We, the Web and Archive Team, send the best wishes and congratulations to Chris. Enjoy this day with your family and friends. Many thanks for this wonderful music over the last 61 years. We look forward to listening to you and your great band for many more years.

Ed Jackson / Andreas Wandfluh (17.4.2010)


Many followers of Chris Barber and his band have used the special message board to send greetings and wishes to Chris. In addittion we have already published the letter of Lutz Eikelmann in English and German. 

Now we've got an e-mail from Don Filliston - he not only sent good wishes to Chris, but also added a poem for Chris' 80th birthday:

Dear Chris, 
Many congratulations on your birthday and for the record time you have given enjoyment to so many people with your band. Here is my poem in celebration.Kind regards, Don


Chris Barber and all that Jazz.

 

The young today may not have heard

The Big Chris Barber Band,

But years ago, you’d pass the word

To reach a one night stand.

 

By Twenty Ten he’d been on tour

For more than sixty years

And all that while, most keen to lure

Fans’ loyalty and cheer.

 

The band has changed a lot since then;

Musicians came and went.

It must have totalled thirty men

And every one well sent.

 

Their vocalist would let it rip,

Ottilie Patterson, by name.

She held her audience in her grip

And made them glad they came.

 

Jim Bray on bass, Ron Bowden, drums,

Monty Sunshine, clarinet.

Those guys would make you snap your thumbs

And not go home just yet.

 

Lonnie Donegan strummed the banjo,

With verve and spirits free.

It was jazz and not the tango,

That suited you and me.

 

Barber’s hot trombone would stump it;

Fifty four years together,

He and Pat Halcox on trumpet,

Tapped out much shoe leather!

 

To lead a jazz band all that time,

Shows stamina and grit.

At eighty, Chris is doing fine;

He’s one outstanding Brit.

 

Don Filliston.


May 2010
 



A great fan of Chris Barber, the German musician and bandleader Lutz Eikelmann, has sent to us an extraordinary letter. His lines had been written in German - in the meantime I've got a translation done by Marilyn Reverchon, a longtime fan of Chris Barber and we are happy to publish now this letter inEnglish.
Many thanks, Marilyn, for your fine work.
Andreas Wandfluh / 3.5.2010

 

                                                                                              Germany, April 17, 2010

Dear Chris Barber,

Even if I do not presume to speak on behalf of all jazz musicians and jazz lovers, nevertheless on the occasion of your 80th birthday, I think it is possible to jot down onto paper a few thoughts (about you) that other jazz friends, musicians and myself share.

Along with my most cordial congratulations on your birthday and my best wishes for the new year of your life, the special focus of this note of congratulation is “gratitude”.

Without your contribution to the popularity of traditional jazz, today’s “jazz infrastructure” would not exist in Germany; there would not be such a big market for our music that enables a multitude of professional and semi-professional musicians in this country and abroad to make their own living playing Dixieland and swing – not to mention your inspiration to a wide and active amateur scene.

Your musical “life’s work” must virtually be called exemplary. Not only did you, as a European pioneer, systematically invite American guest soloists – from Bertie King to Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Alex Bradford and Freddie Kohlman on down to Dr.John – to concerts, tours and disc recording productions, not only did you arrange recording sessions with New Orleans musicians from the early 1960s (Paul Barbarin, Billie & DeDe Pierce) up to the 1990s (Percy & Willie Humphrey) – no, you were also a pioneer for many popular fashion waves in music such as at first skiffle and later the blues. At regular intervals you saw to the restructuring and the making of additions and modifications in your band that challenged the audience, fans and critics and contributed to the preservation of  the vitality and the further development of Chris Barber’s music: in the mid-sixties you completed your jazz band with an electrical blues guitar in the rhythm section and in the seventies you successfully integrated further rock and blues elements into your music – with rhythms that exceeded by far the 4/4 time common in older jazz styles.  In spite of all these developments, you have not forgotten the roots of jazz tradition.

Since change and further development with the simultaneous rootage in traditions are part of the basic principles of life, one might be tempted to explain your success by the deliberate application of universal principles alone. However, also your vast personal commitment and diligence have crucially contributed to the survival of your band in the trials of time and to your commercial as well as your artistic success.

Furthermore, in another respect you have been a role model for me and other musicians. Based not only on your possession of a comprehensive collection of jazz and blues disc recordings but also on your profound knowledge of them, you know what you are doing. The attentive listening and internalizing of the old jazz musicians’ music have been the decisive basis for your artistic success in developing your own artistic expression as an arranger, band leader, composer and individual musician, yet ladling from old jazz traditions. In these times, when many jazzing musicians are not listening or are only superficially listening to old records that form our musical heritage and the basis of our work, we cannot underscore those virtues strongly enough.

From the depth of my heart I wish you lots of luck, joie de vivre, good health and inspiration. All the best to you and the BIG CHRIS BARBER BAND!

Thank you for everything – May God bless you!

