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Artist
Tony Faulkner is a fine musician who has built an impressive body of work over the last 35 years. He is a stylish, and much recorded, Composer and Arranger, a great drummer and one of the UK’s foremost experts on the life and work of Duke Ellington (or “Ellingtonia” as it is often termed). Tony has also enjoyed a long career as a Jazz educator, principally as a tutor at the Leeds College of Music, and has helped many of the finest British Jazz musicians of the last 30 years hone their compositional, performance and ensemble skills. “Born 1938 in Chester, which makes me an O.A.P!! I started playing drums (actually - drum!) In the Air Cadets (A.T.C.) in April 1952. My interest in arranging, and later composition, has its roots in my curiosity as to why the Johnny Dankworth Orchestra of the mid/late 1950s sounded different to all the other bands around at that time. I heard the band many times ‘live’ during that period, my first interest being the wonderful drummer Dankworth had at the time, the late Kenny Clare. But that band was different to the others because of its front-line derived from Dankworth’s earlier small band - the ’seven’, trumpet, alto, trombone, tenor plus baritone instead of the usual sax section line-up. As far as drums are concerned, after joining the ATC and having developed an interest in Jazz whilst at school, I became interested in playing ‘proper’ drums, i.e. in some kind of jazz-band. In addition, around the age of 16 or so along with many of my friends