Leamington author's book explores unlikely links between jazz and cricket

A Leamington author has focused on his musical and sporting passions and researched the unlikely historical links between them to publish a new book.

Matthew Wright's Jazz and Cricket An Unlikely Combination includes anecdotes where the musical genre and the sport have gone hand in hand over the years.

Readers can find out more about the saxophonist who took a test match hat-trick, the jazz club that made the West Indian team honorary members, the trombonist tipped as a future England wicket-keeper, the bowler who became a highly regarded bassist in New York, the tenor player who wrote a tune dedicated to spin bowler Jim Laker and the Indian batsman given a signed photo by legendary singer Ella Fitzgerald.

Matthew said: "Links between cricket and music have been written about at some length, as has the importance of calypso, but little has appeared to document the affinity between cricket and jazz.

"This book redresses the balance with reference to those involved in both, through history and anecdotes, and in the social background of their parallel development."

Matthew has written for various magazines including Collusion, Jazzwise and Jazz Journal and is part of the Leamington-based Jazz & Blues promoters, In the Moment.

In his younger days he worked in clubs and shops on the London jazz scene.

He also ran the Seven Dials Jazz Club in Covent Garden in the early 1980s.

He later left London to work as a teacher in schools including Warwickshire College in Leamington.

Jazz and Cricket has received praise from writers on both subjects.

Betsy Bell of the Jazz Journal said: "Thorough research, deep knowledge and clear fondness for both jazz and cricket radiate throughout this book. It is definitely not one to be missed, whether you are a jazz-lover, a cricket-lover or -more likely than I thought -both."

Martin Chandler or Cricketweb.net said: "[The book is] Splendidly offbeat and quirky.....an excellent read."

Chris Searle of the Morning Star said: "[It] vividly evokes the links between the music and the sport."

And Sir Michael Parkinson described the book as "Vastly entertaining."

Copies of the book are available to buy from Head and Presto in Leamington and Warwick Books and Kenilworth Books.

For more about the book or to buy a copy visit https://cadillacrecords77.com/jazz-cricket/