Jerry Šenfluk & his Capital Swing

Jerry Senfluk & his Capital Swing recapture the exciting days of the Swing era with a small
band recreation of all that was best in the famous V-disc sessions of the mid '40s.
 
 

Reflecting the highlights of Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw, yet creating an original sound, Capital Swing has its own roots - roots which are nourished by the backgrounds and wide experience of its members who have played in a great range of styles and in richly varied company.

The ethnically most diverse, truly international band, having gone to globalisation long before the word was invented, presents a splendidly hot and enthusiastic music. Jerry likes to take the material from some of the forgotten but fascinating backwaters of the American and European musical heritage as well as giving standards a freshness in treatment that brings them to the listener anew.

The band's six-months residency introduced live jazz into Chelsea Harbour. Their History includes appearances at the Pizza Express, the Barbican Centre, the 100 Club, the Royal Festival Hall and Tufnell Park Tavern. They were featured on BBC Radio 2, France's Antenne 3 and Czech Radio's World Service as well as at Festivals in Canterbury, Lucerne, Schaffhausen, Seville incl. other Andalucian locations, Munster in Alsace, Hay-on-Wye and Silkeborg.

The band's first audio cassette was released in May 1995, just in time for their first tour of Switzerland. With a grant from The Arts Council of England, the quintet released a compact disc in June 1998. Four months later, the band started a residency at the Dock's Bar & Grill in Whitechappel and was involved in preliminary plans of opening new jazz venues in London's Docklands and Greenwich as well in Zurich's Niederdorf.

Currently, further festival appearances are being negotiated and sponsors for various projects sought.

 
 
The Band
 
Phil Parnell - piano
Pianist, composer and producer from New Orleans Phil Parnell started playing piano at an early age, studied privately with Ellis Marsalis as a teenager, and attended Berklee College of Music in Boston in the late '70s.
 
Nils Solberg - guitar
Born in Durban, South Africa, of Norwegian descent, Nils grew up in England. He taught himself to play the guitar from the age of ten, and was switched on to playing jazz when he heard Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. He subsequently broadened his style to encompass not only gypsy jazz, but also traditional, swing and mainstream jazz. He became a professional musician after leaving art school in 1974.
John Rees-Jones - double bass
Classically trained as a cellist, John Rees-Jones toured and recorded with Keith Tippett’s 'Centipede' (which included many of the top jazz and rock musicians of the time) on the completion of his studies and subsequently appeared with a cross section of artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Peter Pears, Vilem Tausky, Raymond Leppard and Roger Norrington. He moved over to the double bass and bass guitar in the late 1970s and has since worked extensively in the theatre, cabaret, studio, TV and jazz fields.
 
Rex Bennet - drums
One of the most prolific drummers on the session scene of the 1970s, Rex can be heard on many hit records of the period. He took up drumming whilst in a POW camp during WWII, but his first pro job was after the War when he joined the Johnny Dennis Novelty Swingtet. He then took the Jazz world by storm by taking a job with the Ralph Sharon Quartet, followed by Don Lang's Frantic Five which landed him regular TV appearances on '6.5 Special', and launched him into the session world.
 
 
Official Internet Page: http://www.jerrysenfluk.co.uk/index.htm