Jeremy Huggett

 Saxes, Flute, Clarinet, Keyboards & Vocals

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What People Say

about Jeremy Huggett's bands

STOP PRESS! - M & J PROMOTIONS JAZZ BREAKS IN 2024 and 2025!
LATEST ADDITIONS! - Our next event is in December 2024, followed by jazz breaks in January, April, September and December 2025. All events have 3 nights of music with half board at the fabulous Livermead Cliff Hotel, Torquay. Also join us for 3 nights on our 'Sounds of the 60s' event at the Bedford Hotel, Sidmouth in November 2025.
Click here for full details of all events




Private Event, Hall & Woodhouse Ltd Team Party, 6th March 2020


Hi Jeremy,

I just wanted to say a very big thank you for playing for us at our team party on Friday. You were all wonderful and you really made our evening.

Thanks again and very best wishes

Julie

Julie Downs
PA to the Board
Hall & Woodhouse Ltd
The Brewery, Blandford St Mary, Dorset DT11 9LS
Tel: 01258 457553



Jeremy Huggett�s Gatsby Trio, 40th Anniversary, Horsington, 1st September 2019


Dear Jeremy,

Please forgive me for taking sooo long to e mail you and to thank you and your band for such a wonderful day. The music was just perfect and it was very kind of you to add a bit of Sinatra and big band numbers, which my parents particularly enjoyed. We have received some lovely thank you letters, commenting on the great music and food.

We thoroughly enjoyed our day, surrounded by friends and family and we were lucky enough to be blessed with fine weather, although a bit windy!!

Thank you again.

Best wishes

Vicky Franklin



Jeremy Huggett�s Jazz Friends, Kingsbridge Jazz Club. 6th August 2019


By Jenny Weaving

After performing regularly in Gloucestershire, Wales and the South Midlands, Jeremy Huggett�s Jazz Friends made their way to us at KJC for their first visit. Jeremy (clarinet, Saxes and vocals) joined forces with Gethin Liddington (trumpet and vocals) and Kevin Grenfell (trombone and vocals). They were backed by a superb rhythm section featuring Howard Williams (guitar/banjo), Keith Tolley (double bass) and Jim Newton (percussion), giving us an exciting mix of 20s and 30s numbers

The evening began with �Hindustan�, immediately making the audience sit up and listen! Very soon one was aware of Gethin�s mastery of the lip trill, equally matching both Jeremy�s and Kevin�s technical skills. (Not surprising as he is a jazz tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, travelling to us from Cardiff following this year�s opening day of the Junior Jazz Summer School there.) All three in the front line had their own Jazz vocal style which enhanced a varied and entertaining programme. Sadly Jeremy�s special �Oriental piece� was not present for the rendition of �China Town my China Town�!!

Keith Tolley played his double bass with such strength that the bass might well have been in the front line. The tone on the instrument was superb. Howard Williams on banjo playing from fortissimo to pianissimo and back to fortissimo held the audience�s attention with bated breath. As for Jim Newton on drums, he delighted us with his expertise, when finally he had his moment of solo glory!

As expected there was much banter between the band and the audience causing plenty of fun, laughter and jollity.

The front line recently performed in Bar 3 at St. David�s Hall, Cardiff for the last night of the Welsh Proms. Sadly Jeremy had a sudden engagement at A& E so missed the performance. We hope the ankle is on the mend and not causing too much pain now!

The audience was sent on its way feeling well and truly filled with exceptional jazz. Some visitors were wending their way back to Brisbane and others to Holland! Jeremy�s Jazz Friends were certainly jazz friends to us all and I hope we shall see them again in the not too distant future.

Jenny Weaving



September 2018 Jazz Weekend at the Redcliffe Hotel, Paignton

'He would top my list for a top British All-rounder Award'

By Dennis Shaw

While travelling back in the after-glow of a jazz week-end par excellence, on the Devon coast in mid-September one question kept repeating itself in my mind in the midst of the multitude of musical memories created.

Is there or, indeed, can there be, a more multi-talented and versatile a musician among the many whose work we constantly enjoy, than Jeremy Huggett? It is possibly a question without an answer, of course, all down to personal opinion. And none of we jazz/blues/swing/r&b/mainstream aficionados have experienced them all. What I can state without fear of disagreement, however, is that in browsing back through my own seventy-odd years' love of the various genres I cannot name anyone from local musicians to world stars who has matched this maestro's range of true talents.

To give a snapshot of what I mean let me attempt to recall a spell during the week-end masterminded by him at the elegant and welcoming Redcliffe Hotel, from its prime Paignton position overlooking the panorama view of Torbay.

