In 1999 three Oxford-based jazz musicians got together, discovered a musical compatibility and decided to look for opportunities as atrio. While knocking on the doors of bars and pubs they discovered the Wheatsheaf, where the landlord was just then considering a weeklyjazz night.

Having come to an agreement with the pub, two of the three musicians decided to go one step further.

They set up a jazz club, inviting nationally known soloists, with themselves as the house band.

It was a good chance to play and they thought it might last a few months.

But today the Spin Jazz Club, thanks to the tireless efforts of guitarist Pete Oxley and drummer Mark Doffman, has run continuously for ten years, clocking up an extraordinary 420 gigs.

On Thursday, May 14, there will be an evening of almost perfect symmetry at the Spin as the club’s very first invited soloist, John Etheridge, will be back on the stage to celebrate the club’s tenthbirthday.

It was thanks to Etheridge’s huge popularity that the very first Spin gig was a sell-out. This gave the venture a boost that lifted an idealistic hope into a reality.

The other ingredient for success has been the energy and determination of Mark and Pete who have worked single-handedly, without the grants and awards that are the mainstay of so many other artistic events, to ensure that a good-sized audience has been able to enjoy high-quality music week after week for so long.

This has entailed not just time in rehearsal, but more importantly time and money spent on promotion and advertising.

In the early years they were personally out at night with pot and brush putting up posters.

A jazz club does not exist without an audience and the Spin now has a large number of supporters who turn up regularly for their weekly injection of music.

The majority of seats are frequently booked in advance and time and again the success of that first gig has been repeated, or even topped.

Asking Mark about some of the most memorable evenings he immediately mentioned when Israeli saxophonist Gilad Atzmon’s Orient House appeared with Palestinian singer Reema Kelani.

The sight of two world-class musicians from either side of a religious and cultural chasm on the same stage was uniquely moving and the music was some of the most powerful I have ever experienced.

Thinking of other visiting bandsMark also mentioned Tim Garland, Wolfgang Muthspiel and Julian Joseph, all players of extraordinary stature who came to a small upstairs room down an alleyway in Oxford to be part of the Spin’s history.

The appearance of Wolfgang Muthspiel was perhaps the greatest coup as he played only two gigs in Britain, one in London and one in Oxford.

As for evenings with an invited soloist and the house trio Mark has enjoyed the high energy American saxophonist Butch Thomas, the effervescent Jonathan Gee, the vibes master Roger Beaujolais and of course the ineffable John Etheridge To this I would add the magisterial saxophone of Tony Kofi and the duo of pianist Pat Thomas with Orphy Robinson when the audience enjoyed the diversity possible in more free improvisation.

This is another thread in the success of the Spin.

Variety.

From Etheridge to Muthspiel to Tim Garland there has been a wide spectrum of jazz, despite the club’s need to maintain their audience.

It would have been easy to book a narrower band of styles, but such programming would never have got the club a couple of PRS awards and seen it nominated for best jazz club in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards three years running.

The final ingredient in the club’s popularity is that it does one thing exceptionally well — first-class music to a well-informed audience. No food, no interruptions, no fuss. No fancy lights.

Perhaps once a year we’re treated to a few bowls of nuts.

Despite their devotion to the Spin both Mark Doffman and Pete Oxley have pursued busy careers.

Mark is now both a gigging drummer and an academic. He has acquired both an MA and a doctorate and is presently doing research into the influence of black British jazz musicians.

Pete has put together a number of other bands, including Curious Paradise, Eclectica! and a duo with Luis D’Agostino.

For these projects he has composed reams of music and brought out a whole raft of albums.

And if that isn’t enough he has become the father of twins and maintained his own profile as one of the country’s leading classical bow makers.

Meanwhile the third member of the original trio, bass player, Raf Mizraki, joins the house band when he can.

Let’s hope there will be great jazz upstairs at the Wheatsheaf for at least another ten years.

lFor information about future events go to the website spinjazz.com