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| Most recent update: January 12, 2010 |
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Recent Personnel Changes in the Big Chris Barber Band
Earlier this week, Chris sent an email message to us, as co-webmasters of the Barber website, to mention some recent long-term personnel changes, as well as some temporary changes that will affect the band in the next two months or so, and therefore the line-ups of players that fans will see at concerts in the near future:
As of the January tour 2010, Bob Hunt will rejoin the band on trombone, replacing John Service.
Chris and the Band thank John for lots of serious work and play, and wish him well.
Mike Snelling has decided that he does not wish to continue to undertake long tours any further and is leaving by Christmas. The January tour will feature old friend and colleague Trevor Whiting on clarinet in Mike's place. The band may either have a new long-term regular member or perhaps two equally desirable musicians might share the position ... watch this space.
In the January tour, Vic Pitt will play bass up to and including the 18th at Dessau, Germany. Dave Green (meanwhile playing with Scott Hamilton) will rejoin the band in Berlin on the 19th.
Another new face is technician Rebecca Evans. She is now responsible for stage lighting and as an experienced sound-technician she has already taken Barry Walker's place at the sound desk in October and November while he was ill and undergoing serious treatment in Germany. He probably has to do so again and may be seen in part of the January tour only.
We are looking forward to the next year's touring as always.
These changes will shortly be incorporated into relevant pages and sections of the Barber website, such as the biography pages for the band members, and the "Former members of the band" pages.
Ed Jackson & Andreas Wandfluh, December 12, 2009 |
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British jazz trombonist Chris Barber celebrates his 60th year as a bandleader in 2008-2009. Inspired by the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band, Chris formed his first Barber New Orleans Band in 1949 at the age of nineteen. In 1953, along with Monty Sunshine and Lonnie Donegan, he joined forces with Ken Colyer. Then, with the replacement of Colyer by Pat Halcox, Ken Colyer's Jazzmen became Chris Barber's Jazz Band in 1954 and has been one of Europe's most successful traditional jazz bands ever since.
Over the years, Chris Barber's Jazz Band evolved into the Chris Barber Jazz and Blues Band, a rich eight-piece group, blending brass, reeds, and electric guitar into a unique and unmistakable mix of blues and jazz. And despite being 'on the slide' since 1949, having performed over 10,000 concerts and made thousands of recordings, the Chris Barber Band keeps marching on, right into the 21st century. At the end of 2001 Chris extended his band with three more musicians into The BIG Chris Barber Band. |
The original Chris Barber's Jazz Band of
1954:
Chris Barber, Lonnie Donegan,
Jim Bray, Ron Bowden, Pat Halcox, and
Monty Sunshine. |
The 2008 version of the six-piece band: Dave Green,
Mike Snelling, John Sutton, Mike Henry, Joe Farler,
and Chris Barber.
(Photo by Andreas Wandfluh). |
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The Big Chris Barber Band in Haderslev, Denmark, 9th October 2008:
Back row: Zoltan Sagi (reeds), Richard Exall (reeds), John Service (trombone), Dave Green (bass);
Front row: Mike Snelling (reeds), Peter
Rudeforth (trumpet), John Sutton
(drums), Chris Barber (trombone),
Joe Farler (banjo & guitar), Mike Henry (trumpet), John Slaughter (electric guitar).
[Photograph by Olav B. Hansen; used by permission]
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The Big Chris Barber Band in Aarberg, Switzerland, November 7, 2008:
Dave Green (bass),
Zoltan Sagi (reeds),
Richard Exall (reeds),
Mike Snelling (reeds),
John Sutton (drums),
Peter Rudeforth (trumpet),
Mike Henry (trumpet),
Joe Farler (banjo & guitar), John Service (trombone),
John Slaughter (electric guitar), and
Chris Barber (trombone).
[Photograph by Andreas Wandfluh; used by permission] |
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The Big Chris Barber Band on November 11, 2009 at Häbse Theater, Basel, Switzerland:
Zoltan Sagi (reeds), Richard Exall (reeds), Mike Snelling (reeds), Dave Green (bass), Colin Miller
(drums, subbing for John Sutton),
Mike Henry (trumpet), Peter Rudeforth (trumpet), John Service
(trombone), Joe Farler (banjo & guitar), John Slaughter (electric guitar), and Chris Barber (trombone).
