a Lifetime in Rock and Roll
John Zinn JaYzee SAXaphone
Early Begining"s
Way back in 1967 John had a penchant to play the clarinet and so at the age of 12 his first instrument was bought by his parents for the princely sum of £12 but when New Zealand lamb was 0.46p/kg, the average house was £3,400 and his Dad was earning a little over £12 per week, this first instrument was fairly expensive. Initially, he thought there was a problem with his clarinet because try as he may he couldn’t get a sound out of it but after some friendly advice from his music teacher he realised that he needed to take the reed protection cover off first!! John learned quickly and it wasn’t long before he was playing second clarinet in the school orchestra.
In the Navy
John joined the Navy in 1973 and played clarinet in a number of different establishment and ship’s bands for the next 12 years, although he did end up playing lead side drum in one of the bands for 3 years. His playing then went on hold for a while when he joined the submarine service. John had met up with some other musicians whilst on board his first submarine and ended up learning to play some Dixieland Jazz, practice taking place between the missile tubes while underwater during the 3 month Polaris Missile deterrent patrols. It was during this time that he decided to teach himself saxophone and so he bought a very cheap tenor sax to while away the hours while on patrol and discovered that he much preferred this instrument to his clarinet.
John as lead side drum
in the Naval Band
North Somerset Calling
John Playing
with Time Out
John left the Navy after 20 years and found that in his new job there just wasn’t any time to play because he was away more often that he had been in the Navy, so music was put on hold for 9 years until he moved to Backwell in 1997. His new job now meant he was spending time at home, so it wasn’t long before he joined the local church orchestra
playing clarinet again, but it was the saxophone
that he really missed playing.
So, after dusting off the cobwebs he picked up his tenor and started practicing but wasn’t really very happy with the quality of sound being produced. There was only one way to find out if it was him or the cheap sax so he invested in a professional Soprano Sax costing the same as a good secondhand car.
John in the recording studio
with Time Out
If he sounded awful now, it was definitely
not the instrument .
John Playing with
Sax in the City
It was at the church that he met a couple of other guys who were keen to play in an upcoming music evening being hosted at the church. So, having selected 3 songs, one of which was Billy Joel’s “Just the Way You Are", some serious practicing started. This was the start of John building up a band called Time Out who were together for 15 years playing all genres across all decades. It was during this period he realised that to have the flexibility of playing such a wide variety of songs he would need to invest in more instruments.
John Playing bwith the Cadbury Saxaphone Band
Hopping With The Frogs
Time Out eventually faded and an opportunity to join another band arrived when Wayne called John having been given his number by an ex band mate. Since then, The Frogs have gone from strength to strength.
Apart from playing with the Frogs, John plays in a 25 piece saxophone band, a folk rock band and occasionally with Sax in the City.
What does John enjoy most about playing with The Frogs?
He now has the opportunity to play those songs he grew up with which his band mates in Time Out weren’t that keen on. Added to that he is playing with a great bunch of likeminded musicians who are playing the Rock ‘n Roll songs which they know will get fun loving adults on their feet.