Your

Lutz Eikelmann

Wetter an der Ruhr, Deutschland; www.lutz-eikelmann.de

 

Original letter in German

 

                                               Deutschland, 17. April 2010

Lieber Chris Barber,

auch wenn ich mir nicht anmaßen kann für alle deutschen Jazzmusiker und Jazzliebhaber zu sprechen, so scheint es mir doch möglich, anläßlich Ihres 80. Geburtstages einige Gedanken zu Papier zu bringen, denen sich auch weitere hiesige Jazzfreunde und Musiker anschließen können.

Neben meinem herzlichsten Glückwunsch zu Ihrem Wiegenfeste und meinen besten Wünschen für Ihr neues Lebensjahr ist das Thema „Dank“ ein besonderer Schwerpunkt dieser Gratulation.

Ohne Ihren Beitrag zur Popularität des traditionellen Jazz würde in Deutschland nicht die heutige „Jazz-Infrastruktur“ existieren; es gäbe keinen derart großen Markt für unsere Musik, der einer Vielzahl professioneller und semi-professioneller Musiker aus dem In- und Ausland ermöglichen würde, mit Dixieland und Swing den eigenen Lebensunterhalt zu verdienen; von Ihrer Inspiration einer großen und rührigen Amateurszene ganz zu schweigen.

Ihr musikalisches Lebenswerk ist geradezu vorbildlich zu nennen. Nicht nur, daß Sie als einer der Ersten systematisch amerikanische Gastsolisten – von Bertie King über Muddy Waters, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Alex Bradford und Freddie Kohlman bis hin zu Dr.John – zu Konzerten, Tourneen und Schallplattenproduktionen einluden; nicht nur, daß Sie von den frühen 1960ern (Paul Barbarin, Billie & DeDe Pierce) bis in die 1990er Jahre (Percy & Willie Humphrey) Aufnahmesessions mit New Orleans Musikern produzierten; nein, Sie waren auch Vorreiter vieler populärer Modewellen in der Musik wie zunächst Skiffle und später Blues. Sie sorgten in regelmäßigen Abständen für Umstrukturierungen, Ergänzungen und Veränderungen Ihrer Band, die Publikum, Fans und Kritiker herausforderten und zum Erhalt der Lebendigkeit und der Weiterentwicklung der Chris Barber Musik beitrugen: Mitte der 60er ergänzten Sie Ihre Jazzband um eine elektrische Gitarre in der Rhythm Section – in den 70ern gelang Ihnen die erfolgreiche Integration weiterer Rock- und Blues-Elemente und das Spiel mit Taktarten, die weit über den in den älteren Jazzstilen üblichen Viervierteltakt hinaus gingen. Bei allen Entwicklungen vergaßen Sie jedoch nie die Verwurzelung in der Jazztradition.

Da Veränderung und Weiterentwicklung bei gleichzeitiger Verwurzelung in den Traditionen zu den Grundprinzipien des Lebens zählen, ist man versucht, Ihren Erfolg alleine durch die bewußte Anwendung universeller Prinzipien zu erklären. Jedoch trug auch Ihr enormer persönlicher Einsatz und Fleiß entscheidend zum Überleben Ihrer Band in den Wirren der Zeiten und zum geschäftlichen wie künstlerischen Erfolg bei.

Sie sind mir und anderen Musikern auch in anderer Hinsicht Vorbild. Basierend nicht nur auf dem Besitz, sondern auch der Kenntnis (!) einer umfangreichen Sammlung an Jazz- und Blues-Schallplatten wissen Sie, was Sie tun. Dieses aufmerksame Hören und Verinnerlichen der Musik der altvorderen Jazzmusiker ist die entscheidende Basis für Ihren künstlerischen Erfolg, schöpfend aus der Jazztradition Ihren eigenen künstlerischen Ausdruck als Arrangeur, Bandleader, Komponist und individueller Musiker zu entwickeln. In heutigen Zeiten, in denen viele jazzende Musiker gar nicht oder nur oberflächlich die alten Schallplatten hören, die unser musikalisches Erbe und die Basis unseres Schaffens bilden, kann darauf gar nicht deutlich genug verwiesen werden.

Ich wünsche Ihnen von Herzen unendlich viel Glück, Lebensfreude, Gesundheit und Inspiration! Alles Gute für Sie und Ihre BIG CHRIS BARBER BAND!

Thank you for all – God bless you!

Ihr

Lutz Eikelmann

Wetter an der Ruhr, Deutschland; www.lutz-eikelmann.de


July 1, 2010
Lutz Eikelmann, the german jazz musician and band leader as well as a longtime follower of the Chris Barber Bands, is the author of an article that had been published these days by the German magazine "Swinging Hamburg Magazine". We thank Lutz for his consent to publish his lines here on this website.

The Web and Archive Team is very happy that Marilyn Reverchon and Ekkehard Schuster, both longtime followers of the Barber Band, translated the article from German into English and that we can publish now both versions on the same time. Thanks, Marilyn and Ekkehard, for your work!

German version / Deutsche Version
English version


Chris Barber message
board - 80th birthday




Pat Halcox message
board - 80th birthday


 
 
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