Noel Jewkes

Noel Jewkes is one of the premier saxophone players in Northern California.

He has worked in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 35 years, and has earned a distinguished reputation with lovers of Jazz music.

Noel has recorded with John Hendricks, Wesla Whitfield, Mary Stallings, Paula West, Mike Greensill, Lavay Smith, Bill Bell, Mimi Fox, Graham Bruce, Bobbe Norris, Larry Dunlap, Larry Vuckovich, Pat Yankee and Jerry Hahn, as well as his own ensembles.

I was born in the State of Utah on June 18, 1940 of Mormon Pioneer stock and my family were all musical.. I grew up in a musical environment as my mother & father and a few uncles formed a Swing band to play for church & school social functions as well as a few Elks and Moose clubs and the local Country Club in Price, Utah. We would also cross over into Colorado and New Mexico to play for farmers and Indians.

I joined the band at the age of 12 playing clarinet and saxophone, mainly to save my parents from paying baby-sitter money! The band, known as the Jewkes Orchestra, was a favorite in a country that was basically known for cowboy and country western music. People liked to dance to us because we had a good beat.

I later went to college and studied privately, and as I grew older, I felt that I had to come to California in order to grow musically, and I've been here ever since! I sometimes miss the simpler ways of Utah, and perhaps I shall return there someday and teach or just grow old.

But, in the meantime, I do enjoy the multi-faceted lifestyle of California and the wealth of musical talent in this area, and so I'll stay as long as I can hold out and continue to seek new avenues of expression in my favorite music: JAZZ!

- Noel Jewkes

• Website: https://www.noeljewkesmusic.com/