Douglas Frank Richford (1920-1987) was a British jazz clarinetist, and saxophonist.
Douglas Frank Richford (1920-1987) was a British jazz clarinetist, and saxophonist.
Starting piano at age 7, [1] he became a fan of Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman, taking up the clarinet at 13. [1] A pupil of American clarinetist Danny Polo before the war, [2] [3] during Army Service in World War Two he played in the Lion Swing Stars. [1] Following the war he led a 14-piece big-band, the Streamliners. After a stint with the River City Jazzmen in the early/mid 50s, [1] [4] Richford had his first professional job with George Chisholm and Tommy McQuator. [2] [3] In the later 1950s he was a member of Sonny Morris's and then Nat Gonella's bands; [1] and from 1959 to 1961 Bob Wallis's Storyville Jazzmen, [1] [5] [6] [7] with whom he recorded. [8] [9] [10] [11]
Richford started his trad jazz band in July 1961, [1] [12] [13] which debuted in Coventry. [14] [15] [16] A week later, the boozy London Jazzmen played on a riverboat near Liege for Belgian TV. [13] Trumpeter Trevor Jones, [17] [18] trombonist Eric Dalby, future illustrator Toni Goffe on double bass, [13] 18-stone big Pete Deuchar on banjo, [19] [13] [20] and Kenny Harrison on drums, [3] [21] were in the initial line-up. [16] [22] Clarinettist Gerry Turnham joined later that year. [23]
Represented by the Lyn Dutton Agency Ltd, [6] [24] [25] [26] and financed by publishers Chappell, the DRLJ recorded in November 1961, [27] and released in January 1962 on Parlophone records, [13] their first single Yip-I-Addy-I-Ay/On Sunday I Go Sailing. [28] [29] [30] The band was by then Pete Deuchar, Toni Goffe, Kenny Harrison, the legendary Nat Gonella trumpet/vocals, [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37] and Bill Hales trombone. [38] After Colin Bowden took over as drummer, [39] it was probably their second single that was recorded at Abbey Road studios, Cascading/12 Over the 8 - both Richford originals. [40] [19] [13] [41]
The band played in London, often late at night at Studio 51, known as the Ken Colyer Jazz Club off Leicester Square, [42] [43] [44] [45] and around England throughout its 1961-64 life. [1] [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] They appeared four times on the BBC Light Programme, [13] [52] alongside / introduced by Humphrey Littleton, Diz Dizley and George Melly. [53] [54] [55] Trumpeter Nat Gonella was replaced in mid-1962 by young Australian Dick Tattam in his first professional role. [56] [19] [57] Guitarist Paul Sealey also played with the band; [58] vocalist Beryl Bryden appeared with them too. [59]
As well as travelling in Britain, in 1963 the band visited Denmark, [60] where three tracks were recorded by Copenhagen-based Storyville Records, [61] - Spooky Takes A Holiday, Running Wild and Beedle-Um-Bum. [62]
After the Trad boom ended, as The Beatles changed popular music, [63] [64] Richford took a trio for a summer season in Jersey in 1964. [1] Ironically Richford had appeared repeatedly at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, whilst the Beatles were still a local Merseybeat band performing there. [65] [66]
Richford returned to full-time music in 1978 to tour Germany with Steve Mason's Dixielanders, [1] and then played "residences" in Zurich.
Richford was born in 1920 in Camberwell, London, where in 1945 he married Ellen Rolf; their son Lincoln Douglas Richford, born 1946, is a land reform campaigner in Scotland. [67] [68] [69] [70] Doug Richford died in West Sussex in 1987.
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