Graeme Bell - Prague & Paris Recordings

It is the stuff of legends: Graeme Bell's Australian Jazz Band set off from Australia in 1947 with one-way tickets to play Traditional Jazz in war torn Europe which would seem to be a crazy idea. Their target was the World Youth Festival in Prague. They got there and became professional musicians (actually, they had no choice!). It was a big gamble because the Traditional Jazz Revival had barely started anywhere in the world. Once there they took the place by storm and ended up recording for the Supraphon label (more noted for its Classical recordings) which possessed state-of-the-art equipment at the time. They won friends and made contacts wherever they went. They had travelled via London and Paris and came back the same way recording in both cities