Lee bates why dont you write

For my parents, art and money were not connected. So, I had an interesting set of guidelines growing up which gradually informed my own guidelines later in life. I realized when doing the Anouar project and realizing that people love it, that my own music is deliberately confrontational.

So, that is self-consciousness right there. It becomes complex and detailed as a reflection of the joy in the craft, and then I hope it can be played in a way close to what I intended. What he does is more organic and I can imagine it takes a long time. Are you surprised about that? Are you happy? I was very happy that we managed to get everybody back together. The band is a totally unique group of really amazing characters, who are all very funny.

A couple of years before the reunion, there was an event in England called Jazz Britannia, which was on television. It was a celebration of British jazz going back to the era of Loose Tubes. It was focusing on a so-called jazz revival, but for various political reasons, Loose Tubes was completely overlooked. I suppose it had to do with the fact that while the band was originally around, a lot of people loved us, but we also pissed off a lot of people in the promotional end of things.

We were quite disrespectful and even childish at times. Today, I see the new generation of musicians who are really skilled at the political side of being a musician. We have to do something. What can we do?

If you want them, you need to get them now. And behind the socks, there were these six reels of two-inch tape. I listened back in the studio as soon as this music could be heard and realized it was a fantastic recording in terms of the vibe and quality of the sound.

The rest of the band agreed. Presenters like to have creative involvement and see themselves as the commissioners of something new. It was full-on and exhausting. Reflect on the legacy of Loose Tubes and how its musicians went on to influence the direction of the British and European jazz scenes. I think Loose Tubes gave everybody a huge boost of confidence at a very important time in their progression as a musician. For myself, before Loose Tubes, I had been playing with Dudu Pukwana, going around these little jazz clubs and festivals.

They were digging the gig with Dudu, but me giving cassettes to the promoters was having no impact at all. When we formed Loose Tubes in London, we would do pub gigs which went down shockingly well. People would get up on the tables and dance.

So, it was clearly something with the ability to make a big impact. There was big power in having 21 people in a band. It was a huge force. Ronnie had heard the band and loved it. He was very supportive. Everyone was so exuberant and desperate to play. What happened, was everyone on the street knew something big was going to happen inside.

At the end of that show, we took the band and the audience back out onto the street, and then went back into the club. The press were there and gave us fantastic reviews of that first show. And it served as the launchpad for a whole bunch of careers.

That particular day was all about making a mark. It was no longer possible to ignore those players anymore from that point forward. So, there can be luck and rewards for putting a huge amount of energy into a gig like that. How do you look back at the first Loose Tubes studio albums—the self-titled release and Delightful Precipice from ? We were all inexperienced in making albums.

Maybe he knew how to get everything exactly as he needed it. But at our young ages, with that lack of experience, we were just lucky to get into studios and document this stuff at all. I think there are some great moments on the Delightful Precipice album. The first album is probably a little bit too neat and tidy compared to what the band was really like.

At some point it was rumored that the person who had the tapes sold them to someone in England. When I heard what was sold, it was out of phase. Instead, I felt the previously-unreleased live gigs were something much easier to do. There was no record company involved. I own the tapes. That album was on E.

Records and the connection to it was Bill Bruford. Iain Ballamy and I were playing with Bill at that time. We had some meetings and ridiculous suggestions were made about producers. The band had 21 people and we had 21 ideas. So, Teo was a suggestion that was made. He had made incredible, memorable, fantastic albums. One of my favorite memories of Teo is watching him play the music back on the enormous studio monitors at Angel Studios.

I mean, it was so loud he was cutting out these enormous cones. Another time, someone in the band started being rude about Ronald Reagan. Everybody assumed everyone felt exactly the way they did about politics, not realizing American politics were just as complicated as ours. Teo made some nice suggestions. Place it twice. I grew up with that album and am very attached to it.

The original, unedited versions are now available, and I have to say the edited, original album is a million times better. Loose Tubes had never worked with a producer before. It sounds nice. When I got to work with Stefan Winter some years later, I was still not in the right frame of mind to have a producer in the same room with me. Now, I realize it can be fine and really helpful. They can be there like an audience as I said when discussing Manfred Eicher.

Until then, I always assumed that having a producer meant you had to argue. Stefan and I had lots of arguments, but in the end I got three very nice albums out of working with him.

What did your experience with Loose Tubes teach you about the necessity of band leadership and management? I did learn a lot, though. I am really a very quiet person, but when I was challenged in the band on anything musical, I had a terrible temper. I also never announced anything form the stage. The latter is probably the major part of the perception. I brought the first piece I wrote for the band to it when it was a workshop group for Graham Collier. He was playing the music of his contemporaries, but by the second week, I came with my own piece because I saw an enormous opportunity there.

I also found it very frustrating to watch the set list emerge before a gig. It would happen a half-hour before the show. A few people would start throwing it together.

Let me do it. It was all part of laying the groundwork for the future. When Loose Tubes finally collapsed, I almost immediately started another band called Delightful Precipice and experimented with different ways of doing things. We got great results. We put set lists together in a way that gave gigs a journey, shape and a curve. I began enjoying presenting music to the audience and talking to them.

