Leading a Double Life

KENNY MATHIESON hears about a new direction for the fusion music of guitarist PETE OXLEY as he brings his band to the Highlands
 

PETE OXLEY WILL bring the successor to his New Noakes International band north this month for a series of dates in Scotland. The band, Curious Paradise, is both a continuation and a departure from the musical direction he explored for well over a decade with New Noakes, and the latest line up of the group features two Scots, pianist Steve Hamilton and bassist Andy Hamill, replacing Richard Fairhurst and Raph Mizraki from the line-up which recorded their debut album last year.

 “I originally put it together last summer,” Pete explained, “and it was born out of an idea to do completely different music to anything I had done in the past, rather than to try to shoehorn old tunes into a new format. I started by writing a load of new music, then put the band together and recorded the album before we had done any gigs at all. I hoped that would give it a freshness, and I think it has done. This tour we are on now is really the official launch of the disc. Since then, of course, the music has expanded considerably since we started playing it.”

The band also features saxophonist Mark Lockheart and drummer Russ Morgan. Pete had not worked with Steve Hamilton before, but it was not for want of trying – he attempted to recruit him while the Aberdeen-born pianist was working with Bill Bruford (of Yes and King Crimson fame) in the drummer’s own jazz-fusion outfit, Earthworks.

“I had heard Steve in other contexts, and in fact I asked him to join my last band, New Noakes International, but he was busy with Bill Bruford at the time and couldn’t do it. I heard straight away in his playing that it could complement the style of writing I tend to lean to, and that has proved to be right. He is so much on the case and in the music.

“I’ve worked with Mark a few times in other settings, and he has more of a lyrical approach than the Breckeresque type players. In the music I have gone for an approach that is more about soundscapes than anything else, and he fits very well into that. He plays bass clarinet as well, which is nice – it gives us another colour in the music, and colour is very important in this music.”

“People will come up afterwards and say, gosh, is that jazz – I didn’t think I liked jazz.”

The music also reflects a quite varied mix of genre influences at work, and notably quite a strong folk feel at times. I wondered if that had been the master plan for the project?

“No, it just came out! I realised there were quiet a few folky influences at work in particular. I had started with some idea of writing a hip hop influenced album or possibly a tango album, but when I started into the writing this is what came out. I think it is a pretty accurate representation of what is going on musically in my head.

 “Where it came from is another matter. My folks are classical musicians, and my dad was very into people like Vaughan Williams and Elgar, who made use of folk music in their compositions, and that’s really the only place I can think of as a source for this. I certainly haven’t been hanging out in folk clubs, although it has now made me want to check out a bit more on that side of things.”

Pete has described the band’s music as “textural, cinematic contemporary world jazz”, which covers a few bases in itself. I wondered what he had in mind when he used the term cinematic?

“I used that word really because of things that audiences have said to me – they come up afterwards and say it was really visual or filmic or whatever, and it seemed to be conjuring up visual imagery in their minds. That is really what I mean by it. I’m considering the possibility of extending that by involving an actress in a project for the theatre, and the music would link up almost like a series of short stories.

“I’m interested in taking this music to new audiences. I love to play in situations like village halls rather than jazz clubs, and we find that we sell more records in those situations. People will come up afterwards and say, gosh, is that jazz – I didn’t think I liked jazz.”

When he is not composing or performing with his bands, Pete has a second music-related trade to his name, as a highly regarded make of violin bows.

“As I said, my folks are musicians, and my mum played violin. She knew a bow maker in Bury St Edmunds where we lived, and because my brother and sister were also musicians, they were keen that one of us had something other than that to fall back on! She suggested to him that I might do a bit of Saturday work for him when I was 15, which I did. We got on well, and he offered me an apprenticeship when I finished my O levels, and I accepted.

“I hadn’t planned to do that at all, really, but it was a very fortunate occurrence, because there are so few of us around. I have this double life now, alternating between bow making and performing. I don’t play violin myself at all, and in a way it might be counter productive if I did, because it is such a personal thing for the people I am making them for.”

Pete Oxley’s Curious Paradise play at the following venues:

• Corran Halls, Oban, Wednesday 16 June
• Strathgarry House, Killiecrankie, Thursday 17 June
• Links Hotel Arts Club, Montrose, Friday 18 June
• Eastgrange Loft, Forres, Saturday 19 June
• Lyth Arts Centre, Lyth, Caithness, Sunday 20 June
• Eastgate Theatre, Peebles, Monday 21 June

© Kenny Mathieson, 2004