Clare Deniz

Clara Ethel Deniz (30 September 1911 – 7 December 2002), was a British jazz pianist.

Early life[]

Born in Cardiff, she was the daughter of Frederick Wason, a merchant seaman from Barbados, and Bessie Louise Wason, née Bryant, from Somerset.^[1]

Career[]

She earned her first resident post thanks to the help of the Trinidadian drummer , at his , and it was there that she met musicians from Ken "Snakehips" Johnson's new band, made up solely from black musicians, and with which her brother-in-law was the guitarist. After the then-pianist moved to Australia, she took over in Mayfair's Florida Club, and remained there until her first child was born.^[1][2]

Her husband had to serve abroad during the war, and she worked with musicians including the bandleader Eric Winstone as well as the trumpeters Johnny Claes and Leslie Hutchinson.^[2] She later joined the , with Bertie King on saxophone, Coleridge Goode on bass, and Lauderic Caton on guitar.^[2] She later worked with , with Jimmy Skidmore on tenor saxophone.^[2]

She worked until the 1980s, when they moved to Málaga, Spain.^[2]

Personal life[]

On 8 August 1936 she married Frank Deniz, guitarist and bandleader, at the church of St Mary the Virgin Church, Caerau, Cardiff.^[1] They had two daughters, Lorraine and Claire.^[2]

Later life[]

In the 1980s, they moved to Málaga, but returned to the UK in the 1990s when she was in the early stages of Parkinson's disease.^[2] She died on 7 December 2002, in Whitford, Hertfordshire.^[1]

References[]