Jazz breaking news: Croydon’s Fairfield Halls celebrates 50 years
Thursday, April 26, 2012
As part of the fiftieth year celebrations at Fairfield Halls in Croydon photographer Frazer Ashford, who took pictures at Fairfield mostly in the 1970s and 80s, is exhibiting some vintage shots from his archive at the Croydon venue.
While many of the artists he covered are rock and pop icons Fairfield’s jazz and blues legacy goes back a long way and the venue still presents leading jazz artists. On 29 August 1965 Fairfield went down in jazz history for Ornette Coleman’s first appearance outside the US not just because at the time the musicians’ union prevented many US jazz bands from playing in the UK without a reciprocal arrangement for an equivalent UK act to play in the States. His was, as the audience would discover, a truly revolutionary music that jazz fans in the UK had not hitherto been exposed to apart from on imported records. Coleman circumvented the rules by playing Fairfield as a classical artist, composing a new piece. The concert created a sensation, and contributed to the legend that is Ornette Coleman, who returned to the UK last year for his most recent concert at the Royal Festival Hall when he closed the 2011 London Jazz Festival. While the exhibition does not go back as far as that memorable night, to mark the anniversary Fairfield has launched a special www.fairfieldat50.com website with photographs and memorabilia featured from down the years. Upcoming gigs at the hall include Jools Holland and his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra on 24 May, and Cleo Laine and Friends on 21 June.
– Stephen Graham
Dame Cleo Laine (above) playing Fairfield in June
Photo: Tim Dickeson