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A Tribute to Terry Crayford

19 February 2012

5:00pm to 7:30pm at West Plaza Hotel

Each year the Wellington Jazz Club tries to celebrate the career of a prominent local jazz musician, so the celebration on Sunday 19th February 2012 is for Terry.

A Tribute to Terry Crayford by Graham Kelly

The Wellington Jazz Club is honouring a man who has given his life to music and, besides setting the highest standard of musicianship, has entertained thousands of New Zealanders for 60 years.

Terry Crayford is a New Zealand jazz legend. As both pianist and bass player, he has toured and recorded with high profile New Zealand and overseas jazz stars.

He is one of the country’s most frequently heard composers, being responsible for televisions “Fair Go’ theme. His many compositions are named after his children and grandchildren.

He began his professional career in 1951, when he played his first gig in Nelson at the age of 15, at the National Party Rooms. On the first night his parents turned up to listen from outside the hall.

Terry comes from a musical family. His parents played guitars and sung together at home in the evenings. They bought him a piano when he was 10 years old and he learned classical music from Mrs Smith, the next door neighbour. He soon got bored and taught himself jazz through listening on the radio to pianists like Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole. But it was the Everly Brothers in 1958 that inspired Terry to buy a bass guitar, the instrument he plays with in “Hot Club Sandwich.”

Terry was the piano player for the Embassy Dance Band, playing at local Nelson venues for one pound 10 shillings ($3) a night for a dance and 3 pounds ($9) for a ball. He played with Frank Page (guitar) and Slim Dorward (bass), whom he says were the most influential musicians he played with. He says he learnt more about music from those two than anybody else. These were fun times and during breaks, the band would go outside and drink flagon beer.

Terry came to Wellington in 1955, at the age of 17, and stayed at the Post Office Hostel. Soon after arriving, he put his name down with the Bill Crowe Dance Band Agency and started doing gigs with Fred Hoffman and Ken Avery at dances and weddings at the Empress Ballroom, Lower Hutt Town Hall and other places.

By the late 50s Terry’s band was playing regularly on Friday and Saturday nights at The Pines Cabaret with Slim Dorward (bass), Bob Little (drums) and Eric Foley (alto sax) from 9pm to 3am for 5 pounds ($10) a night. During the night he would also feature on a honky tonk piano, playing hit tunes of the day such as “My Heart is an Open Book”, ”Waterloo”, “Battle of New Orleans” and “Pink Shoelaces”.

These were the days of no liquor licences, so patrons would bring their own booze and often the place would stay open all night, so the musicians got an added bonus of a cooked breakfast.

During the early to mid 1960s Terry played five nights a week at the White Heron with Bruno Lawrence (drums), Noel Evans (bass), and Bruce Johnston (baritone sax) along with his day job as a cartographer at the DSIR.

Recording for the Lotus Studio, later to become HMV, soon followed. He played piano and bass with the Blockbusters, which included Lawrie Lewis on sax.

During the 1960s Terry played with Dave Fraser (drums) and in 1965 he started a 9 year gig at the Royal Oak Hotel on Friday and Saturday nights featuring vocalists Paul Walden and later Jim McNaught. Later Ross Crayford, Andy Shackleton and vocalist Peter Caulton were the band.

A decade later Terry undertook a series successful concerts around New Zealand with singers Malcolm McNeill and Beaver. Terry was by then playing bass. At this time he joined the Wellington Army Band playing bass guitar for their dance band and filled a vacancy as Bb bass tuba in their marching band.

There were nationwide tours with shows and famous artists including Barbara Windsor, Reg Varney and The Seekers and Terry accompanied singer songwriter Randy Newman, UK sax player Ronny Scott, jazz trumpeter Wild Bill Davidson and American sax player Scott Hamilton.
When Count Basie’s vocalist, Jimmy Witherspoon toured New Zealand, Terry arrived on stage at the Wellington Town Hall with Paul Dyne (bass) and Roger Sellers (drums) and without a rehearsal, and in front of nearly two thousand people, Jimmy leaned over to Terry at the start of the concert and for the first number simply said “A’’ . That was it – a great concert followed.

Terry worked on live shows at TVNZ Avalon Studios for TV productions, including the Brian Edwards Show and the South Pacific Song Contests and featured on the sound track of the movie “Good Bye Pork Pie”.

In 1992 Terry was asked to be Musical Director for Andrew London for a series of National Radio programmes. On his electric keyboard Terry played piano with his left hand and violin with his right hand. This was the start of the gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grapelli swing style, which is now the well known and world class “Hot Club Sandwich” band, led by London, with Terry on bass.

They have recorded many CDs, played at concerts and toured all over the country and overseas. Their songs have featured on movies.

Recently Terry recorded a stunning and magnificently played CD with his son Jonathan on two grand pianos. The rest of the Crayford family, both sons and grandchildren are also very competent professional musicians.

Thanks Terry for giving us all such pleasure and making people feel so much better having listened to your outstanding talent, which has got better over the past 60 years.

We are grateful for the contributions to this article from Janet McLeod and Andrew London.