In May 2021 Alexander Teglbjaerg in Sweden wrote to us enquiring about Ziggy Ludvigsen: " I found your site and your writing about Mike Hogh. You mention Ziggy Ludvigsen. I'm curious about this performer. It seems he was involved in producting music books during the 1970s. I guess you don't really know the answer to this but I have two questions: Do you know Ziggys first name? Do you know if Ziggy is still alive?"

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I contacted Mike Hogh who remembered Ziggy as a tenor saxophone player but was unable to answer Alexander's questions. Mike's wife kindly searched the internet for more information but we were still unable to discover Ziggy's first name or whether he is still around.

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Eric Jackson wrote to us: "A name from the past and I too wondered what happened to him. He was a regular at the jam sessions held at the Tally Ho! pub in Kentish Town. There was an LP produced by Don Sollash with the title Jazz at the Tally Ho!  The stand out track was Ziggy playing I Hear A Rhapsody. He really was rather good."

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We can listen to I Hear A Rhapsody here.

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Eventually, Ziggy's daughter Susan got in touch: "My father's first name is Sigurd (Ziggy) for short. He was born in Wales and his father was a Norwegian who fled the war when he was a boy with his mother. Ziggy joined the RAF when he was legally able and where he joined the RAF band. He could play tenor sax, clarinet and piano."
 
"The Evening and Sunday lunch jazz sessions were his absolute pleasure. I remember the Tally Ho! and the Cauliflower. Some names you mention are familiar and Vic Richards lived around the corner to us. My father's bread and butter were the gigs and arranging; he wrote a number of songs, music and lyrics in collaboration with others. He also transcribed music for groups during 1970s including for the bands Jam and Pink Floyd (including the Pink Floyd Song Book). He played in numerous bands as a session musician, one of which had him playing for Shirley Bassey. He also played at Donald Trump's first wedding; at Buckingham Palace and for regular gigs at the Grosvenor, Savoy, Connaught and Park Lane Hotels in London."

 

"I can remember being dragged along to Denmark Street, I think it was Saturdays, where Dad would  “do business” and Mum would take me to the cartoon movies on Piccadilly. I know Dad had a residency at the Windmill Club when I was young and we hosted many an after-work party at ours with fellow musicians and girls with the most amazing make up and hair. Dad was a very talented musician; unfortunately he is no longer with us and would have been absolutely chuffed to know people are still asking about him."

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Alan Bond adds his memories of Ziggy: "I was interested to read the  piece about Ziggy Ludvigsen and his appearances as part of the crew at the Tally Ho! It was always an impromtu jam session with various musicians turning up but at the start of the evening it was always Hugh Ledigo on piano, Ronnie Bott on bass and Vic Richards on drums. I don't remember any other name for Mr Ludvigsen, he was always 'Ziggy' to all and sundry."

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"'The last time I heard, Hugh Ledigo was still working but whether Vic or Ronnie are still about I don't know. Other regulars were Ziggy on tenor, Mike Hogh on trombone, Harry Lock on clarinet and Alan Littlejohn(s) on trumpet. I did have the opportunity to sit in on a couple of occasions, mainly because the size of the band towards the end of the session gave me a certain amount of anonymity as very much the inexperienced amateur trombone player. It was our little crowd's regular haunt on a Sunday night and things used to get very, very crowded in that tiny little bar."

 

"I also have a copy of the LP that the band made, one side of which was done in the studio and the other live on a Sunday night. I can't believe that it dates back nearly sixty years! I actually acquired the LP from the late John Kendall, who wrote the sleeve notes for it. That was when he had his own little record shop in a side street off, if I remember correctly, Shaftesbury Avenue. There was a pub on the opposite corner from the shop and John would sit in the bar by the window and pop across and open the shop for any customers that turned up. By that time John was living at Belsize Park as he lost the flat in the block over Dobell's record shop when the whole lot was demolished. We had some good times on Saturday afternoons at the time when Dobell's closed at noon on that day, the pub being the next port of call."

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'"The LP is a treasured possession. I have one particular track in mind and that is a version of Indiana with Ziggy and Wally Moffat on tenors.

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Listen to Indiana: