Chichester gets its very own big band

2020 will see the debut of Chichester’s very own big band – creation of sax player and Chichester businesswoman Beverly Cerexhe-Dickens.
Beverly Cerexhe-DickensBeverly Cerexhe-Dickens
Beverly Cerexhe-Dickens

Beverly founded the Chichester Big Band alongside band musical director and librarian Steve Masters – and she is delighted with the way things are shaping up, though they could do with some more trombone players.

“I am a musician and I wanted to play big band music in Chichester, swing music, and I was gutted to find that there was just no big band in the city.

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“I was a bit surprised at that. We have got a generation of people in Chichester who you would have thought would have loved the music from the big band era.

“But nobody had ever set up a big band in Chichester. It is a lot of work. There is a lot to do, finding the musicians and the music. But we did it and we are now up and running. We have had four rehearsals so far and we have got some good musicians on board.

“We had an incredible response to our requests for musicians.

“We have got several dozen, but we are short on trombones.

“They are notoriously difficult to find. It is not an easy instrument to play, and trombone players are usually involved in a band already. There are a lot of trombone players out there, but a lot of them are playing in other bands already.

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“We need four. We have got one, though a couple of weeks we have had two.”

Overall, the band needs 16 musicians: “We have got a full saxophone section. We have got a complete trumpet section, and we have got the complete rhythm section.

“The musicians are mostly Chichester based. I have just pestered everyone that I could think of in West Sussex for contacts.

“I run a business myself, and I have set this up like a business really. We are hoping to do our first performance in the spring.

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“My grandfather was a professor of music in London. He bullied me into learning to play the piano when I was about eight.

“I watched The Glenn Miller Story one day and fell in love with the sound and said that one day I was going to play saxophone in a Glenn Miller type band.

“I didn’t take up the saxophone until about 13 years ago, but really I have always loved the nostalgia and the romance of that big band sound.

“And I was just a bit gutted that there wasn’t something in Chichester.

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“But my mother always used to say ‘If you can’t find it, make it!’

“So many people said ‘How on earth are you going to do that? Where are you going to get the musicians from?’

“But we have done it. There are a lot of people that love that kind of music.

“A normal band would play once a quarter, but I would like us to be playing every month on a regular basis.

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“I am eyeing up the Assembly Room in Chichester for a big band evening once a month. I am wanting to bring swing to town!

“Chichester is such a vibrant city.

“There is such a lot of music going on, music of all kinds, but nothing like this.

“I am thinking that we could have dance band nights as well.

“I think it is going to be great. I really think it is going to be a lot of fun.

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“I run a successful business, and I am going to apply the same principles of business to running a band.

“I am really excited about it. I think it is going to really fly.”

Anyone who is interested in being part of it all should email Beverly on [email protected], trumpet and trombone players in particular. Beverly would love some more recruits to the cause.

The big band’s first performance will be a VE Day celebratory concert on May 2 in the Assembly Room, Chichester.

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