UK Progressive Rock Legend, Martin Barre, Confirmed as snd Headliner for RoSfest in 2019 Celebrating 50 Years of Jethro Tull

UK composer and musician Martin Barre is best known for being a vital member of legendary progressive rock band Jethro Tull being their guitarist for more than four decades and performing on all their classic albums. His sound and contributions to the band have been a major factor in their success. Album sales have exceeded 60 million units and they continue to be played worldwide, representing an important part of progressive rock history.

Martin’s guitar playing has earned him a high level of respect and recognition; he was voted 25th best solo ever in the USA and 20th best solo ever in the UK for his playing on ‘Aqualung’. His playing on the album ‘Crest of a Knave’ earned him a Grammy award in 1988. As well as numerous Jethro Tull albums, Martin has worked with many other artists including Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa and Chris Thompson and has shared a stage with such legends as Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. While he is now firmly established as a solo artist, he is not a stranger to his past, and that past will be a vital part of the headliner show that will be presented at ROSfest, 2019.


Clive Bunker
Clive was born on the 12th of December, 1946. He took up the drums as a serious occupation with his friend and compatriot, Mick Abrahams in the group “McGregor’s Engine” in 1967. Based in Luton, England, the band played in the general locality with Clive mustering an extraordinary non-matching drum kit, comprised of bits and pieces of various manufacturers’ equipment. It was as a drummer of “mix and match” description that he joined the fledgling Jethro Tull at the end of ’67 to accompany Ian Anderson, Mick and Glenn Cornick in the early, heady days of the post-blues-boom years of Brit-rock.

Never the self-professed technical drummer, Clive made his impact, based on his throbbing, gritty engagement with the essence of blues and rock and roll, moved by the work of Ginger Baker, Mitch Mitchell et al.

Later, Clive was to become firm friends of Corky Laing of “Mountain” and the many other drummers from the bands with which the early Tull found themselves appearing on the first US tours in 1969 and 1970. After the album “Aqualung”, Clive felt that Tull was entering a more complex musical phase, not so much in keeping with his own earthier roots, and volunteered to take early retirement to the different world of marriage, dog kennel management, and a venture in light engineering which had been his previous profession. Tull continued with the employment of Barrie Barlow, an old chum of Ian’s and John’s from schooldays in Blackpool.

In 1974, Clive joined the band “Blodwyn Pig” which Mick Abrahams had formed on his departure from Tull in 1969.

Today, Clive still remains a sought-after session musician, with many, many credits to his name amongst the world of old and not-so-old music groups.

Jonathan Noyce
A native of England, Jonathan Noyce was born in 1971. After trying his hand at many different instruments, Noyce eventually settled on the bass. He did his time at the Royal Academy of Music, beginning in 1990. It was during this time that he first hooked up with David Palmer. In 1995, Noyce met Jethro Tull guitarist Martin Barre, who eventually recommended him as a possible bassist for Ian Anderson’s solo tour. He got the gig and did that tour. Shortly after, he went on to become the bass player for Jethro Tull following the departure of Dave Pegg in 1995. He has been with that group ever since, although he still finds time to do other projects.

This show will celebrate 50 years of Jethro Tull in the United States. The show will revolve around a music history of Jethro Tull with Barre and two other former members of Jethro Tull.  Clive Bunker, who was their drummer from 1967 to 1971, and Jonathan Noyce, Tull’s bassist from 1995 to 2007.  In addition to the three aforementioned members, Martin Barre will be joined by members of his solo band on tour. They are vocalist Dan Crisp, bassist Alan Thompson, and drummer Darby Todd.

This performance will be 2, 60-minute sets with a 15-minute intermission. This is a world class performance delivered by one of the world’s best, most renowned guitarists.

Apart from Ian Anderson’s own solo concerts, this will be the closest thing you can get to experiencing a Jethro Tull concert in 2019, consisting of former members of Jethro Tull performed by seasoned musicians of which several were a part of the band itself and hence know this material intimately. It doesn’t get much better than that. If you like “Sitting on a Park Bench” there are several across the street from the Sarasota Opera House or you can come inside in the air-conditioned theater and enjoy the bliss with Martin Barre performing Jethro Tull 50th Anniversary Tour!

RoFest 2019 will take place on May 3rd through 5th, 2019 at the Sarasota Opera House, Florida. The final line-up and schedule for the festival are still TBA. Confirmed bands to appear so far are Headliner – Riverside, Karmamoi, Traverser, Entransient, and Edge of Reality.

Links:

Martin Barre official website: http://martinbarre.com

Martin Barre FaceBook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/officialmartinbarre/about/?ref=page_internal

Clive Bunker – Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Bunker

Jonathan Noyce FaceBook:  https://www.facebook.com/Jonathan-Noyces-Conscientious-and-Fully-Formed-Musical-Information-Page-129222920462334/

 

GARY HUSBAND first solo tour of Japan in support of A MEETING OF SPIRITS

Gary Husband is frequenting lately very often the MoonJune Universe. The extraordinarily talented British drummer / pianist / keyboardist / composer is celebrated for his high level association with world class jazz, fusion and rock icons and legends such as Allan Holdsworth, John McLaughlin, Jack Bruce, Gary Moore, Robin Trower, Billy Cobham, and he is lately recording and performing with MoonJune Records recording artists such as Beledo, Dewa Budjana, Dusan Jevtovic, Mark Wingfield, Asaf Sirkis and Jason Smith. Gary Husband will appear for these second time in Japan as a very special guest with the British progressive jazz-rock institution Soft Machine, on July 28th and 29th in Tokyo and on July 31st in Osaka, with John Etheridge on guitar, Theo Travis on sax/flute, Roy Babbington on bass and John Marshall on drums. During the same visit to Japan, maestro Gary Husband will perform there solo concerts; in Yokohama on July 26th, in Osaka on July 30th and in Nagoya on August 1st.