[Photograph by Andreas Wandfluh; used by permission] |
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Fifty-four years earlier: Chris Barber's Jazz Band, 1954-1955
Jim Bray (bass), Ron Bowden (drums), Monty Sunshine (clarinet), Pat Halcox
(cornet),
Lonnie Donegan (banjo), and Chris Barber (trombone).
[Photograph taken by the late Peter Hearn and provided to the Barber
website,
with permission to reproduce it, by Chas McDevitt.] |
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Chris Barber and Pat Halcox -- the longest continuous partnership in the history of jazz (1954-2008).
Photographs by Yvonne Pieters -- Used by permission. |
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Note: News items are shown with a
yellow background, while updates
to the
website are white. For a complete list of updates to the website since February 2004,
go to the Website Updates and Previous Features page. |
January 12, 2010
There's a short but important article on a website called Beatles Rarity Of The Week, which talks about the Barber's Band's 1967 recording of Cat Call (released on the Battersea Rain Dance LP), a Paul McCartney instrumental composition that has often been referred to as one of the "songs the Beatles gave away." The article also compares the Barber version with a much earlier Beatles demo, but even more importantly draws a direct link between Chris Barber and the existence of The Quarry Men, who later changed their name to The Beatles: "So if not for Chris Barber, there would have been no stardom for Lonnie Donnegan, no 'skiffle craze' and therefore, no Quarry Men. It’s very arguable that The Beatles, in turn, may have never existed". |
January 9, 2010
Today marks the 55th anniversary of Ottilie Patterson's first public appearance with Chris Barber's Jazz Band, at a legendary 1955 concert at the Royal Festival Hall. You are invited to take a second look at a page created to commemorate this event five years ago, and the website's slideshow page, which includes a video about Ottilie. |
December 26, 2009
Revisions have been made to the Big Chris Barber Band page and the Former Members of the Band page to reflect recent personnel changes, as well as the temporary line-up of band members for the first tour of 2010. |
November 28, 2009
Programme from a 1964 tour with Howling Wolf. (Thanks to Todd Allen and David Booker.) |
November 25, 2009
Monty Sunshine's page in the Former Members of the Band section of the website has been updated with links to a previously-posted magazine article and to the slide show posted on November 21. |
November 23, 2009
Bernard Flegar's photo album, first mentioned two days ago (see below), has now been posted to Photographs, page 15. |
November 21, 2009
A slide show celebrating the years that Monty Sunshine spent with Ken Colyer's Jazzmen and Chris Barber's Jazz Band (1953-1960) has been added to the Slide shows page. |
November 21, 2009
Drummer John Sutton has had to take some time away from the band. One of his subs has been long-time Barber fan and professional drummer, Bernard Flegar, who has put together an album of photos on his Facebook page. Bernard has kindly set the access to the album to "Everyone", which means you don't have to be a Facebook subscriber to see the pictures.
Note (Nov 22): It seems that the Facebook page is not accessible to everyone after all. However, Bernard has sent the original collection of photos to me, and they will be added to one of the photos pages on this site in the next few days -- Ed Jackson. |
November 14, 2009
New concert DVD: The Big Chris Barber Band In Concert On The Isle Of Wight. See below for more information. |
November 11, 2009
Various articles from Melody Maker, 1959, contributed by Gerard Bielderman. |
November 5, 2009
Programme from a concert at the Pavilion Theatre, Liverpool,
on January 15, 1956 (linked from the Tours, Concerts and Special Events page). |
November 2, 2009
Two LPs have been added to Part 2 (1961 to 1968) of The Chris Barber LP Collection, and there are corresponding new tracks on the Music Clips page. |
October 31, 2009
Three LPs have been added to Part 1 (1953 to 1960) of The Chris Barber LP Collection, and there are corresponding new tracks on the Music Clips page. |
October 29, 2009
Part 2 (1961 to 1968) of The Chris Barber LP Collection has now been posted. It includes such classic albums as Barber At The London Palladium, Good Morning Blues, Battersea Rain Dance, and a rare France-only issue, Dans Le Vent. |
October 21, 2009
American jazz record producer, Grammy winner, and author (Bessie, a biography of Bessie Smith), Chris Albertson runs Stomp Off in C, which has to be one of the best jazz websites in the world. A very young Chris Barber features in a recent post entitled "London 1953: Melly, Mick, and the Moo Cow Milk Bar". |
October 21, 2009
