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 British television luminary JOOLS HOLLAND is bringing his crack band, THE RHYTHM & BLUES ORCHESTRA, to Australia to show everyone their chops, as MITCH ALEXANDER learns.
Before there was Jools Holland the television personality, there was Jools Hollands the musician. Before almost two decades of hosting the kaleidoscopic Later…With Jools Holland program, there was a young piano player that snuck his love of boogie woogie blues into the songs of his first band, Squeeze. Before displaying a dizzying array of talent from across the world, streamed into British households every Friday night, Jools was struggling to transfer his heroes and influences into his fingers, inevitably making contact with black and white keys. As the Londoner prepares to bring his 20 piece Rhythm & Blues Orchestra to the Byron Bay Bluesfest, I think it’s fair to say that those early struggles were not in vain.
“I think I realized maybe twenty years ago, that I hadn’t been playing live as much as I had normally been, and I hadn’t been keeping my standards up,” Jools recalls, when asked of the early catalyst for his enlarged traveling band. “It keeps your chops in tune, not even just your virtuoso chops, but also your mind chops in tune – if you see what I mean – with what really communicates with people.
“I realised that is was important to play live, because you can’t really connect with audiences without it. The thing is, with playing music, is it’s the one thing that, as long as you’re physically and mentally able to do it, you can keep doing that until you’re ancient. Television’s great fun to do, but you can come and go.”
The common thread between appearing on television, radio, and on stage with his full squad is his passion for the music that’s on display, and his continuous attempts to convey that passion to audiences. Whether he’s introducing a Calypso afrobeat electro synth duo or rearranging a classic jazz standard, 52 years of musical obsession come shining through his animated eyes and gestures.
“One of the greatest joys in playing music for me,” he says with considerable pause for effect. “Is when you’re playing and you’re feeling excited, and you look out and see the audience is physically moving.
“Their necks are going, their feet are tapping, they’re standing up and jumping. Your feelings are communicated to them without the blunt instruments that I’m using at the moment called words. That’s really what we strive for, looking for that moment.”
Even with thousands of kilometers and a sub-par phone connection separating us, Holland’s enthusiasm is forced from handset to handset when describing the cavalcade of performers that make up his band. Amongst other notables, his two guest vocalists are given praise that would make Jay-Z blush. Ruby Turner has the “fire and the feel of a person from another age”, while the angelic Louise Marshall “illuminates anything that she sings”. Sure, these descriptions may seem old and familiar and are probably used to depict a plethora of talented young musicians. But Jools definitely knows a thing or two about having trust in classics.
JOOLS HOLLAND AND THE RHYTHM & BLUES ORCHESTRA play the Byron Bay Bluesfest on Thursday 1 Apr and Twin Towns Resort on Friday Apr 2. www.joolsholland.com
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