But it was a good place to be in and gave me a lot to think about in terms of how things could be done differently later on in life. In parallel with Loose Tubes, you also had the smaller ensemble Human Chain. Tell me about how that group emerged. Human Chain started as a band called Humans, formed simply from the need to have a small group. I changed the lineup many times and decided to call it Human Chain because the band became a chain of characters and experiments.

If I formed that band now and used its last version, I think I would have a clear idea of what it could be now. It would be one thing, rather than a group that experimented constantly. When the band played the Montreal Jazz Festival in , it was a very powerful experience. I bring it up because I remember performing outdoors to a lot of people.

Everyone was stunned speechless. How do you look back at that fruitful period of your career? Fruitful is the right word.

It was an interesting period for me in all ways. I was flying with a mad kind of energy and a lot of the band were as well. Delightful Precipice, which appeared on two of those JMT albums, as well as Human Chain, which was also a part of Delightful Precipice, were groups with which anything seemed possible, musically.

We had relatively a lot of gigs at the time. We did a residency at the Montreal Jazz Festival, which was a long way to travel. That was all supported by that infrastructure in some way. What should I do on this journey? How shall I present the music? How should I tell this story? I have a big band and a small band both playing on it. It would have made more sense to have presented the big band first on its own album and the small band on its own album later. But to be honest, I never had quite enough material.

I felt I had some material that, if it didn't get used pretty soon, would go off. So, I put it all together—four big band pieces and four small band pieces. It was an album no-one else would have made. Also, I brought my friend Andrew Murdock from America to record and produce it. He had never recorded a big band before, but I loved his work and energy. With Stefan, he pretended he had in fact recorded a big band before and came and gave it a go.

I really like the sound of that album. What makes him a unique presence for you across both realms? The first thing that springs to mind is that the ongoing conversation between us is just so rewarding and entertaining. I wanted to play it with some of my students, so I transcribed it.

Every note is just like velvet. The way he moves the melody through the whole saxophone range, and the different mood he gives to each phrase is wonderful. I play the drums. I used to play in a band called Yes. I heard about you on a jazz broadcast the other night. I thought it might be good to get together and play a bit, because we live nearby.

So, Iain went and they played together a bit. Iain suggested getting together with me and Mick Hutton. We had some fun. Are you interested? It sounds amazing. They had a unique flavor with the electronic drums. We played Japan and became a band. We toured and saw America. I learned what gigs are like in America at these rock venues. I also learned a different way of playing. But this is a big place. You need to leave some space around the notes.

It took years to really think about that and for it to sink in, but I think he was right. His way of playing was never ambiguous or floating. It was very direct. It jolted me out of the introverted jazz world and I think I played differently as a result of that experience—just like I played differently after working with Dudu Pukwana all those years before.

Bill definitely had an impact on what I choose to play and when I choose to play it. Loose Tubes had just ended. I felt Earthworks had done its best. Writing music for the band became a little less spontaneous and more hard work to find ideas. I may have also sensed from Bill that he was ready for a change.

His enthusiasm for carrying around the electronic drumkit was diminishing. He was always the grown-up in the band—the sensible guy who had done things before. We were always the kids figuring out how things worked. Tell me about that experience. We worked in a very nice studio called The Wool Hall in Bath. The vibe was very different from every other studio I had been in.

During all my sessions, there was always a massive time and budgetary constraint. I got there and everything felt quite slowed down. The band was asking me about the Loose Tubes albums. Two days in the studio and one day mixing. We really were coming from completely different worlds. He was a pretty cool guy. Alan How did you get started in music? Billy Initially we started going around the folk and blues clubs, fifteen years old pretending to be eighteen!

Alan What kind of material were you playing in the early day s? I even had an arrangement of a Rory Gallagher song in there too. Alan Who are your favourite blues artists both old and new? Lee My favourite blues singer of all time is undoubtedly Muddy Waters. I love Muddy. Of the contemporary players…well, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are phenomenally good!

Paul Rishell and Annie Raines are great. Alan Who has influenced you the most in your music writing and playing? Most of the songs we have written are rehashes of older blues things! I like the way Harman can put a story across in a song.

I like the way Rick and Tom put comedy into their songs. Alan What first attracted you to the blues? I just love it! Billy Listening to the Alexis Corner blues programme. Hearing some of the greats on there and getting serial numbers and record labels off him as he played these records. Alan What was the best blues album you ever had? I managed to get it signed by Sonny and Brownie. I also used it to nail my first harmonica piece which was Crow Jane.

Alan Lee, what is your favourite guitar? Alan Billy, What harps do you play and which is your favourite? Billy I always play Marine Band by Hohner. I have tried just about all the main harmonica manufacturers over the years but prefer Marine Band. Alan Are there any particular songs that you play that have special meaning to you?

Lee ' White Trash ', which is on the new CD. Alan Why do you think the north east of England has so much blues talent? Going back to the Animals in the early sixties. It would be very lengthy list if you started to write all the players down!

Perhaps the music resonates more in an area which has always been economically depressed, a history of no money and hard times, hard manual labour etc. Billy I could say I think the North East has had some tough times over the years.

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