LIVERPOOL businessmen Victor Greenberg and Michael Swerdlow have been lifelong friends with a joint interest in jazz. They also had a joint complaint - not enough jazz in Liverpool.
It was just over two years ago that they decided to stage their own free jazz concert at the city's Palm House one Sunday afternoon. During its three hours, some 1,000 visited the event.
"So we decided to start Liverpool Jazz, a non-profit-making organisation to promote and stage jazz in the region," explains Greenberg.
Regular Sunday sessions have since been staged at the Palm House in Sefton Park to great success.
They have also been able to use profits to sponsor the production of a jazz album by saxophonist Dave Edge and back young trumpet player Jonathan Murray on a New York music course.
Now they are staging a concert featuring two of the biggest names in British jazz, saxophonist Sir John Dankworth and his singer wife Dame Cleo Laine. Dame Cleo will be celebrating her 79th birthday the day before the concert next Sunday.
"It's been a few years since they appeared in Liverpool together and I can tell you they are as brilliant as ever," says Greenberg. "This is one of our biggest events."
* CLEO LAINE, John Dankworth and Friends at LIPA, 7.30pm, Sunday, October 29. Tickets £32.50 and £27. 50 (students £10) from Unity Theatre Box Office, 0151 709 4988.
