This month Sofi chats to Guy Barker: trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and arranger. Since graduating from NYJOs brass section in the very late 70s, Guy’s contributions to live music made him a household name. From Mercury-nominated solo albums; an annual festive fixture at the Royal Albert Hall with the Guy Barker Big Band (GBBB) and frequent BBC appearances as an authoritative guide to Jazz, it is hard to summarise his musical achievements.
Having an actor and stuntman for parents, Guy tells Sofi it was probably inevitable that he fell in love with the music industry. Having said that, he goes on to recall a series of events and minor teenage rebellions that determined his path to performing. Convincing his school career’s advisor was just the start…
Why did you pick up the trumpet in the first place, and what was it about the instrument that made you fall in love with it?
There was a string of circumstances that sealed my fate as a trumpet player. Firstly, not passing my 11+ meant I went to a local Secondary Modern school which had an excellent brass band. I would see them up on stage in assemblies and decided I wanted to have a go. But it wasn’t as simple as that. In order to join, you had to study six weeks of music theory with Eric Smith, the band leader. One by one, kids dropped off voluntarily and then at the end of it all, those who stayed had to sit an exam. assembled in the classroom, along with the available instruments laid out on the back tables.
I fell in love with the flugelhorn that was sat there. The deal was Mr Smith marked our papers whilst we were sat there, and whoever came first had the choice of the first instrument, whoever came second had the choice of the second and so on. Mr Smith called out the first name (which wasn’t mine) and I stared into the boy’s back thinking ‘don’t touch the flugelhorn’. And sure enough, he went straight to it, picked it up and went back to his seat. The next name that was called out was mine, so I picked up the first cornet not knowing at the time it would be the best thing that could have happened to me. That’s because the cornet is like the brass band equivalent of the violins in the orchestra; it gets all the tricky stuff!
What advice do you have for young musicians struggling to convince their family it is their calling?
During my first year, I loved playing with the brass band but I also did quite well with all my other subjects. I had failed my 11+ but because I did so well, the school felt I should be transferred to the local grammar school. By this point I was obsessed with the brass band there and did not want to leave. It got to the point my mum was inviting kids round that I’d gone to primary school with, to sort of expound the virtues of the grammar school. But the thought of not playing with the brass band was something I couldn’t live with.
This is when a wonderful case of serendipity happened. During all this to-ing and fro-ing, my parents had secretly arranged a meeting with my head teacher to discuss the matter. But in actual fact, they said in actual fact they were going to have to make their mind up for me and send me to the grammar.
I had no idea they would be in the headmaster’s office downstairs from the main hall and had chosen on that occasion to sneak into the empty school hall just above during breaktime to play my cornet. I had just learned how to play Santa Lucia and I just wanted to fantasise about being a professional musician. I stood on stage and stared out at the empty school hall and played Santa Lucia with all my heart. I had no idea that my parents were in the headmaster’s office below.
As my parents’ were in the meeting, my dad said ‘wait, listen. What’s that?’ and the headmaster said ‘it is just one of the boys that is in the brass band.’ And my dad listened again and must have recognised the tune. He said, “That’s Guy.” My mum and dad looked at the headteacher and said defiantly, “he’s staying here”.
Who knows what would have happened if that event hadn’t happened: because I stayed, and I became a musician. Even during my later years there, the school’s career advisor said I should have something to ‘fall back on’ if music didn’t work out. I politely replied “because if I have something to fall back on, then I might fall back on it!”
What was your first memory of playing jazz and joining NYJO as a teenager?.
As a kid, Jazz appeared in the shape of Jungle Book. I knew I had really fallen in love with Jazz with two records that my dad bought: one was a Louis Armstrong in the 30s and 40s, another was called The Golden Era of Dixieland Jazz which featured the great cornet player Rex Stewart who would make fabulous vocal sounds on his instrument by pushing the valves only halfway down and using a plunger mute. It wasn’t long after that I saw NYJO at the cockpit theatre. I remember being really knocked out by the fabulous flugelhorn playing of Dick Pearce as well as the wonderful lead trumpet playing of John Barclay who went on to be one of the busiest studio players in London.
NYJO was an amazing professional training ground for me. Sight reading, touring and improvising and the experience of being on the road with a bunch of great and enthusiastic musicians.
In 2018 you got the chance to conduct an ensemble of NYJO musicians at The Proms at the Royal Albert Hall. What was it like working with NYJO’s young players again?
Yes! They were working on a Stan Kenton version of West Side Story which Mark Armstrong was leading on. I got asked to conduct a piece Rhapsody in Blue, the original Jazz Band version with the great Benjamin Grosvenor as our piano soloist.
NYJO definitely prepared me for the freelance work which I found myself in as soon as I had left the band. Over the last 15 years, the majority of my music has been as a writer, arranger and composer and whenever I stand up to conduct a big band or an orchestra, I look out and inevitably there are always a number of ex-NYJO players there. The great thing was that being a part of the orchestra gave us all a strong connection.
How do you stay inspired?
I made a vow to myself I would never lose the excitement and enthusiasm I had for music at the age of 12. I want to hold on to the feeling of magic when I heard The Planets by Holst, Stravinsky’s Right of Spring, Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan playing anything.
As a working musician, being in London is a constant source of motivation. The venues and the performers you can find in them are truly world class. I never cease to be inspired by new musicians with new ideas that seem to turn up everyday.
What are your upcoming projects?
I am working on a number of things including Part II of a piece I collaborated on with the author Rob Ryan which was called ‘Inferno 67’ featuring a big band, three actors and two singers.