Huggett, leader and reeds man for the superb Dart Valley Stompers, plays all of the 'routine' Dixieland/trad/New Orleans numbers on clarinet or one or another of the glistening saxophones beside him, as do so many others of his soloist breed. He announces with typical musician wry humour, vocalises appropriately from time to time and leads the band along as necessary.

Then in a spell I seem to recall, he gave a raw and raucous rendition of the 1960s alto hit Flamingo, Earl Bostic-style and probably as good or better, then sat beside the keyboards player to pound out Pinetop's Boogie like Fats Domino on speed. From there he was back in the front line to give us a quite mesmerising End of the World on the flute, James Galway-ish, hauntingly beautiful and in a totally different mode to his previous upbeat pieces before giving us Some Day You'll be Sorry on sax and with jazzy vocal.

If that is not enough to illustrate his astonishing all-round talents then in another session he was part of the quintet backing the Ella Fitzgerald-style American Songbook singer Maggie Reeday, providing Lester Young tenor sax support and solos in standards such as These Foolish Things, Love for sale, I've Got you Under my Skin...lovely to hear them sung and sax-backed with such a feel for these wonderful classics of yesteryear.

OK, so I admit to having been more than a touch OTT in comparing his performance in different areas with the all-time greats but these were the names that my brain conjured up as I listened to JH's musical journey through decades of our kind of music. In short he arranges events, MCs them, leads and plays in a brilliant band, excels on clarinet and all the of the reeds, including flute, adds the keyboards and sings passably well, too, along the way.

No, no , he doesn't dance like either Fred Astaire or Sammy Davis Junior, (not built for it), but if there is a better all-round performer than him on the current UK jazz scene then I've not been fortunate enough to enjoy a week-end watching them.

And, as a final thought: I've no real idea about how the British Jazz Award winners are assessed but if there were a 'best all-rounder' category then he would be top of my personal short list of one.



Harlem 5, Wedding in Bristol, Saturday 16th August 2014

Hi Jeremy,

Just an email to say a huge thank you for a fantastic night last night. Everyone loved the music and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I think one or two are interested in having you at their parties too! Lots of people were talking about how good you were (many of them musicians in bands, they can be hard to please!). Great to see lots of people up dancing, even Rich's 87 year old nan threw away her walking stick and had a good jig!
Anyway you guys were very professional and it was great to see you all play again since we first saw you in the Old Duke. We weren't disappointed.
Thank you so much, we hope you enjoyed yourselves too. I also hope you managed to get enough from the buffet and have some drinks too. I was a little preoccupied trying to talk to people.
Thank you once again. We'll look forward to seeing you all soon when you are back in Bristol or at a friend's party I am sure.

Kind Regards
Becky and Rich

Harlem 5 2014, Bristol wedding
Harlem 5, Bristol, August 2014



Harlem 5, Private Party, Saturday 5th October 2013

Hi Maria,

I had Jeremy and the boys to play at my party. It was the best thing I could had done. I knew they were good but boy they were fantastic. It was like being at a show and what a show, the music was great, both in varity and the professional way they conducted themselves. they made my party the success it was. I knew they were good but by the number of phone call and cards I received from friends and family (afterwards) they all thought they were great as well. One older neighbour said, I so wanted to dance but as I could'nt. I had the joy of watching that wonderful band, thank them for me it made my evening, no it made my year as I don't go out much..... What can I say ...yet again thanks so very much for just being so bloody good...

Jeannie Manning, Bristol



Band of Gold at Hospital Summer Ball, 5th July 2013

Dear Jeremy and Maria,

Many thanks once again for the great playing and entertainment from "Band of Gold" for our Hospital Medical Staff Committee Summer Ball and retirement celebrations on 5th July 2013 at the Moorland Garden Hotel, Yelverton. Please could you pass my thanks to all members of the band. I hope the hotel looked after you adequately in the bar with food and drink.

With best wishes

Sophia Wrigley
Chair HMSC



Harlem 5 at Verwood Jazz Club, 16th May 2013

Hi Jeremy and Maria,

What a fabulous night last night - thank you so much. We were delighted - but not at being unable to sleep for ages because we were still on such a high! We do hope that you treat the 1066 mob to much of the same tonight. Mind you, with the number of dancers that take the floor at the Azur, we wouldn't be surprised to find that half of them end up in Intensive Care! Rock On.

With great appreciation from Pru, Julie, Derek and Tony



Harlem 5 at The Old Duke, Bristol, 10th May 2013

We absolutely loved the music at The Old Duke, we had a great time! Looking forward to seeing you guys back again. Kind Regards,

Rebecca Green and Richard Sidwick








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