Live Music Bill! News!
Get back off the ropes,
Jenkins! The fight
will yet be won!!
Not Live Music Bill Jenkins
though.... he's still on an extended sabbatical from live performance.
But even better news from the Musicians' Union - who have
just sent out this press release:
The
Live Music Bill passed its final stages in the Commons on Friday
The
MU has been celebrating with supportive MPs and other members of UK Music
as the Live Music Bill passed its final stages in the Commons on Friday.
The
Bill states that an exemption to the Licensing Act should take place when
‘the live music entertainment takes place in the presence of an audience
of no more than 200 persons’. This will reduce the bureaucracy and expense
for small venues wishing to put on live music.
We
have been lobbying for a change of this kind ever since the Licensing Act
came into law in 2003, and we believe that this Bill will be a real boost
to live music performance.
John
Smith, MU General Secretary, says:
“We are delighted that the Live Music Bill has finally made it through
Parliament. It is a real achievement for a Private Member’s Bill to get
through and the MU would like to thank Lord Clement Jones, Don Foster and
all of the other MPs who helped to pass this Bill.
“Over the past few years our members have been telling us that the number
of gigs available to young musicians who are still perfecting their craft
has gone down. This is primarily due to a reduction in the number of smaller
venues which traditionally offered this level of gig, and is directly linked
to the Licensing Act. The exemption that the Live Music Bill introduces
will be hugely beneficial to these small venues.”
Wonderful news indeed!
billy.com has
been monitoring this bureaucratic madness for several years. A madness
that played its part in Jenkins' loss of enthusiasm for performing, as
chasing the ever diminishing opportunities sapped away at his energies.
Background to the music bill
and the valiant fight by, amongst others, the Union and activist Hamish
Birchall can be read on the archive page here.
return
to top of page
'Jazz Gives Me The Blues'
A 'Best Release Of The Year'!
Surely not!?
The latest Billy release that had the jazz critics covering their ears
and almost to a (wo)man decrying his 'inability to sing...'!?
Intriguing how it's taken
the critics four decades to realise that...
However, Chris May,
the respected author, critic and Senior Editor of All About Jazz
since 2004, certainly knows his music. The proof is here.
And, along with several other
known and respected jazz and world musicians - including Alice Coltrane,
Stan Getz, Fela Kuti, Randy Weston and Archie Shepp, Mr May cites 'Jazz
Gives Me The Blues' as one of his 'Best Releases of the Year'.
The proof is here.
Jenkins gives critics the
bird....
And you can treat your loved
ones to a copy by going to the Recordings+Shop here.
All orders from this site
go through jazzcds and the Billy Office - thus helping his
music to continue......
return
to top of page
Humanism, Blues &
Bereavement!
Billy Jenkins. At Your Service.
Literally....
It has almost been a year
now since Mr Jenkins began an 'open ended sabbatical' from performing live
music in public.
Unsurprisingly, he has found
his work with the British Humanist Association as a humanist
officiant - creating and conducting non religious funerals and collaborating
with families at one of their worst times of their lives, rather conflicts
with the hedonist joys of music making.
But he asserts and assures
that he is 'in a groove with the funerals.They satisfy my creative needs
whilst helping folk during the worst time of their lives, instead of satisfying
my creative needs - whilst giving folk the worst time of their lives.....'
Earlier his year, he was
interviewed by the award winning anthropologist and writer, Dr Matthew
Engleke - who has kindly agreed for the complete unedited transcript
to be reproduced on the The Billy Jenkins Webzine site.
Respectfully spank your mouse
here.
But going 'one step on from
the blues' is not the only reason Jenkins has stopped performing.
On his superb Jazz Breakfast,
the superb blog curated by the most learned and erudite journalist, writer
and jazz critic Peter Bacon, he asked the question 'How do jazz
musicians earn a living?'
Amongst many interesting
comments, Billy dwells upon the 'perfect' storm', that has been brewing
for the last twenty five years or so.
Read it here!
In a private reply to an
acknowledgement, Jenkins added the footnote:
'I should have added to my bit about teaching in an FE Music department
in the early 1990's and watching technology gradually replacing the edict
of every single note and noise being the responsibility of the practitioner,
budgets being squeezed by the demand of regular software and hardware updates
and the sharp roll off of students wishing for lessons in guitar techniques...
'One just
knew 'it's gonna all end in tears....'!'
return
to top of page
Excellent Critique In
Jazz Journal!
Boo Hoo Billy!
©Tony Bartholomew
The latest album 'Jazz
Gives Me The Blues' has been receiving some very complimentary reviews
form the great and the good - both in the national print media, BBC R3
and on respected jazz and music websites.
So it is rather refreshing
to receive here at bj.com a review that chooses to hear it
from another angle. Writing in Jazz Journal, reviewer Gary Booth
writes:
"Billy
can’t sing and it really shows in the studio. Strip out the vocals and
this is a rather groovy soul jazz accompaniment to your chicken in a basket."