“A Meeting Of Spirits In Japan Tour” is not only the promotion of Gary’s latest album on the English record label Edition, but also celebration of the music of John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth and his own music.

I am encouraging You to hear this truly amazing album, and buying on BandCamp You are supporting directly both the artist and his independent record label.
“A Meting Of Spirits” is available in CD and Download format on:
www.garyhusbandmusic.bandcamp.com
CDs are £9.99 +shipping (shipped from UK)
Instant download is £8.20 (FLAC/WAV/ALAC, MP3-320 formats)
“A Meting Of Spirits” is released on Edition Records, UK:
www.editionrecords.com

“Gary Husband is a musician of many talents – his instruments are piano, in-piano percussion, voice and bell – and has been at the forefront of the international jazz scene for many years. He is that rare breed: a musician equally fluent in expression, and internationally lauded, on two instruments, in this case, drums and keyboard. Even more singular is his ability to bring together the fruits of a career that have included classical training, improvisational versatility and long experience on the pop, rock, funk and blues circuits into a distinctive and influential musical personality.” – Grady Harp, Amazon

“A Meeting Of Spirits succeeds as an interpretational and at times, impressionistic representation of the music of McLaughlin, the undeniable maestro of jazz. It also serves as a timely reminder of the massive contribution that McLaughlin has made to music, whilst all the while Husband effortlessly exudes a prodigious talent of his own. – Roger Farbey, All About Jazz

“What’s most remarkable is how Husband’s own pieces mesh with McLaughlin’s, creating a common ground that reflects of a deeper understanding of McLaughlin’s vast vernacular, along with Husband’s own evolving language and virtuosic pianism. McLaughlin has never sounded so dark, so abstract or so contextually unfettered. But equally, Husband finds the line that threads through McLaughlin’s stylistically diverse career, making A Meeting of Spirits an innovative tribute that’s reverential but always speaks with its own voice.” – John Kelman, All About Jazz

Gary Husband has been at the forefront of the international jazz scene for many years. He is that rare breed: a musician equally fluent in expression, and internationally lauded, on two instruments, in this case, drums and keyboard. Even more singular is his ability to bring together the fruits of a career that have included classical training, improvisational versatility and long experience on the pop, rock, funk and blues circuits into a distinctive and influential musical personality.

Gary’s latest album, and his first for Edition, A Meeting of Spirits is an innovative re-interpretation of the music of legendary guitarist, bandleader and composer John McLaughlin that in many ways demonstrates the totality of Husband’s multifaceted talent. In “…dissecting, reforming and freshly presenting…” the music of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Husband – a long time collaborator with McLaughlin – pays personal and intimate homage to the iconic guitarist while showcasing his own highly distinctive creativity and personal expression.

And McLaughlin returns the compliment, summing up this beautiful work: “Gary Husband the pianist has long been overshadowed by Gary Husband the drummer. I can personally testify to it. However, here we have a recording which will probably achieve the reverse of what I just wrote. In addition, he has chosen to base this recording primarily on my own compositions. I am honoured. This is a recording that is full of surprises; and the fact that I have difficulty in recognizing one or two of my own compositions is only one of them! But Gary is no ordinary musician: full of invention and surprises, modulations and inversions of melodic, harmonic and rhythmic content abound.”

While the album is a tribute to McLaughlin’s music, it’s no slavish copy. As arranger and composer Michael Gibbs suggests: “I’m not sure that the word interpretations is the right one for these performances – they go so much further – not even close to what the industry calls covers – so individual are they.”

Gary’s now thirteen-year-long involvement with John McLaughlin (and the band The 4th Dimension) has sat alongside tenures with Billy Cobham (most recently in Cobham’s Spectrum 40 band), regular projects with Hamburg’s NDR Big Band, further touring or recording commitments with artists such as Lenny White, Didier Lockwood, Joachim Kuhn and Enrico Rava, in addition to activity in the legendary ground-breaking over three-decades-long association he shared with the late Allan Holdsworth. But despite these fruitful encounters, it’s with this personal and rewarding project that we are placed directly in touch with just how significantly – as an arranger, composer and multi-instrumentalist – Gary Husband has evolved. Of this – the second of his two “Interpretations Of” piano albums – he says “I’m proudest, to date, of this album … actually of both these works.”

GARY HUSBAND performing with SOFT MACHINE in 2018

JULY 28 – Tokyo, Japan (Billboard Live) – 2 show (piano/keyboards)
JULY 29 – Tokyo, Japan (Billboard Live) – 2 show (piano/keyboards)
JULY 31 – Osaka, Japan (Billboard Live) – 2 show (piano/keyboards)
OCTOBER 16, Tue – Toronto, ON (Mod Club) – (drums)
OCTOBER 17, Wed – Buffalo, NY (The Tralf) – (drums)
OCTOBER 18, Thu – Cleveland, OH (Beachland Music Hall) – (drums)
OCTOBER 19, Fri – Indianapolis, IN (Irving Theater) – (drums)
OCTOBER 21, Sun – Chicago (Reggie’s, Progtober Fest) – (drums)
OCTOBER 22, Mon – Milwaukee, WI (Shank Hall) – (drums)
OCTOBER 23, Tue – St. Paul, MN (The Turf) – (drums)