There is an excellent and informative article about Alex Revell, clarinettist in Chris's amateur band in 1951 and 1952, on Ian Maund's Sandy Brown Jazz website, which is well worth a visit and prolonged exploration. |
October 19, 2009
Watch Chris Barber featured in concert playing Stormy Monday with Eric Clapton & Friends on YouTube. |
October 8, 2009
Ingemar Perup of Uppsala, Sweden, has contributed eight great photos taken at the band's concert on October 6, 2009. |
October 1, 2009
British music journalist and BBC Radio producer John Pidgeon has written two outstanding articles about the emergence of the British Blues movement in the 1950s and 1960s, both of which acknowledge and affirm Chris Barber's central role. Eventually we hope to reproduce both articles on the Chris Barber website; meanwhile, you can read them at Rock's Back Pages, under the titles, "Blues Incorporated: How British R&B Trashed Trad" and "Chris Barber: Father of British R&B". |
September 18, 2009
New CD on Lake Records: Sonny, Brownie & Chris. See below for more information and links to related pages elsewhere in the Chris Barber website. |
September 5, 2009
The Chris Barber LP Collection is the beginning of what we plan will become a long-term, detailed and complete archive of the history of the Chris Barber Band on LP records. |
August 16, 2009
A "Former Member of the Band" page for original drummer Ron Bowden. |
August 15, 2009
Pat Halcox continued to play occasional gigs after he retired from the Barber Band in July 2008. Here's a YouTube video from Zurich: Pat with the Harlem Ramblers at their 2008 Christmas Party. |
August 8, 2009
On August 6, 2009, Chris took part in an hour-long phone interview on Angel Radio, a web-based radio station located in Havant and aimed at senior listeners in Britain and around the World. The programme is reproduced on the Barber website by permission of Angel Radio and presenter Pete Cross. |
August 4, 2009
A direct link to the Music Clips page has been added to the graphic, above, which shows links to the main sections of the Barber website. |
August 1, 2009
The Sister Rosetta Tharpe concert tour (1957) programme page now includes autographs and a concert ticket. |
August 1, 2009
The link to The Chris Barber Band, 1954 to 2009: Fifty-five Years of Musical Milestones -- a page to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the founding of Chris Barber's Jazz Band in May 1954 -- has been moved to the Feature Pages section of the Chris Barber's Jazz Band/The Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band page. |
July 30, 2009
At long last, Chris Barber fans can watch the classic film, Momma Don't Allow, which was made in 1955 and has only been shown on rare occasions in theatres. It features the original Chris Barber Band of 1954-55, and has been referred to as the most authentic film of its kind, capturing the atmosphere of a mid-50s jazz club. You can watch the film here: www.channel4.com/fourdocs/archive/momma_dont_allow_player.html; and read more about its background here: www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/439003/. (Thanks to John Westwood for the tip about these links.) |
July 30, 2009
Ken Colyer's Jazzmen, 1953-54, and Chris Barber's Jazz Band, 1954-57, Featuring Ron Bowden: This is a short slide show prepared for Ron Bowden's "Former Members of the Band" page, which is not yet ready for viewing. The slide show has been finished, so it has been added to the Slide Shows page. |
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Updated November 14, 2009
Go to the New and Recent Releases page for more details and other recent releases. |
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The Big Chris Barber Band, In Concert On The Isle Of Wight (DVD)
OK Entertainment Channel / Chris Barber Collection CBJBDVD5001, recorded in November 2008 and released in 2009.
A new video of a complete concert with the Big Chris Barber Band, available only at concerts.
The DVD features the present members of the band and it is the first recording with the newest members: Zoltan Sagi (cl, saxes), Pete Rudeforth (tp), and John Service (tb). The complete show was filmed and has been carefully remastered, and is a great document of the current tour. |
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Chris Barber's Jazz Band with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Sonny, Brownie & Chris.
Music recorded in 1958; issued in September 2009 on Lake Records LACD 278. Sonny, Brownie & Chris is the fourth in a series of "chronological" single and double CDs from Lake Records. This CD includes the complete and re-mastered 1958 LP, Sonny, Brownie and Chris, originally released as a 10-inch record, plus bonus hard-to-find and previouly un-released tracks.
For more details, go to the New and Recent Releases page or the cover page for Sonny, Brownie & Chris. |
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Chris Barber, Kenny Ball & Acker Bilk: Boaters, Bowlers & Bowties: The Best Of Barber, Ball & Bilk.