Mr Booth acknowledges a fair
understanding of Billy's work and says, 'I like him singing his own suburban
blues micro-classics, but Jenkins voice jars here and not in a good way.
Maybe it is because the numbers are familiar....'.
And that line confirms Jenkins'
suspicion all along. Most jazz fans are not capable of embracing the new
and innovative. The Hip generation are truly now the Hip replacement generation.
They embrace the concept - not the reality....
Jenkins finds comfort in
Mr Booth's words, for they stimulate and reassure. Jenkins is his own man.
He would be the first to say that his voice is not his main instrument.
It's just handy to use it when the carpal tunnel closes down his strumming
digits....
You can read the full review
and comment, if you so wish, here.
return
to top of page
Middle Aged Album Out!
July 5 2011. Billy Jenkins
turned 55!
So what could be more appropriate
for 2011 than a retro 'Fifties late night jazz album?
Taking tunes from, amongst
others, the Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday & Nat King
Cole songbooks - it's a celebration of that thing called jazz - another
cliché in the land we call jazz.
NO! STOP!
We don't want no more of
that groovy dinner jazzy lounge piano soft-focus wide screen smooth talking
tasteful jazz thang. Man, jazz gives me the blues! Jazz is the blues. Blues
is the new jazz......
Whatever, here we have a
Billy Jenkins album of standards (OK, so that's like a Lady Gaga guide
to comfy cardigans but there we go). Just to contextualise, the album kicks
off with a homage to the ultimate in 50s hipness - the Hammond organ trio
- yes, in the Jimmy Smith corner Mr Jimmy Watson (not playing Hammond)
and in the Grant Green corner the heavy weight guitar string champion of
the world, let's hear it for Mr B Jenkins Esq.! Mike Pickering's
in the drum seat (he makes up the last third of the Trio Blues Suburbia)
and guest soloist and Jenkins novice, lauded and award winning altoist
and flautist Finn Peters rocks in with a bluesy chorus or two and
some kissing noises.
Billy takes these old jazz
standards and does unmentionable things to them, lyrically and musically
metamorphosing them into something new and strange - reinterpreting the
hackneyed old images, injecting anger where anger never was, blueing the
jazz. The guitar, that guitar, still strikes like lightning, illuminating
as it incinerates, but the emphasis here is on mood - a fifties late night
mood for a fifty-somethin' guitarist.
Recorded and produced by
the 'Born Again' producer Charlie Hart in one take real time,
the album features:
Billy Jenkins – electric
guitar, voice, harmonica
Finn Peters - alto saxophone
& flute
Jim Watson – NORD organ
Mike Pickering – drum kit
The album is called 'Jazz
Gives Me The Blues' on VOTP Records (VOTP VOCD 116). You can purchase
your own copy by spanking the Recordings+Shop
link, through Amazon
- or your favourite online or download store!!
Orders from jazzcds
come straight to the Billy Office - so, not only are you supporting
the musicians, but you can be assured of a First Class delivery and personal
attention to your order!
'An intensely, joyously visceral, up-against-the-wall album, and one of
Jenkins' recent best'.
Chris May / allaboutjazz.com
'Memorably
assisted by a crack band, Jenkins taps into the blues spirit of the likes
of Jimmy Smith, Fats Waller collaborator J. C. Johnson (via his Ethel Waters/Billie
Holiday song 'Travellin' All Alone') and the man of whose music Jenkins
'just can't get enough', Duke Ellington, to produce an album packed
not only with the Bromley bluesman's trademark scrabbling, eloquent guitar
playing, but also with all the punch, power and emotional urgency that
have led Claire Martin to comment: 'He mixes elements of the blues with
the spirit of punk rock all beautifully gift wrapped with the joy of jazz'.
Chris Parker / londonjazz.blogspot.com
'....he is abetted by his Trio Blues Suburbia, the superb Jim Watson on
organ, saxophonist Finn Peters and drummer Mike Pickering, who create the
kind of subdued groove that some other musicians strive for and never quite
achieve. My favourite track is "I'm Just a Lucky So-And-So", with Mr Jenkins
essaying a vocal-guitar unison which comes out sounding like George Benson
on acid'.
Dave Gelly / The Observer
'...A
standards set, give or take a few rude noises, crunching disonances and
nightmare wailings, is what this is. Jenkins enlists Jim Watson's organ-grooving
and cutting edge saxist Finn Peters' ingenuity for his personally demented
take on low-lights smooth jazz.'
John Fordham / The Guardian
'.....he
teeters between pastiche and homage (pamage?) but it’s an absorbing tightrope
act.'
John Bungey / The Times
It's the third in the Billy
Jenkins Calling
Card CD Collection in a digifile free standing card wallet.
Most collectable!
return
to top of page
Billy J., Kramer &
The BBC Big Band!
 
Billy J.... And Billy J.....
Two lovely misunderstandings
have been brought to our attention.
Firstly, a delightful email
from Billy listener Mark Callan in North Shields. He espied online
what he thought was a new Jenkins release.
