Chris Barber has just
announced his retirement as a bandleader. This comes after some 70 years
of doing so. Seventy years – that means Barber lead his big band longer
than Ellington or Basie did theirs. Which isn’t to say Barber is more
talented than the aforementioned US band leaders – he’s not and would
never claim to be so – but, in terms of British jazz, his achievements
are many and remarkable.
Barber grew up in Worcestershire, his interest in jazz, blues
and gospel taking hold in his early teens and by the time WW2 finished
the teenager had gathered a remarkable record collection and was already
writing to record shops in Harlem in his efforts to buy 78s unavailable
in the UK. A natural musician and astute organiser – Barber had
considered becoming a mathematician – he formed his first band among
other young, wannabe jazz musicians he met in Dobell’s record shop on
Charing Cross Road.
It was Ken Colyer’s arrest and imprisonment in New Orleans (for
sitting in with local black musicians in the then segregated city) that
helped launch Barber: he met Colyer when he descended from the ship
that carried him back to Southampton and declared his band were happy to
back him as Ken Colyer’s Jazzmen. The band were immediately heroes of
the British scene – Colyer’s exploits in New Orleans had been chronicled
in Melody Maker – but, after a year, the band sacked Colyer
(too much of a traditionalist/autocrat), continuing as The Chris Barber
Jazz Band. Very quickly the Barber band developed a large following –
packing out halls across the UK and much of the Continent – and their 1955 album New Orleans Joys
is a marvel. Included on the album to fill it out were a couple of
blues tunes that Barber played double-bass on while band banjoist Lonnie
Donegan sang. They called these “skiffle” as Barber owned barrelhouse
pianist Dan Burley’s 78 'Hometown Skiffle'. When Decca released 'Rock
Island Line' as a single in 1956 it became a huge hit and inspired the
skiffle craze. Donegan went on to pursue a lucrative solo career.
Barber’s Jazz Band would score a No. 3 hit in 1959 with a recording of
Sidney Bechet’s 'Petite Fleur'. Ironically, Barber’s not playing on this
recording, it being clarinettist Monty Sunshine’s moment. Bechet, ill
and exiled in France, was extremely grateful for the royalties windfall.
Barber’s been damned by some as part of trad jazz’s shift into
light entertainment. This is unjust. Barber avoided kitsch, always
putting the emphasis on playing jazz – he expanded his band from six to
eight to 11 members, had Joe Harriott join them on stage (you can hear
them play together on Barber’s Live At The London Palladium LP)
and discovered Ottilie Patterson, a petite singer from Ulster, who
became one of the foremost jazz and blues vocalists (and Mrs Barber for
20 years). Barber also co-founded The Marquee as a jazz venue and helped
launch The National Jazz Festival (these days the Reading Festival).
Barber’s passion for American jazz and blues not only saw him import
thousands of 78s and 45s – Dobell’s, Ray’s Jazz and, later, Rock On
would sell many of these (including mint Charlie Parker Savoy 78s) – but
circumventing the Musicians Union to tour Big Bill Broonzy, Sister
Rosetta Tharpe, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Sonny Boy Williamson and Muddy
Waters across the 1950s and 1960s.
Barber’s activities slowed as he has got older but he continued
to tour regularly with his big band. I went to see them perform at
Cadogan Hall two years ago and it was an evening of beautiful music with
Barber, now quite frail, leading his band through everything from Duke
Ellington and Miles Davis compositions to a Sonny Terry and Brownie
McGhee blues. Of course, Barber had toured the duo and told a story of
how they explained the song’s meaning to him.
Enjoy your retirement, Chris!