Chris Barber, one of the greatest pioneers of British Blues & Jazz passed away on 2nd March 2021 at the age of 90. In post-war Britain of the early ’50s, UK musicians were playing ‘catch-up’ & re-visiting the brass sounds of New Orleans conceived decades before. They were often inspired by second-hand records cast aside by American forces stationed in Europe. Barber himself first heard of Jazz as a youngster, picking up a book thrown on the dump beside an American airbase.
He was inspired to study trombone & double bass and by 1949 had set up a band that would become leading lights within the so-called ‘Trad Jazz’ movement popular in the UK of the ’50s & early ’60s. Chris Barber & contemporaries: Ken Colyer, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball & Humphrey Lyttelton (amongst others) provided a soundtrack for a whole generation, thriving, before & after, the arrival of US Rock ‘n’ Rollers onto UK airwaves.
Barber’s contribution in educating & exposing UK audiences to the likes of Sister Rosetta Tharpe & Muddy Waters through his tours of the late 50’s shaped British Music. His own band nurtured many musicians notably British skiffle legend Lonnie Donegan & Alexis Korner, the latter who is of course key to the story of the Ealing Club and appreciation of electric blues guitar.
Musicologists have long recognized Chris Barber’s role in British Music whose understanding of a key ingredient of both Jazz & Rock ‘n’ Roll namely ‘the blues’ has been passed on through British Rock & Pop. He played the blues through stand-up bass & trombone on Lonnie Donegan’s early skiffle hits Rock Island Line & Lost John. Rock Island Line (1955) was a top 10 hit in both the UK and the US and kickstarted the skiffle boom that inspired a generation of musicians including John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Townshend, Van Morrison, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler and many more.
In 1958 Barber brought Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and other US blues musicians to the UK & his band deserves so much more credit for the millions of guitarists who still play blues guitar to this day be they, from London, Seattle or Sydney.His passion and that of those around him for the music helped curate & develop an awareness of the blues that has elevated the genre’s influence above other comparable world music forms.
Chris Barber was a major contributor to the National Jazz Federation, a body directed by Harold Pendleton, the founder of the Marquee Club. Thanks to their initiatives, The Richmond Jazz Festival came into existence. In 2021 those festival roots will continue in the form of The Reading Festival where no doubt many guitarists will acknowledge the blues of Chicago & New Orleans.
Photo- The Chris Barber Band’s return to Ealing (Walpole Park 2018) – (Photo: R.Green)
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