Lorna Mountford- Baritone Saxophone.
Sat
in the heart of the band, and radiating the joy she feels playing our
music, is Baritone Sax player Lorna Mountford. A lady of many talents,
originally a flautist, you’ll see her playing saxophones of all sizes,
clarinet, flute and piccolo with Apollo. She discovered Big Band Jazz
when her school wind orchestra went on exchange to Germany and she heard
the host college Swing Band. At the age of 13 Lorna then knew two
things –
1) she wanted to learn the saxophone so she could join in, and
2) those swinging rhythms just demand that you get up and dance.
The
sax followed the flute and the opportunity to learn to dance came later
at University. Now she gets to do both at the same time – on stage with
Apollo she can talent spot the dancers on the floor in front of the
band, and then while the rest of the band goes off for a beer in the
interval – you’ll find Lorna dancing with the best of them, leaving
barely any time to catch her breath before it’s back on stage for the
next set of music. Lorna is also Musical Director of her sax quartet –
memorably named Group Sax, mostly playing swing style music from the
30’s forward – and the Tadley based IJO Big Band.