First available on July 20, 2009, Boaters, Bowlers & Bowties: The Best Of Barber, Ball & Bilk is a 2-CD box set released in conjunction with a concert by the current bands of the "Three Bs" of 1960s trad fame. In total there are forty tracks, split more or less evenly among the three bands and some of their best-known recordings from the late 1950s and early 1960s (including several tracks featuring Ottilie Patterson).
As far as we know the CDs will be available via most of the on-line stores (including mp3 downloads); the one that first came to our attention is the page for the CD on the Amazon.UK website.
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The Big Chris Barber Band, Barber At Blenheim
Concert CD recorded in December 2007 and released in 2009.
Barber At Blenheim was recorded at a private function at Blenheim Palace on December 1, 2007. Although there have been some personnel changes since the time of the recording, current Barber concert-goers will particularly enjoy this CD as a souvenir of their evening, as the programme of thirteen tracks is a snapshot of a typical Big Chris Barber Band appearance. It features long-time Barber standards such as Bourbon Street Parade, The Martinique, Petite Fleur and The Saints, as well as several examples of the more recent move in the direction of re-interpreting early tunes by or associated with Duke Ellington (Rent Party Blues, Merry-Go-Round, Jubilee Stomp, and Hot And Bothered).
For more details, go to the New and Recent Releases page or the cover page for Barber At Blenheim. |
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The Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band, Barbican Blues
CD re-issue, April 2009, on
Lake Records LACD273.
One of my personal favourite recordings has been reissued by Paul Adams on Lake Records: the "Barbican Blues" concert of April 20, 1982 from London. It was the first jazz concert at the newly opened Barbican Centre and featured the Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band with a great mix of different sounds. This CD is a complete reissue of the stereo double-LP on the Black Lion label (BLM 61003/4, issued in 1982). This is one of those CDs that best demonstrates the musical variety and versatility of the Chris Barber Jazz & Blues Band -- and it also looks ahead to the future development of the band into the present Big Chris Barber Band. (Andreas Wandfluh, April 2009). For more details, go to the New and Recent Releases page or the cover page for Barbican Blues.
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| For more information about the above new releases, go to the Blues Legacy page. |
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Many of Chris Barber's most recent CD recordings, including two by The Big Chris Barber Band and several others by the Chris Barber Jazz and Blues Band recorded in concerts in the mid- to late-1990s, are published on the Timeless Records label.
The most recent Timeless Records CD from the Big Chris Barber Band, Jubilee Stomp (Timeless CD TTD654), was released in November, 2003.
Listen to part of Black and Tan Fantasy from
Jubilee Stomp (Timeless CD TTD654).
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| In this feature we look back to pages and events of particular interest which have been posted on the Chris Barber website since the beginning of 2004, when the Archives-Website "team" of Ed Jackson, Julian Purser, and Andreas Wandfluh assumed management of the site. |
Additions made at various dates:
Chris Barber In His Own Words: A collection of sound clips from concerts and radio programmes in which Chris speaks about various aspects of his career. |
July 19, 2005
In July 1954 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first recordings by Chris Barber's Jazz Band, relased originally on the 10-inch LP, New Orleans Joys. The 55th anniversary seems an appropriate point to repeat it. |
November 12, 2008
It's now been about a year since the publication of Pete Frame's The Restless Generation, the story of British popular music in the 1950s. If you missed this terrific book -- which includes a great deal of material about Ken Colyer and Chris Barber -- read a review here, then order the book! |
June 22, 2008
There are well over a hundred short excerpts from Chris Barber's recordings scattered throughout this website, and summarized in Music Clips on the Barber Website. |
March 30, 2008
Although there has been a recent flurry of interest in the press, on radio, and on TV about Chris's pioneering of the British Blues Movement in the 1950s and 1960s, several previous articles posted on this site covered similar ground. Take a look at "Blues History, from fRoots, an article from Blueprint, and another from British Blues Review. |
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Welcome to the Chris Barber Website Message Board.
We hope you will find this a useful and entertaining addition to the site, where you can talk about anything related to Chris, the band, concerts, tours, recordings -- you name it. |
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| The fine print: Since January 1, 2004, www.chrisbarber.net has been maintained by Ed Jackson of Edmonton, Canada, with the help of Andreas Wandfluh (Switzerland), and, until his untimely death in 2009, Julian Purser (England). If you have any questions or comments about this website, please click here to send an e-mail message. All enquiries about management, concerts, bookings, etc., should be addressed to the band's management via the Contacts and Bookings link button above. |
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