Biography
Graham Woodhouse started learning music aged eleven, playing on a battered old school trombone. With a lot of encouragement from his parents Beryl and Arnold, Graham passed the “Royal Schools of Music” Grade 8 exam with distinction at the age of seventeen.
Graham developed a keen interest in all varieties of music, particularly jazz and was encouraged by local musicians in his home city of Derby to sit-in with them on a regular basis. During this time he got to accompany many jazz greats such as Wild Bill Davison, Yank Lawson, Roy Williams, John Barnes, Earl Warren, Kenny Davern, George Masso etc. Graham was also greatly influenced by the energy of the British style of traditional jazz artists such as Kenny Ball, Chris Barber, Acker Bilk and Alex Welsh, Pete Allen, whilst trying to emulate the truly great trombone styling of the likes of J. J. Johnson, Kai Winding, Frank Rosolino, Carl Fontana etc.
During the nineteen nineties, Graham gained much experience playing commercial music on cruise ships, backing Las Vegas style revue shows and accompanying the star acts that would come on to the ship. During this time Graham accompanied many stars such as Petula Clark, Neil Sedaka, Vic Damone, Al Martino and many more. Since returning to Britain, Graham has worked in various jazz and soul bands. In 2004, Graham was asked to join the renowned 'Pete Allen Jazz Band' with which he stayed until 2010.
To date, Graham has released two solo albums, “Gettin’ Sentimental” (2004) and "Swing 'n' Slide" (2010).
Since 1991, Graham has performed on a Bill Watrous custom model Vincent Bach Stradivarius 16M and latterly has added the superb Monette TS11 mouthpiece to his equipment. Graham also plays on a King 1130 "Flugabone" marching valve trombone.
Photo by Chris Stanbury
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