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Artist
Max Collie's Rhythm Aces
12+ albums
dixietraditional jazz
about
Max Collie (John Maxwell Collie, Melbourne, Australia, February 21, 1931 - 6 January 2018) was an Australian trad jazz trombonist and bandleader. John Maxwell Collie was born in Melbourne, Australia on 21st February 1931. He first heard professional jazz in 1946 listening to Graham Bell’s lunchtime concerts at The New Theatre Melbourne. By 1948 he was playing with a local band and shortly after, leading it. The famous Melbourne New Orleans Jazz Band were on tour in Europe and Max received a cable offering him the trombone chair, so in April 1962 Max arrived in England [to coincide with Beatlemania and the collapse of the British Trad scene] to tour Europe until that band went back to Australia a year later. Max decided to stay and joined the London City Stompers, becoming leader after a year, until February 1966, when he formed Max Collie's Rhythm Aces and that band, notwithstanding the collapse of the UK jazz scene, went on to become world famous. Max was simply a great band leader and got the best out of everyone, converting them to his unique sound. He knew that no group of artistes no matter how talented as individuals can bring forth the authentic New Orleans style if they can’t work together day after day as his band did, as the last of the touring bands. He was able to get his highly professional and experienced musicians as though by magic to play the style and the way he wanted and achieve the level of musical perfection required. In 1972 Sam Johnson, an avid ja
