Sarah Spencer's Sax 'n' Bone Band plays New Orleans Revival jazz at Dunton Green Social Club on Sunday 18 October from 3pm, with Tony O'Sullivan on trumpet.

Sarah Spencer’s Sax ‘n’ Bone Band plays New Orleans Revival jazz for the Riverhead Jazz Club at Dunton Green Social Club on Sunday 18 October. Doors open at 2.30pm and the music starts at 3pm, with the club’s gig listing running it to 5.30pm. For this date the band has added a guest: the trumpeter Tony O’Sullivan.

Ray Russell sent the news to the club’s members and supporters this week. The band, he wrote, grew out of a conversation on another job:

“On a gig with the Harlem Jazz Orchestra, Zoltan Sagi told Sarah he wanted them to play a New Orleans Revival-style gig. Inspired, Sarah has formed a band of some of the best musicians in the UK who play in that idiom.”

The club’s page for the band says Sagi wanted to return “to the flavour of his days of playing with Dan Pawson”.

Two saxophones and a trombone, then a trumpet

The usual line-up has no trumpet at all. In Ray’s words:

“She decided to highlight the 2-reed front line and go without a trumpet player but, instead, have Rob Pearce join them, which makes the band about as authentic in the New Orleans dance hall style as possible.”

Sunday is the exception:

“However, for this gig, she’s added the wonderful Tony O’Sullivan on trumpet. Tony is one of the mainstays of true New Orleans Revival Jazz in the world, having gone out to New Orleans in his youth and studied with the Greats who were there then. Tony is one of the generation of pioneers of the New Orleans Revival in Europe and his command of the idiom is stated with every note.”

The seven playing on Sunday, as the club lists them:

  • Tony O’Sullivan, trumpet
  • Zoltan Sagi, alto sax
  • Rob Pearce, trombone
  • Sarah Spencer, tenor sax
  • Dickie White, banjo
  • Jim Swinnerton, string bass
  • Graham Smith, drums
The function room at Dunton Green Social Club, with tables and chairs on a red patterned carpet, a wooden dance floor and a low stage at the far end
The function room at Dunton Green Social Club, where the club's gigs are held. Photo: supplied by Riverhead Jazz Club

Getting there

The gigs are in the Social Club’s function room at 159 London Road, Dunton Green, TN13 2TA, reached from the car park or the club’s front entrance. There is a fully licensed bar and a large free car park.

The car park entrance is not on London Road. Ray’s directions: go in via Barretts Road, opposite The Duke’s Head, turn right at the signs for the Donnington Hall car park, “do a left & right and continue through to the club’s car park”. The club’s map also marks Dunton Green railway station a short way to the north east.

Riverhead Jazz Club location map showing Dunton Green Social Club on London Road, the car park entrance off Barretts Road by the Duke's Head pub, and Dunton Green railway station
The club's map of Dunton Green Social Club and the Barretts Road car park entrance. Photo: supplied by Riverhead Jazz Club

What it means for you

  • When: Sunday 18 October, doors 2.30pm, music 3pm to 5.30pm.
  • Where: Dunton Green Social Club, 159 London Road, TN13 2TA. Park via Barretts Road.
  • Membership: the club’s membership page puts it at £15 a year, “open to all jazz fans”. It does not publish a door price for Sunday, so check with the club on its contact form or Facebook page.
  • Next at the club: the same listing has Tad Newton’s Jazz Friends on 15 November and the New Orleans Jazz Bandits on 20 December, both 3pm to 5.30pm.

More about the venue is on the Dunton Green Social Club website. For the rest of the week, see what’s on in Sevenoaks.