Monty Sunshine

Jazz clarinetist and vocalist Monty Sunshine entered the world in England during 1928. Although he would later establish himself as a solo recording artist, his earliest professional work came through membership in the Crane River Jazz Band and the Chris Barber Band. By 1960 he chose to launch an independent path, assembling Monty Sunshine's Jazz Band with trumpeter Rod Mason, ex-Barber banjoist and guitarist Dickie Bishop, vocalist Beryl Bryden, pianist Johnny Parker, trombonist Geoff Sowden, bassist and occasional trumpeter Gerry Salisbury, and drummer Nick Nicholls. Throughout the early 1960s the ensemble maintained an active touring schedule behind the albums Black Moonlight and Sunshine, and—with occasional personnel shifts—the group remained active into the twenty-first century. Sunshine briefly returned to the Chris Barber Band in 1994 for the Barber Jubilee Tour before resuming leadership of his own unit. Additional solo projects appeared afterward, among them the 1998 release Live at the BP Studienhaus and the two 2000 albums Gotta Travel On and South.