There’s no sign yet of the dust settling on the Loose Tubes phenomenon, but we already have a clear view of their importance and place in big band history. In the early days, the idea was that every Loose Tubes gig would be an ‘event’, a ‘happening’ and not just a concert, but in fact the band’s very existence has been an event, and one which deserves to stand as a landmark in the chronicles of British, if not international, modern jazz. They’ve excited and amused a lot of people, and probably touched more ‘non-jazz’ types than any other band with jazz persuasions in the recent past.
The reasons for this accessibility are immediately evident to anyone who’s seen them live and to a lesser degree to those who have heard them on radio or record: For one thing they’re mostly young, and they differ from other ‘youth’ bands in not looking or behaving like boy scouts. In fact, they have avoided entirely the Baden Powell mentality that seems to dull the spirit of so many modern big bands – the kind who cover old tunes or dream up would be contemporary material that is still a good 10 years out of step. Loose Tubes is a band in which boys will be boys, and where the drive to surprise runs more than skin deep.
Another thing, and an equally important one, is that they’ve tooled up with any idiom, ancient or modern, that suits their purpose. Sample the mutant bebop blues and collective Dixie style improvisation of Rowing, the Latin rhythms of Descarga, the reggae of Yellow Hill and the gospel preaching of Arriving. Furthermore, they’ve taken on board today’s technology as if they grew up with it – which, of course, they did. Bates uses synthesisers, Arguelles electric percussion and Parricelli digital delay, and the results are nonetheless musical, as well as being familiar to today’s listeners. The sum total is entertainment, a dash of art and a clear extension of the big band form.
As I said in my review of the band’s first week at Ronnie Scott’s, before they mushroomed into popular consciousness, if this is big bands coming back, they should stay. Strangely, this rather powerful slogan was not included in the press digest which accompanied this fine record.
Discography
Eden Express; Rowing Boat Delineation Egg; Descarga; Descarga Ocurriencia (22.53) – Yellow Hill; Mister Zee; Arriving (17.31)
lain Bellamy, Steve Buckley (as/ss); Tim Whitehead, Mark Lockheart (ts); Howard Turner, Dave Bitelli (bar); Dai Pritchard (cl/bcl); Eddie Parker (f); Dave DeFries, John Eacott, Chris Batchelor, Lance Kelly, Steve Waterman (t); John Harbourne, Steve Day, Richard Pywell (tb); Ashley Slater (btb); Dave Powei! (tu); Django Bates (kyb/melodica); John Parricelli (elg); Steve Berry (b); Nic France (d/eld); Steve Arguelles (pc). Recorded 12/84 and 9/ 85 in London.
(LTLP001)
