Florence Kathleen "Kathy" Stobart (1 April 1925 – 5 July 2014) was an English jazz saxophonist primarily known for playing the tenor sax. Arguably the first outstanding British female sax player Kathy was also considered by many to be "The First Lady of British Jazz."
Born in the coastal town of South Shields, County Durham, to a musical family, with a pianist mother and two brothers who played the saxophone, Kathy Stobart followed suit. By the age of 14 she was a member of Don Rico's Ladies' Swing Band and touring nationally, before establishing herself in London in 1942. The wartime entertainment scene guaranteed much work, and among the more informal jazz sessions were ones where she played alongside American servicemen such as the saxophonist Art Pepper and Glenn Miller's clarinettist, Peanuts Hucko. She also made several broadcasts with the British AEF big band.
 |
| Kathy Stobart Band 1950s |
Divorcing Thompson, in 1951 she married one of the members of her own band, trumpeter Bert Courtley, and soon retired from playing in order to raise her three sons, two of whom would become semi-professional musicians. After deputising with
Lyttelton, though, she played more, and in the 1960s sometimes co-led a group with Courtley. He, however, was chiefly occupied with the Heath band and a busy schedule of studio sessions; sadly, the pressure of this work, and the ready availability of alcohol, contributed to his early death in 1969.Needing to support the family growing up in Norbury, south London, Stobart began touring again with Lyttelton, but also decided to study the clarinet formally at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Players of her generation were usually not expected to take seriously the education of younger musicians but, along with the pianist-trombonist Eddie Harvey, throughout the 1960s and '70s she taught adult classes at the City Literary Institute in Holborn.
 |
| Stobert and Lyttelton |
As a result she influenced a new generation of players on all instruments, including the vibraphonist Orphy Robinson, and guitarist Deirdre Cartwright, who has written that Kathy "was a great musician and wonderfully droll company." The saxophonist and educator Elisabeth (Issie) Barratt recalls, "She was also an exceptionally kind, as well as hugely inspiring, teacher."
Here's "In A Sentimenral Mood" from above album.
Her own groups, and another jointly led with vibraphonist Lennie Best, were also heard on BBC broadcasts until 1985, when she moved to Axmouth, Devon, and set up a student band in Exeter. Meanwhile she made guest appearances in New York with saxophonist Zoot Sims and the expatriate English pianist Marian McPartland, and in 1982 she was the obvious performer to headline Britain's first women's jazz festival. Always encouraging to female musicians, she was a guest with Gail Thompson's Gail Force in 1986 and led a group with saxophonist Joan Cunningham in the late 1980s.
Her early experience made her a natural choice to tutor Dame Judi Dench in playing the saxophone for her role in Alan Plater's 2000 television play The Last of the Blonde Bombshells. In 2005 she received the prestigious British Parliamentary Jazz Award. Stobart did finally began to take things a little easier in her eighties, especially after surviving a severe stroke during 2011. She died 5 July 2014, age 89.
(Edited mainly from The Independent)