Cass Caswell.
MUSICONE of the Island’s must successful jazz musicians, who performed at the legendary 1970 IW Pop Festival, double bassist Cass Casswell, will perform at Newport’s Jazz Weekend.
Cass will play twice in the event’s launch year, first with the six-piece Allstars, who play a wide range of jazz from Dixieland to modern, at St John’s Church, Newport, on July 21,
Later on the same day, Cass’s trio will accompany the tenor sax player, Jo Fooks, and Andy Urquhart on trumpet.
As a Sandown Grammar School pupil in 1959, Cass formed The Tornados rock group, which included fellow pupils, Brian Sharpe, Martyn Ford and Keith Robe.
He also founded the IW Musicians and Entertainer’s Club, which performed jazz jam sessions at the old Lakeside Inn, Wootton Bridge.
Cass became a double bass teacher for Island schools and a guitar teacher for three prisons.
In 1970, he performed in front of 250,000 people at the Afton Down festival, the UK’s biggest ever, on a line-up including Joni Mitchell and jazz trumpeter Miles Davis.
He later helped found the Cornwall Chamber Orchestra.
For more details about events at the Jazz Weekend visit www.newportjazzweekend.co.uk
Reporter: davidn@iwcpmail.co.uk