TRIBUTE

Jazz Professional has now had over eight million visitors to its site. I think that one could safely say that the project is a success. By way of celebration here's a tribute to the many people who have contributed to that success.

Among them are: Bob Efford and Pete Myers for their Hollywood reports; Bobby Lamb for allowing me to republish his Frank Sinatra articles; Roy Bull in Vancouver for supplying many photos of the big British bands and Pete Warner for identifying the players; Mike Senn for letting me have his collection of Tommy Sampson photos; Helle Sampson and Ian Hamer for their photographs of the Tommy Sampson Reunion; Bruce Crowther for keeping me up to date on musical happenings in the USA; Derek Burn for his Jack Parnell and Jazz Jamboree memorabilia; Eric Delaney for entertaining me so magnificently; Peter Herbolzheimer for his wonderful work with the Young Lions; Buddy Childers for his technical wizardry; Milt Bernhart for his help and encouragement; The Canary Company 2001 for allowing me the use of their stunning Peggy Lee picture gallery; Marilyn Harris for letting me reproduce her wonderful photo of Manny Albam; the many others who have kindly allowed me to use photos they have taken of jazz stars; Bud Shank for being the first with the welcome news that people were looking at my site out on the West Coast; Pete Cater for taking the time to tape his interview; Ian Pearce likewise and Jack Dawkes for letting me know about these great bands and all the superb new musicians; Tina Pratt in Sydney, Australia for her valuable help in compiling the articles and lending me the photos of her late husband, the great Bobby Pratt, and in researching the Spike Milligan articles; Averil Walsh in Perth, Australia for her delightful humour in Ancient Lights; Dusko Goykovic for keeping me informed of his activities; Katrin and Heinz von Hermann for their amazing accounts of the travels of Jazz Ahead, and Greg McCaffrey of Dundee for keeping me posted daily during the last days of my late dear friend and sensational big band drummer, Ronnie Stephenson.

Many thanks to Eros de Haas for his valuable technical advice, the use of his server and for creating the Jazz Professional banner.

Most of all my heartfelt gratitude to Les Tomkins, for allowing me to publish some of his priceless collection of interviews with famous jazz stars; a large and fascinating contribution that has added enormous attraction to these pages. (Click the photo) Ron Simmonds, June, 2004 Fireworks by Foxtrotters