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Administering Some Jazz Trumpet  Chris Hodgkins is probably known to many as the Director of Jazz Services, the national organisation funded by Arts Council of England to provide services in information, touring, education, communications and publishing to the UK jazz community, but did you know that Chris is also an accomplished musician? Nick Lea finds out more and asks the questions.Not content to spend countless hours aiding and abetting UK musicians, promoters, and indeed looking out for the majority of the jazz community, Chris Hodgkins also indulges his passion for the music as a musician himself. Playing trumpet, in what could be described as a mainstream style with modern influences. ?My primary influences were King Oliver and Louis Armstrong with a detour through hardcore New Orleans? explains Chris, ?then Red Allen, Ruby Braff, Roy Eldridge, Sweets Edison, Joe Newman, Buck Clayton, Clifford Brown, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Clark Terry, Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Digby Fairweather, Steve Waterman, Damon Brown and of course Humph!? Chris continues, ?I first started to learn the trumpet when I was 15 and joined the Icon Jazz Band in Cardiff when I was 17. The Icon Band was a very fine New Orleans band that eschewed all the musical excesses of trad in favour of a strict adherence to the music of Bunk Johnson and George Lewis and the output of the American Icon label. I then went on to form a Quartet with Jed Williams on drums that was based on the Henry Red Allen recordings of the 50s and then with bassist, David Greensmith, on to a mainstream band playing the music of Basie, Ellington and so forth.? With many years of playing experience behind him, Chris has finally decided to release his first CD as leader, Present Continuous released on Bell CDs (and available from www.jazzcds.co.uk). I asked Chris why he had taken so long to record his first album. After a moments consideration, he simply grinned and replied ?I am a slow developer. Like the Dachshund, tell me a joke on Saturday and I wag my tail on Friday.? However, on a more serious note the album is a breath of fresh air, and in a market place of contemporary jazz that seems to be screaming out for something new, Hodgkins has produced an album of contemporary compositions written by some of the UK?s finest, to some evergreens that simply bear repeated listening and re-interpretation. As Chris elaborates, ?I wanted to record an album with the trio of Max Brittain (guitar) and Alison Rayner (double bass) as we had got a couple of small tours and gigs under our belts back home in Wales. I was also very keen to record using the three minute recording time of the old 78rpm records and the finally I wanted to record a couple of favourite standards with tunes written by the likes of Ellington, Thad Jones, Clark Terry, Sweets Edison and Humphrey Lyttelton plus new tunes commissioned especially for this album. I simply selected tunes I liked from the widest repertoire, and also asked musicians whom I admire to write tunes for the Trio. You will therefore also hear tunes by Harry Beckett, Henry Lowther, Eddie Harvey, Diane McLoughlin, Damon Brown, Max Brittain and Alison Rayner. 
So, I asked Chris, was the Trio a permanent fixture, and how did they come together? ?The Trio came about because I wanted to play every thing from 1919 to the present day. Also I wanted a well rehearsed band made up of nice people of the highest professional commitment and stature that can play everything from ?Look for the Silver Lining? to ?Ornithology? to whatever tunes people such as Henry (Lowther) and Harry (Beckett) are kind enough to chuck at us. In short I wanted a band sound. Also I have worked with Max for something like 28 years and I am a great admirer of Alison?s bass playing and her work on the jazz scene over the years. Finally Alison and Max are great people to work and travel with. ?As far as gigging goes I have to balance my work with Jazz Services and obviously avoid any or potential conflict of interest. So we manage a few dates in Wales each year and the odd gig here and there.? For any technical buffs and musicians reading this, can you tell us about your trumpet. A vintage Selmer, I believe? ?The horn I use is a Selmer Paris 99 that I bought second hand in Phil Parkers in 1983. It was almost as new as it had only one owner who was an orchestral player and I suspect it probably was not suitable for orchestral work. Six years ago I bought another Selmer 99 off Frank Wilson and had that reconditioned so I now have a brace of them. I also on occasion play a Selmer cornet and a Conn Victor long model cornet. I also have a pocket trumpet in my desk drawer at the office for practicing on if I am out in the evening straight from the work. Finally I use Yamaha Silent Brass for practicing on so my wife is over the moon.? Over the years with his involvement as both a musician and administrator for both the Welsh Jazz Society and Jazz Services Chris has seen many fads and trends in the music, and how it is perceived by the general public. So I broached the subject of how he viewed the state of jazz in Britain, and how he saw its future? This is asubject that Chris immediately warmed to. ?There is some great music being played that is of the highest order. The standard of musicianship and innovation is as good as you will find any where in the world.? he enthuses. ?There is an audience of over 3 million people who attend jazz concerts and the same again who watch and listen to jazz on the radio and television but who do not go to gigs. This all indicates that something like 6 million adults have a definable interest in jazz. There is a superb hardworking network of volunteer promoter?s who put on jazz through out the length and breadth of the UK and there are the professional promoters such as Serious. There are BBC Radio 2 and 3 Jazz Awards. There is an All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group of over a 100 MPs and Peers who have just launched their own Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Arts Council funding of jazz is slowly but surely increasing. There are a number of music colleges where jazz can be pursued. However there is always room for improvement. We need a network of small venues that will support jazz and other under represented musics; we also need dedicated media outlets for jazz whether terrestrial or online.? Finally, Chris, will we have to wait so long for a follow up album, and what plans have you got playing-wise for the future? ?Well, with the Trio we are recording a follow up album Future Continuous along the same lines as the current album. I am also working on an album to be recorded in 2007 with an octet and a ten piece band in 2008. Details as yet are under wraps but you will be the first to know!? 
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