Invoice Ashton, the founding father of the Nationwide Youth Jazz Orchestra, was pivotal in my life – and within the lives of so many musicians.
On the age of 18, I used to stand up at 6am each Saturday and catch the prepare from Leicester to London, simply to attend his rehearsals on the Cockpit theatre. You by no means knew who can be there: one week, you would possibly end up studying from a dozen of the nation’s greatest saxophonists; the following, you possibly can be main the sax part your self.
To an outsider, it could have seemed chaotic. However to these of us hungry to study and determined to play alongside the best musicians of our technology, Invoice created a type of paradise. No course, guide or curriculum might have come shut to the dwelling, respiratory training he supplied. He was dedicated to the orchestra, to music, and to younger individuals.
