Graham Blamire

Educated George Heriots School, Edinburgh. Skiffle groups on gtr and vocs from 1957. Bass from 1960 with school boy ‘Mound City JB’, ‘Fred Terry’s Jazzmen’ and ‘Jack St Clair’s JB’ before joining ‘Old Bailey and his Jazz Advocates’ in 1964. Later ‘Granton Jass Works’, folk music and a 2-year spell with ‘New Society Syncopators’ before returning to the re-formed ‘Old Bailey’ band in mid 1970s and then their metamorphosis into the ‘Scottish Jazz Advocates’ in late 1970s. Also in the 1980/90s with own ‘Nova Scotia Quartet’ with Gus Ferguson (tpt), Gerard Dott (clt) and Johnnie Harper (gtr), a lengthy spell with ‘Bill Salmond’s Louisiana Ragtime Band’ and own ‘Jazz Masters’ and ‘Maid of the Forth Stompers’. Re-union gigs with ‘Old Bailey’ band mid-1990s onwards. Played with many visiting stars including Wild Bill Davison (tpt), Benny Waters (rds), Bud Freeman (ten), Jim Galloway (alto), Teddy Riley (tpt), Earle Warren (alto), Jodie Drake (voc), Ram Ramirez (pno), George Chisholm (tbn), Acker Bilk (clt) and others. Produced and presented with Mike Hart the ‘Silver Jubilee of Edinburgh Traditional Jazz’, a concert in the Queen’s Hall as part of the EIJF in July 2003 to mark the 25th anniversary of the Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival. Ran and played in ‘Maid of the Forth Stompers’ gig on the cruise boat ‘Maid of the Forth’ from 1987 which was in its 33rd consecutive season in 2019 and believed to be the longest running local jazz residency.

Published ‘Edinburgh Jazz Enlightenment – the story of Edinburgh traditional jazz’ in 2012. In 2017 began collaborating with Haftor Medboe of Edinburgh Napier University and Norrie Thomson of the Edinburgh Jazz Archive Group towards the establishment of a Scottish Jazz Archive (www.scottish jazzarchive.org) to be held at Napier and became a Trustee of the SJA. In 2019 compered tribute concert to Mike Hart, founder of the EIJF. Produced many obituaries and appreciations in respect of Scottish jazz musicians