Ernie Garside: 3 January 1932–1 August 2023

Sometimes we forget just how much our music owes to those who put time and effort into making sure that we get to hear it. I’m not talking here about Norman Granz or George Wein, but more about the enthusiasts who keep clubs going and promote local festivals convinced that jazz is a cause worth fighting for. Sometimes, these activists branch out and they’ll consider setting up a series of engagements for an artist that they’re keen to present.  In other words, they become tour organisers or put it another way, they start creating new possibilities. 

Which brings us to Ernie Garside, an enthusiast and semi-pro trumpet player who became a trusted friend to a great many jazz musicians here and in the US and who built up a flourishing jazz promotion career.  Having known Ernie for several decades, it’s sad to record that he died on 1 August at a care home in Manchester.  He was 91 and had been unwell for some time but was pictured still blowing his trumpet, the walls of his room covered with portrait photos from his time in jazz.

Originally a painter and decorator, based in Southport, Ernie started off in quite a small way from November 1960, playing modern jazz records at the 2J’s coffee bar in Manchester on Thursday nights.  Bill Birch in his superb book Keeper of the Flame – Modern Jazz in Manchester  1946-1972 described how the place was packed when Ernie and a friend decided to bring in the 16-piece Johnny Dankworth and singer Bobby Breen.  Thus encouraged, Ernie looked to start his own live modern jazz club, eventually teaming up with Eric Scriven at the already-established Club 43 also in Manchester. By 1964, Ernie was running the club solo, having taken a 50% share in the business, his success leading Birch to describe Club 43 as ‘the North of England’s leading modern jazz club’.  

As in other areas of life, timing is all, and Ernie’s tenure coincided with the advent of the ground-breaking UK-US exchange programme, this enabling the Club to present the likes of Don Byas, Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley, Lee Konitz, Zoot Sims & Al Cohn, Sonny Rollins, and Ben Webster, interspersed with all the most prominent UK modernists, Tubby Hayes leading the charge under the banner, ‘Ernie Garside Presents.’  In time, he brough in complete bands, including the Max Roach Quintet and the Roland Kirk Quartet, often by arrangement with Ronnie Scott’s.

 When it became known in September 1967 that the Canadian trumpet star Maynard Ferguson was temporarily resident in Manchester, Garside suggested he play with his rehearsal big band, this morphing into the Maynard Ferguson Band, its personnel eventually including Peter King, Stan Robinson, and Danny Moss. Ernie continued to play in the section while handling its management, the UK engagements supplemented by notable European and US tours. Albums by Ferguson’s British band came out on the Columbia and CBS labels; Ernie’s cache of live tapes from the band’s many  concert appearances were resurrected later on Sleepy Time Records.  

By May 1968, Garside had severed his connection with Club 43, concentrating on what became a ten-year friendship and management arrangement with Ferguson, this continuing when the trumpet star moved back to the States, taking most of the UK band and Eddie with him. Once back in the UK, Ernie put his new found international experience to good effect, setting up an agency in partnership with his brother Don, and bringing  in an array of US artists for extended tours, often taking in a residency at Pizza Express Dean Street before moving around the club circuit while taking on workshops and guest appearance.  His regulars included Red Rodney, Lockjaw Davis, Cleanhead Vinson, Jimmy Witherspoon, Bobby Shew, Tal Farlow, and Jessica Williams, among a host of others.  He also branched out into freelance tour management, working on a Freddie Hubbard European concert series, and promoting any number of one-off events around the world. 

He was reunited with Ferguson in 1998 when the trumpeter brought his Bebop Nouveau band over to star at the Wigan Jazz Festival, which Ernie had been largely responsible for setting up and running.  It continues to this day.  Latterly, as the UK club circuit dwindled in the 1990s, Ernie concentrated on certain key soloists, notably Sweets Edison and Art Farmer. He once told me, “I had more fun on the road with Sweets than anyone else.”  The monthly circulars announcing new tours were soon a matter of history but I for one, will always be grateful to Ernie Garside for his commitment to the music and for his unfailing desire to keep presenting its best players to British audiences.  He was a delight to know and I’m sorry he’s  gone.  RIP Ernie.