THANKS to record breaking box office films like La La Land a new jazz age is dawning.

And it’s music to the ears of Cole Mathieson who in the late fifties launched a jazz club from the back room of a Southampton pub.

“When I was asked how long it would last I said give it two years,” recalled Cole.

Fortunately for the jazz world the prediction was way off the track.

For this year The Concorde marks its 60th anniversary and is the oldest jazz club under the same management in the United Kingdom and possibly the world.

Proudly displayed at the entrance to the club’s Stoneham Lane, Eastleigh home is the prestigious Blue Plaque, awarded for its major role in developing jazz in the United Kingdom.

And it is celebrating its 60th anniversary when there is a huge surge in the nation tuning into jazz.

Movies like La La Land which swept the board at the Oscar nominations are helping to put jazz back on the musical map.

It tells the story of a jazz pianist who is so passionate for this genre of music that he dreams of running his own jazz club.

For Cole it became a reality and opened the floodgates to hosting his jazz heroes from both sides of the Atlantic.

He still has to pinch himself when he recalls that two of those names were the American masters of jazz tenor saxophone Ben Webster and Coleman Hawkins.

Cole will be celebrating their music and those other jazz giants when he stages 60 years of jazz at The Concorde on April 19.

The list reads like a who’s who of the jazz world and includes Nat Gonella, Jazz Couriers, Alex Welsh, Humphrey Lyttelton, Kenny Ball, Georgie Fame, Gene Harris, Kenny Wheeler, Ruby Braff, Benny Carter, Clark Terry, Harry Gold, Stan Tracey, Buddy de Franco, Phil Woods and John Dankworth.

Cole, a former jazz drummer, says: “I have been lucky enough to present so many people- both local and international - in my own place.”

Gosport based jazz trumpeter Nat Gonella, whose vocal style was reminiscent of Louis Armstrong, was a regular Concorde headliner and visitor.

“He had such great stage presence,” says Cole.

The Alex Welsh Band, who also became a household name, starred at the gig which marked the move in 1970 from The Bassett to a converted Victorian school house in Stoneham Lane.

And the name of jazz legend Humphrey Lyttelton will be forever linked with the club. Affectionately known as Humph, he died in 2008 just weeks after an Eastleigh appearance. He wrote the foreword to the book marking the club’s 50th anniversary.

Now Cole has gathered together jazz’s finest who on April 19 will take the audience on a nostalgic musical journey through the many decades of Concorde jazz.

It is part of the diamond celebrations which will also be marked by a ball on July 29 and an anniversary dinner on September 29.

Although it has kept its jazz roots The Concorde now caters for all musical tastes, making it the number one entertainment spot in the South.

The latest celebrations come at a time when there has been an incredible jazz revival. It seems that across the country new clubs are popping up every month.

Ever since those Bassett days Cole has been on a mission to keep jazz alive but at one time he feared for its future.

He says: “I think if you went back 10 years one wondered what was going to happen.

“What you could not see at that time was all these young guys coming out of school and suddenly saying ‘Hey I like this music and I am going to take it up’. It is all beginning to bear fruit.

“At one time there was only one college that had a jazz course. Now they all do it.

“I think there is a new age of jazz coming out. The old saying what goes round comes round.”

He is encouraged that so many young people have become the driving force behind the jazz renaissance.

Many young bands are emerging and Cole says: “More than I have seen in probably 30 years.”

And this youthful passion for jazz is evident at the club’s Wednesday night jazz gigs.

He says: “Being an older sort of club we tend to get an older crowd but recently we have noticed we are getting quite a lot of young people in for the jazz.”

While some jazz clubs concentrate on one aspect of the genre, Cole says they have been able to embrace all forms at The Concorde.

As well as blockbusting movies like La La Land, the small screen is also helping to ignite the growing interest in jazz. The TV period drama The Halycon has a strong jazz theme as it captures the glam and glitz of the 1940s.

Actress Kara Tointon plays the jazz singer and Cole recognises some of the members of the band.

Musical trends may come and go. But Cole is delighted that the nation is swinging back to its jazz roots 60 years after The Concorde left the launching pad.

  • For more details about 60 years of jazz at The Concorde ring 023 8061 3989 or visit theconcordeclub.com.