Goff Dubber - biography
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Godfrey Goff Dubber, was born in Croydon on 23rd September 1934, attending Cypress Rd School during the war years, and going on to the Whitgift Middle School (now Trinity), in North End, Croydon. Having taught himself to play a cheap plastic flute at school, his father bought him his first clarinet (a simple system) and he had private lessons from an ex-army bandsman in Thornton Heath, who was a stickler for not playing by ear, or even memorising pieces, something Goff decided to ignore.He was soon good enough to join the school orchestra, and then spent two and a half years with the Croydon Youth Orchestra (on third clarinet).After school he became an engineering apprentice where he found many other apprentices were keen on the jazz revival, and he soon joined in their jam sessions, acquiring his lifelong love of the music. It was at one of these that he met the newly demobbed Alan Root, who invited Goff to help him form a new band with another Old Mid-Whitgiftian, Ian Stewart (he used his middle name, Graham, to avoid confusion with the pianist Ian Stewart on the radio). Goff was with this band (later the Graham Stewart Seven) until 1953.Drummer Ernie Brown opened a club in London he called the Brown Urn with Goff in the band, then Ernie and Goff went on to join Bob Dawbarns Barnstormers, alongside Bill Brunskill and banjoist Eddie Smith. Ian Bell came in to replace Ernie on drums and eventually started up his own band with trumpeter Jack Hutton, down from Dundee to work on the Melody Maker, taking Bob and Goff with him. Goff stayed with Ian until called up for National Service at the end of 1955.At RAF Padgate Goff formed a lasting friendship with trumpeter Alex Dalgleish, then was posted to Melksham, Wilts, where he led his own band on camp, the Down Home Ramblers (trombonist Mick Shore went on to form his own Tuxedo Jazz Band in Sheffield). From there he went to Coningsby, Lincs, where he made some lasting friendships among the Boston jazz fraternity.Finishing National Service he rejoined Ian Bells Jazzmen, which now had Ben Cohen and Sandy Axon in the front line, with whom he broadcast and recorded. A few years followed with Sandys own band, The Monks, which by then also had Ben on cornet, with a short stint in the early 60s deputising for Alan Cooper with the Temperance Seven, brief spells with George Webb, and in the late 60s an interesting period with John Goddards Taverners Band, playing classic jazz. Calling in to see the Monks again he met for the first time Brian White, who was playing for them at that time, and was asked to re-join to make a two reed front line. His partnership with Brian has lasted to this day.Reuniting in the 70s with Alan Root, together they formed the Alan Godfrey Sound to play for functions, which gave him a breathing space to re-assess his approach to jazz, and also moved to the Boston area for a couple of years. He then returned to London, getting back into jazz, and joining the Clive Peerless band alongside Dave Hewett. There he met Ken Reece, and with him formed his own mainstream quintet, which transformed into the Goff Dubber Dixieland Band, with John Mortimer on trombone in the 1980s.Around this time Goff started working regularly with Neville Dickie, on tenor sax with the Alan Gresty-Brian White Ragtimers (Muggsy Remembered), on soprano sax with King Jazz, with the John Petters Fats Waller show, and with the Ray Terry Jazz Band, which had an over 20 year residency at the Kensington Forum/Holiday Inn jazz brunch. With these bands he has travelled abroad extensively, including the Nice, Sacramento, Palm Springs, and Orange County festivals, plus others in Holland, Norway, Belgium, France, and gigs in Toronto, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Switzerland, Bavaria and so on.He still works extensively with most of the above bands, as well as with pianist Jonathan Vinten, with whom he has just finished a three year trio booking at Brightons Grand Hotel, as well as playing in the recently formed JJ Vinten Band.
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