Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Jazz musician who founded the Jazz Warriors and sold 100,000 copies of his debut album 'Journey to the Urge Within' making UK jazz credible.
On the island
Eight records
GuiltinessFavourite
My first record is a track that was a wake up call to me. I listened to a lot of pop music, a lot of ska music. My my parents brought me up on that kind of music. But on this particular record by Bob Marley, the sleeve was gold. The lettering of the album title Exodus was in braille red. And actual lyrics. This guy was singing lyrics for everybody.
The second record is is one of the all-time classics of of jazz and and pound for pound this is the ultimate jazz record ever. Miles Davis was a trumpet player who was not afraid to reflect his life. As his life changed, his music changed. And he put this track together in the sixties and it was a very smooth, cool sound, very laid back.
John Coltrane not only was a phenomenal saxophone player, a reform heroin addict, he was able to bring his religious family beliefs together with music. And on this record, A Love Supreme, he dedicated it to to God, to a higher spirit than the dollar bill.
The next record, I suppose following on from that, some some guys I see as my bigger big brothers, Aswat, they're from the Paddington area as well. And this was a recording which captured them live at the Nottinghill Carnival.
Well, this song came out in the 80s and I was a bit despondent with the R and B, the soul singer thing. It's all seemed to be fabricated, you know. And when I heard Anita Baker sing this song, it was like, oh wow, there are real singers still in the world. And she just totally melted me.
Jazz music is a language that people communicate with. And here's an African saxophone player, Manu Dibango. And he found a way to communicate with us fifteen year old kids since nineteen seventy nine with this song
This is from the days of romance and first love and all that. And this is just a wonderful song by a great artist, Brenda Russell, and I did a cover of her one of her songs. And this is one of those songs that is real sweet.
The Last Choice is is a group Earthwind with Fire. The album's called Gratitude. It was done in the seventies. And it really is a mixture of for me the ultimate mixture of jazz and popular music.
In conversation
Presenter asks
3:21Why, if [jazz] is for the people, why isn't it more central?
Because jazz music is a music which requires, I want to say, deeper thought. A lot of things in this world are groomed so that we are thinking in the same way as a game called Lemmings. Everything is like, well, you've got to buy that product, you've got to walk that way, you've got to listen to this type of music. But for jazz music, jazz music is a music that does the total opposite.
Presenter asks
11:54How do you suddenly say to [your mother] 'excuse me, I'm not going to do this education thing'?
Well, for my exams, my O-levels, I failed every single one, except music. Every single one, and I think that's when it hits her that I'd made up my mind that I wanted to be a musician, you know. And also, my mum, seeing me going out with these rasta men and being associated with that music, didn't take it seriously. She used to lock away my saxophones. … And she would say, Well, you'd better go and do the show with a Harry Youth Big Band and not go on the road and earn £20 with this reggae band. So she was very worried for me.
Presenter asks
14:31When did that first happen to you [conversing with God or losing yourself in a solo]?
It was rather bizarre. It actually happened to me when I was playing with the Harry Youth Big Band, and I stood up and they gave me a solo on a piece called Woodchopper's Ball, and I actually played something that I couldn't remember what it was. And that's when I really fell in love with playing jazz music, because it takes you to that place where you you don't know what's happening.
The keepsakes
The book
Charles Mingus
That's a wonderful book for any musician thinking about getting into the industry, it's very enlightening.
Presenter asks
19:15Why do you turn [Art Blakey] down?
To this day, I don't say I turn it down. I I really wasn't in the position to accept the offer. … The main thing was, my record Journey to the Earth Within had been released. … My Son Was Born as Well at Jamal. … And it was literally a situation where, well, what do you do? Do I go with Art Blakey and go on the road and be a sideman? Or. be the leader of my own band and I had a chance to do that.
Presenter asks
22:02How did those terrible experiences [losing two daughters] affect your attitude to your music and your work?
I'd made a decision that, okay, I'm going to be on the road. And I was in in America and I became a father. one day and then a couple of days later, literally three days later, I had to sort out some funeral arrangements. So I came back and I had to make the decision about my musical career. This had had affected me so much that I had to literally stop trying to be a John Coltrane, trying to fulfill the American jazz dream and make some big decisions musically about what I was doing.
Presenter asks
29:59What do you mean when you say 'somebody like me' [getting an OBE]?
An immigrant like me who plays music to be represented in this way, usually it's a sports personality or Lenny Henry or somebody in in that field who's in a very visible role. But I started off playing jazz music. My first professional engagement in that was at the Atlantic Pub in Brixton. And from that playing to drug dealers, drunks, prostitutes, to going to see the Queen. You couldn't write that down in a book.
“when I actually picked up the saxophone at school, I became somebody else. It was it was almost as if a personality came out with the saxophone.”
“The more I know, the harder it is to get to that point where I'm truly spontaneous. But it is possible, yeah, for me to just disappear for like forty five minutes and just play.”
“I think when you realize that life is not that long. It makes you realize that, well, rather than doing this ten, twenty year plan of what I'll be doing … you you have to rip up that paper because you may not get the chance to do that.”