Mark wrote:
"....Entitled
"The One & Only", it clearly promised to be - what, exactly? Greatest
hits? An East German bootleg? A gem plucked from time's great misfiling
cabinet?
To
avoid any disappointment on the part of my fellow aficionados, I think
it only fair to announce that said item is in fact Billy J KRAMER's greatest
hits....
And
what made it worse was that I emailed the sellers to complain (mildly),
at which they apologised profusely and promised to send me the item I had
ordered. It arrived today. It was, again, Billy J KRAMER'S greatest hits...
But
then I thought: Billy J. ENKINS could just as well do "Little Children",
"Trains & Boats & Planes", "Boys Cry" and "Do You Want To Know
A Secret?". So how's about it, guys and gals, is Billy J. ENKINS looking
for a new project?"
Mr Jenkins replied:
"......Not
such a daft idea J. Enkins sings J. Kramer - sort of 'True
Love Collection' revisited. I used to quite like BJ and the Dakotas
actually....! Nice quiff too!"
And we at billy.com
duly dispatched Mr Callan a complimentary CD for making us smile. And we
were delighted to find that Billy J. Kramer is still very much live,
well and musically active!
The second misunderstanding
is a most generous album review in the July issue of 'Jazzwise'
- the number one most read UK monthly jazz mag.
As a 'thank you' to those
in the media who championed Billy's music over the last year, we presented
them with private listening copies of the BBC Big Band Plays Billy
concert, recorded by BBC R3 'Jazz Line Up' on the South Bank last
November.
Whilst most flattered by
the kind words written by that most excellent jazz journalist Andy Robson,
for what was, indeed, a most memorable concert, we must stress that there
is no album of that name available for purchase.
Meanwhile, the new album
'Jazz
Gives Me The Blues' on VOTP Records (VOTP VOCD 116) can now be ordered
by spanking the Recordings+Shop
link, through Amazon
- or your favourite online or download store!!
Orders from jazzcdscome
straight to the Billy Office - so, not only are you supporting the
musicians, but you can be assured of a First Class delivery and personal
attention to your order!
return
to top of page
Three Classic 'Blues Collective'
Albums Re-issued!
 - -
Three classic Blues Collective
albums
recorded at the start of the new Millennium have just been re-issued as
downloads - sadtimes.co.uk,
LIFE
and
Blues Zero Two!
The Blues Collective smile
for Nick Corker's camera...
They contain twenty four
classic pieces from the classic Blues Collective line up and
repertoire like 'Cliff Richard Spoke To Me', 'Ain't Going Yet', 'Like John
Lee Said' and 'Bye Bye Blues' and feature Dylan Bates (violin),
Richard
'Homer' Bolton (guitar),
Thad Kelly (bass), Mike Pickering
(drums) and special guests.
Details and critical acclaim
can be found on the Recordings+Shop
page. And for those of a certain generation who prefer 'full spectrum sound',
CD copies are still available and can be ordered via the same page.
To co-incide with the original
release of the album, arts maverick, mover, shaker, promoter and conceptual
genius Simon Thackray
built Billy the sadtimes.co.uk
website, raising the question, 'Is this the site of the CD - or is it the
CD of the site!?'
On the sadtimes site, you
can read all about the Blues Collective and enjoy his blues lyrics.
You can pre-order now
at Play.com,
Amazon
- or through your favourite online store!
return
to top of page
A Ginger Baker's Nutters
Live CD Emerges...!
The Nutters headbutt Newcastle
'Rock On The Tyne 1981. L to R: Keith Hale (keyboards), Ginger
Baker (drums), Ian Trimmer
(sax), the late Riki Legair (bass) and Billy Jenkins (guitar).
In 1981, Mr Jenkins spent
a year touring with legendary drummer Ginger Baker - who felt compelled
to call the band 'The Nutters' on account of the disparate mental
state of his musicians.....
A CD of a concert they gave
in Milan that year has just been released on the Floating World
label.
Inventively entitled 'Ginger
Bakers Nutters - Live In Milan 1981', it's a two CD set which can be
ordered from your favourite online store or from Spin.
We at billy.com are
unable to extract any insightful and witty observations about the concert
from Mr. Jenkins, as he has no recollection of that night at all
- save he recalls the theatre having a marvellous stage backdrop of a city
at night.....
return
to top of page
The 'Financial Times'
Lauds Billy!
In the jungle, the mighty
jungle, the lion roars
tonight...
©Steve Morrison
An article about Mr Jenkins
and his work has appeared in the prestigious Financial Times.
Written with depth, great
sensitivity and understanding by fellow musician and writer Mike Hobart,
it is very flattering that Billy was chosen as one of only two artists
to be previewed for the London Jazz Festival - the other musician
was jazz legend Herbie Hancock.
It is delightfully ironic
that a man for whom commerce, marketing and business remain 'black arts'
should be worthy of such microscopic attention by one of the world's leading
financial newspapers.....
You can enjoy Mr Hobart's
writing here.
return
to top of page
|
