle

A couple of years ago when reviewing the Missing Pieces CD, I wrote this: Two years from now the New Black Eagle Jazz Band will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. Over the course of this half century there have been, almost inevitably, several changes in personnel, but despite that the band’s “sound” has remained constant due in large part to the distinctive cornet styling of the leader, Tony Pringle, aided by the steady pulse supplied by Peter Bullis on banjo, the two musicians who were, as the back inlay says, “the soul and backbone of the band for forty-seven years.” The back line has always provided a rhythmic, but light, 4-beat base on which the front line could dance, regardless of whether the bass instrument was brass or string. The rhythm was—and is—never ponderous, one on which the inimitable Pringle led the ensemble on cornet. So it was a significant blow to the band when both of these stalwarts passed away …. These two years have now passed, and the band is celebrating its 50th anniversary, the occasion being marked with the release in 2020 of this digital CD: Black Eagle Skuffle. And the sentiments I expressed re Missing Pieces are equally applicable to this CD. As anyone familiar with the band will see from the personnel listed below, the musicians are those that have long populated the band. Although Eli Newberger has not been a member for a good many