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1959 |
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Chris Barber
born April 17th, 1930 in Welwyn Garden
City |
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Chris Barber is already featured on this
site by being the bass player on ' As the 1950s gave way to the 1960s, the |
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Petite Fleur, a beautifully crafted
instrumental played by Monty Sunshine on clarinet, was to be the band's only top ten single. Nevertheless, it led the way
for a long period of trad hits from other artists,
notably the bands of Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball. The latter was accused of
diverging too far from the path of 'true trad'; an
absurdity, for if the likes of Louis Armstrong had not diverged from 'true
blues' then jazz would never have been invented. It was a ridiculous charge
when one considers that Kenny Ball was still keeping traditional jazz in the Nor were the Chris Barber band stuck in
a rigid groove. Barber did much to promote other related musical forms by
incorporating them into his repertoire. Blues was always well represented
through association with traditional artists like Muddy Waters, Louis Jordan
and more recently, Dr John. He would also include mainstream as well as
traditional jazz in his popular stage act. The band would have two more minor chart
entries, the last being 'Revival' in 1962 which reached #43. Despite lack of
further success on singles, Chris Barber's Jazz Band remains one of the
greatest British musical institutions of the early 21st century. |