The golden days when jazz brought colour to a grey city

BACK in the mid-1950s, Leeds could be a pretty dismal place.

Like many of the big, industrial cities in the North, it was still recovering from the economic hangover of the Second World War. Rationing had only recently come to an end and the country was struggling to find its feet.

But amid this gloom, Leeds found itself part of a nationwide revival in traditional jazz that saw music clubs spring up all over the country.

“It revolved around the revival in New Orleans jazz,” says Michael Meadowcroft, a former MP and jazz musician.

“It became the pop music of its day; the music charts were full of jazz songs like Petite Fleur by Chris Barber’s Jazz Band and Acker Bilk’s hit, Stranger on the Shore.”

Places like the former Peel Hotel, on Boar Lane, became popular haunts.

“There was a real enthusiasm for jazz, and lots of little clubs started popping up everywhere. Leeds had a great jazz scene in those days, you could go to a different club every night of the week.”

Among the new jazz clubs opened around this time was Studio 20, on Upper Briggate, now called Sela Bar. Studio 20 was run by tuba player Bob Barclay, leader of the Yorkshire Jazz Band, and quickly became popular not only with jazz fans but punters who wanted a late-night venue where they could hang out.

Terry Cryer, then a fledgling photographer, remembers going there.

“A friend of mine who was music-mad, told me about this great new jazz club that had opened on Upper Briggate and told me to go along because I’d probably be able to get some good photographs,” he says.

“Leeds was a grey, miserable place back in those days and there was nowhere to go except the pub.”

So places like Studio 20 provided one of the few late-night sanctuaries.

“Students went there and played and everyone seemed to wear duffle coats and Jesus sandals. Diz Disley was an art student in Leeds at the time and he painted these great cartoons on the walls,” Cryer recalls.

It soon became a popular haunt with visiting jazz musicians who were playing concerts elsewhere in the city.

“People like Humphrey Lyttelton, Chris Barber and Tubby Hayes all played there. When they came to Leeds for a gig they were usually finished by 10 o’clock and there was nowhere to go.

“There were no restaurants or cafés open, they could go back to their hotel, but that was it. Then they heard about this jazz club, and, being jazz men, they went along and got up and played.

“Everyone used to call in, there was even stories of people who’d been playing in Halifax who came over. It was a wonderful place and very influential on the music scene in Leeds.”

Ed O’Donnell is a trombone player who played at Studio 20 more than 50 years ago.

“It was quite a smoky place. Bob Barclay would be dishing the dinners out and they had all-night sessions that went on until seven, or eight o’clock in the morning. But I didn’t like them because even though you had breaks, it was still hard work.

“Humphrey Lyttelton went there and he got up with his band and they kept on playing until it was time to catch their train at the crack of dawn,” he says.

The likes of Ronnie Scott, Sarah Vaughan and Jimmy Rushing also either visited or played at the club, which eventually closed during the early ’60s as pop music began to take over.

Mark Young, who runs Sela Bar, only discovered its musical heritage after he opened the bar in 2003.

“We’d only been open about a week and this guy came in and said he used to come here as a kid and that it was the jazz club in Leeds during the ’50s, and we had absolutely no idea that it had this history. When we took it over, it was being used as a storage hold for the Indian restaurant upstairs,” he says.

“Not long before he died, Humphrey Lyttelton came down while he was here doing a show at the Grand, and gave us some stories and anecdotes about the place. He was going to come and do a show for us with his band in the June, but he died in April that year, so, sadly, that never happened.”

But more than half a century after Studio 20 first opened its doors, Sela Bar is continuing the tradition of live music and marks its 1,000th gig in October.

“We always planned to have jazz music here; we just didn’t realise how many great jazz musicians had played here in the past, so it’s great to be able to carry on that tradition.”

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