Midnite Follies Orchestra was formed in Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 in 1978 by jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 musicians Keith Nichols

Keith Nichols

Keith Nichols is a jazz multi-instrumentalist and arranger, a player of the piano, trombone, reeds, and accordion.Born in Ilford, Essex, UK, Nichols was a child actor and an award winning accordionist in his youth. Keith tends to play mostly ragtime tunes, gaining notoriety in the 1970s in London...

 and Alan Cohen

Alan Cohen

Alan Phillip Cohen is an American businessman, best known for his ownership of the Florida Panthers hockey team and his founding of several Pharmaceutical companies. Cohen holds several degrees from the University of Florida...

, dedicated to recreating standards by some of jazzs' greats. The orchestra more or less disbanded in the 1990s. The Midnite Follies Orchestra had showcased a variety of musicians over the years, including Nick Stevenson, Digby Fairweather

Digby Fairweather

Digby Fairweather is a British jazz cornettist and broadcaster.-Biography:Fairweather has been a professional jazz musician since 1 January 1977, but worked for seven years previously with several local jazz bands in the Essex area and recorded his first album in 1975...

, Alan Elsdon

Alan Elsdon

Alan Elsdon is an English jazz trumpeter and flugelhornist.Elsdon studied trumpet under Tommy McQuater among others. His early professional work included time with Cy Laurie , Graham Stewart , a Royal Air Force band, and Terry Lightfoot ; with Lightfoot he played alongside Kid Ory and Red Allen...

, Dave Saville, Laurie Chescoe, Keith Greville, Randolph Colville

Randolph Colville

Randolph Colville was a Scottish jazz swing clarinettist, saxophonist, bandleader and arranger born in Glasgow, Scotland, perhaps best-known for his work with the Keith Nichols Midnite Follies Orchestra....

, Olaf Vas, Mac White, Will Hastie, John Barnes

John Barnes (musician)

John Barnes is an English-born jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who played New Orleans-styled jazz in his early career. Barnes has worked with many notable artists such as Alex Welsh, Gerry Mulligan, Alan Elsdon, Spike Robinson, Bobby Wellins and Keith Nichols.- References :...

, Gordon Blundy and Peter Strange (to name a few). During the orchestra's active years it was often featured on BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 and radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

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