My mum mentioned to me recently that she went to a jazz club in Luton at the TUC Hall in Church Street around 1960, which got me searching the archive. Its seems that the town, like many other parts of the country, experienced a jazz boom in the late 1950s with several weekly clubs running.
In 1958 the New Orleans Jazz Club was running a Sunday night 'Jazz at the Dome' at the Cresta Dome Ballroom in Alma Street, while the New Luton Jazz Club was happening every Thursday at the TUC Hall.
Over the course of that year some of the big names on the trad jazz circuit played in Luton, including Mick Mulligan, George Melly and Acker Bilk at the New Luton Jazz Club, and Cy Laurie. The latter's gig at the Cresta was promoted by the Delta Jazz Club - not sure if this was the New Orleans Jazz Club renamed or a different faction in the fractious jazz scene of the time. There was a promise of 'non-stop jiving'.
There were local bands too including the Leaside Seven (sometime Leaside Six), the Wayfarers and Savannah City.
The Luton News reported in April 1958 that 1,730 people had attended three Luton jazz sessions in one week - 380 to a Cy Laurie gig, 450 at the New Luton Jazz Club (with Bruce Turner and Teddy Layton) and 900 'to listen and dance' to Ted Heath's big band at the Cresta Ballroom.
This was a time of the split in the jazz scene between 'mod' and 'trad' jazz fans, with the modernists catered for by the Luton Modern Jazz Club at the Connaught Rooms. Rather snottily they promised 'no skiffle', unlike the New Luton Jazz Club which did feature the likes of the 'Midland City Vampires Skiffle Group' and 'Highfliers Skiffle Group' alongside jazz performances.
The serious minded could even attend jazz record recitals and talks at Farmers Record shop, featuring jazz writers including Alun Morgan and Sinclair Traill.
If 1958 was the peak, by 1962 it was being noted that 'the popularity boom of traditional jazz is settling down. A smaller crowd that than the peak audience of a year ago gathers at the [New Luton Jazz] club'. A club spokesperson bemoaned 'Audiences are falling away all over the country, but these are only the people who were never really keen on jazz, dropping away now that the Twist is the rage' (Luton News, 20 December 1962).
In April of the following year the Luton News reported that 'Trad died in Luton last week, on the closure of the six year old New Luton Jazz Club', the 'only jazz haunt left in Luton'. Promoters 'Tony Lovell and Ray Elliot can take heart in the fact that they lasted longer than many other clubs'. Blame was attributed to fire safety regulations that had restricted numbers, but the fact is that jazz was waning as the popular dance music of choice for young people. Later that year The Beatles played in Luton at the start of a new pop era, while in 1965 the Tamla Motown review hit town.
(title 'Luton Trad is Dead now, Dad' refers to a 1962 film 'It's Trad, Dad!')
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