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Ian Maclean & Los Otros

Ian Maclean started playing guitar in the 1940s - his first influences being Paul Robeson and Bing Crosby. 

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Now we are very old
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Ian's love of Latin American music dates from his time as a merchant seaman apprentice, listening to local radio stations as he travelled round the coast of South America.  He listened to European jazz while doing his national service with the Royal Tank Regiment in Germany. Back in London, Ian joined his first band,playing skiffle and rock and roll in public, while privately favouring the romantic jazz of the day.

During the 1950s Ian toured with Tony Crombie's "Rockets" (with his mate Jet Harris on bass), and played a holiday camp season with his new wife and baby, Jane. For the next 40 years, while supporting a growing family as an engineer, he never stopped playing and singing.   Ian lost his wife, Jeanne in 2006, and soon afterwards he met a guy in a pub who introduced him to Jack Jones' jazz workshop at BB's club in Forest Gate.


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 Jazz Workshop
 Ian also met Mike Edmonds at BBs club, and in 2007 he went   to hear Mike play with the Stowaways at the Nag's Head in   Walthamstow.  There he met Julia who he married in October   2008. 
 Friends from the jazz workshop - John Claydon (tenor sax), Jack Jones  (trumpet) Ian Fair (bass guitar) and Sue Jameson (vocals),  played for Ian and   Julia's wedding.

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Los Otros
On moving to Walthamstow in 2008, Ian started Los Otros with John Beard on alto sax and Ian Fair on bass guitar.  They played on Sunday afternoons in Celsius Wine Bar, in front of the football screen! ​


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​Towards the end of that year, John Clayden took over on alto sax and Los Otros began playing on Tuesday evenings at the Rose and Crown. 
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​They were joined by Chris Bunn on drums and regular guests included Dave Williams and Tony "Tunes" Regan on keyboards, Chris Foley on guitar and Sue Jameson on vocals.  In the summer of 2010, Ian and Julia went off to Australia and New Zealand for 8 months.  When they returned in March 2011, the musicians who had been playing in the Los Otros slot at the Rose & Crown formed a new band, While the Cat's Away!  
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Pictured left at The Rose & Crown are Leszek Kulaszewicz on Tenor Sax, John Beard on Alto, Chris Foley, bass guitar, Paul Kaufman on keys and Paulo on drums.  From 2012-2020 Los Otros played every month at  The Victoria Pictured right with Paul Whelpton on bass, Dave Hawthorn on drums and Thomas Zyrmont on keyboard.

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