Jazz Performance Saturday! - "Royal Garden Blues" - The China Coast Jazzmen with guest Bob Kokta

Here is an interesting band known as The China Coast Jazzmen which plays at the Hong Kong pub - Ned Kelly's Last Stand. In the performance today guest trombonist Bob Kokta stands-in on Royal Garden Blues. Sometimes they are billed as Colin Aitchison and The China Coast Jazzmen. Aitchison is the bands leader and is the  longest serving band leader at Ned Kelly's. He started with them in 1993 and became the full-time band leader in 1997.

Ned Kelly's Last Stand is said to be oldest "Jazz Bar" in Asia. The bar has performances of jazz, every night, and has done so for almost 40 years. Many well known jazz musicians have performed ther such as Bob Wilber, Kenny Ball, and Matt Monroe. Ned Kelly's has become the "must go" location in Hong Kong for all visiting jazz lovers.

 

Royal Garden Blues was written by composer Spencer Williams (1889-1965) and published by Clarence Williams' publishing company in 1919. Although Clarence Williams is credited as one of the composers he most likely didn't compose the tune at all. It was a common practice for music publishers to attach their name to the works they published. Williams also composed such notable tunes, as I Ain't Got Nobody, (1915), Tishomingo (1916), Everybody Loves My Baby, (1924), and Basin Street Blues (1928).

The China Coast Jazzmen have performed in Macau, Singapore and even Denmark. They have a really nice sound on Royal Garden Blues and let it fly! This performance was recorded at Ned Kelly's Last Stand in Hong Kong and was posted to YouTube on March 13, 2013.