LONDON STYLE While the Band Was in Germany, and Bers at First
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y. What I provinces. Barber and his sextet were group was modeled after King Oliver’s enthusiastically received at the 13th row ning. Creole Jazz Band, complete with two annual Dixieland Jubilee tn the Holly e playing trumpets a la Oliver-Armstrong wood Bowl and at the 12th annual New In 1953, well-known British trum >n’t thiiik Orleans Jazz club concert tn the Louisi tifically " peter Ken Colyer returned to England ana city’s Municipal auditorium. from a sojourn in New Orleans, and the iterjected They also performed in halls, clubs, Barber-Sunshine group selected him as .and and and on college campuses across the the ideal man to front their band This nor nun country, leading Barber to say, “We was the real beginning of the present sure got around One night we’d be better," day band although after a year, Colyer playing for a college audience in the dropped out to form his own group. heart of the Louisiana Bible belt and Pat Halcox joined the unit in 1954. and ‘But he’s the next evening found us entertaining with Barber-Sunshine-Halcox, the front an earthy crowd in blues singer Muddy line became a permanent unit. e scarcity Waters’ club on the south side of Lonnie Donegan, today one of Eng ayers and Chicago.” land’s top-selling record artists, played They found a still more divergent banjo and guitar with the early band- ichell are He left when he made a hit recording of lid. With type of appreciation on their last two nights in New York when they paired Rock Island Line. hey can’t with Sister Rosetta Tharpe for the week Barber’s band has been a piano-less only two sextet since 1954. In addition to trom utler and end at the Central Plaza. When the Saints was played at midnight, the bone. trumpet, and clarinet, the person nel includes banjoist Eddie Smith, tet, Hope police rushed to turn up the lights. bassist Dick Smith, and drummer Gra azz clubs Dancers and listeners had jumped up on the tables and chairs to urge the ham Burbidge. band on. After it was over. Barber They added a singer. Ottilie Patterson here are CHRIS BARBER • clique,” moaned, “Oh, J wish you could hear us (now Mrs. Chris Barber), from North jf fellas.” play a concert.” ern Ireland, in 1950 She was an un trained, inexperienced vocalist, but her the only The 1960 trip was the band's third 1 groups, NEW ORLEANS Visit to the homeland of jazz in less interest in the blues records of Bessie than two years. It was here for a month Smith kept her from continuing her talked to in early 1959, having been invited on studies to be an art teacher. JAZZ— the strength of the hit recording of Barber’s manager and closest friend, mises. No the late Sidney Bechet’s tune Petite Harold Pendleton, recalled that con mpeter in Fleur. It had been recorded in 1956, ditions were rough for the band mem LONDON STYLE while the band was in Germany, and bers at first. When they started out, it ¡aid flatly, was hard to get a place to play. Many ; blues on By GEORGE HOEFER although it was made under the name halls in the small English towns were es players Chris Barber’s London jazz band is of Chris Barber's Jazz Band, it was closed to them, because the town fathers ’ He was held largely responsible for what British actually a trio recording featuring disliked jazz. There were no concert the enig- music critics call “the incredible trad- Monty Sunshine's clarinet. Barber super halls or theaters open to them in Lon d on the (itional) jazz boom” that is sweep vised the date but did not play on it. don. for they were told that their jazz aw serving ing Britain, Germany, Belgium. Hol Two years later the record surprised land. and Denmark, for trombonist everyone by becoming a hit all over was not music. Hope had Barber’s band has been playing Dixie Europe and was finally released on Pendleton, now head of the National > place to land in those countries for almost a Laurie in the United States and became Jazz Federation of Great Britain, said y want to decade. a big seller over here. this attitude changed when a group of w York— Trad jazz, as played by the Barber The first short tour, capped by a jazz fans prevailed upon Queen Eliza lerly love hand, is New Orleans-derived music sellout concert in New York’s Town beth to attend a jazz concert. After it tappcning. with a slight British accent, and, in hall, resulted in the band’s receiving an was known the queen approved of the ians there, Barber's case at least, it is a music to invitation to return in the fall and play music, things for jazz became easier. make the Be taken seriously. The Barber band, the 1959 Monterey Jazz festival. There are now jazz clubs all over ns.” avoiding funny hats, striped blazers, Donald Christopher Barber was born England, including five for trad jazz in ess stems I and acrobatics, succeeds in communi in London on April 17, 1930. His London. Most of these clubs do not ell known cating a sense of showmanship through formal music education started when sell liquor but are filled nightly with fans him. now musicianship that shames much of the he was a child, on violin and soprano who come just to hear the jazz. Several f those he disinterested, uninterested, mechanical, saxophone, but later when he enrolled in of the London clubs are owned by musi taken ad- and untalented traditional jazz found the Guildhall School of Music in Lon cians; Barber, Ken Colyer, Cy Laurie, cnowledge. j in this country. don, he switched to bass and trombone. and Ronnie Scott have their own club they want Barber, in choosing this tougher way In explaining how he became in rooms. aid. “What to showmanship, realizes the value of terested in U.S. jazz, Barber recently As the Barber band began to attain it lose out communicating with the audience: “One observed, “You know all of the cats in success, not only in England, but on on a gig-” cannot lose sight of Ihe fact that one England who play jazz were once record the Continent as well, the critics began not angry, is an entertainer when on stage and must collectors.” Trombonist Barber was an a barrage of criticism. Many of the really,” he communicate in order to get a show early collector of King Oliver, Louis critics, professional and amateur, pointed lain truth, across.” Armstrong, and Kid Ory: by 1947 he to the group's harmonic and melodic irts. The Barber band recently completed had an accumulation of more than 2,000 simplicity and concluded that Barber’s this think a six-week tour of the United States. records (78 rpm) by U.S. jazz artists. efforts were musically insipid. ip, and 1'11 It played here on an exchange deal in Barber and collector-clarinetist Sun Jazz writer Jeff Aldam commented. n we’ll see volving the Miles Davis group’s initial shine decided to form their own tradi The reason lor the band s enormous appearance in London and the English tional jazz band in 1949. Their first (Continued on page 451 January 5, I96i 17.