Huw Warren reports on a special concert in mid-January in memory of Martin France.
Martin France was, without doubt, one of the most influential jazz drummers of his generation, forging important creative relationships with musicians such as Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, John Taylor, Perfect Houseplants, Julian Arguelles, Gwilym Simcock and many others. He was way more than just a technically gifted drummer, bringing a deep musicality and a remarkable ‘bird’s eye ‘ view to everything he played.
I won’t be the only composer who felt that Martin really helped define the way my music sounded through working on recordings such as the 6 albums with Perfect Houseplants (with Mark Lockheart and Dudley Phillips) as well as my 100’s of Things A Boy Can Make project (with Mark Feldman and Peter Herbert) and my 2009 recording of Hermeto Pascoal pieces – Hermeto + (again with Peter Herbert) Equally important as a tutor and mentor, Martin encouraged and guided a whole roster of younger musicians, including being part of the RWCMD jazz department since 2004.
For our tribute, I was joined by close friends Iain Ballamy and Dudley Phillips who were both central figures in Martin’s broad and varied musical life. We decided to play music associated with Martin including the great John Taylor tune Rusticelli, Iain’s iconic Strawberries, Dudley’s piece (from Perfect Houseplants’ New Folk Songs) Dunwich and the Sea, and a piece of mine from my Dylan Thomas inspired suite Do Not Go Gentle, Fernhill. This was a project that we toured and performed with Martin, Iain and Steve Watts, including a concert in 2017 at RWCMD. For the opening set we featured different student drummers, and I’m very grateful to graduates Tom Williams and Zach Breskal for coming back to be a part of this. All the music played by the student group was also directly connected to various recordings featuring Martin.
As ever for the AmserJazz performances, there was a capacity audience who created a wonderfully warm sense of occasion. It really felt like an apt and fitting celebration of our much missed friend and colleague.
Full line up:
Set 1: (Starts at [10:55] on YouTube above)
Zach Breskal, Tom Williams, Phil Thompson and Sam Green – Drums
Tom Barber – Piano
Cameron Saint – Bass
Sofiia Bilovil – Saxophone
Set 2: (Starts at [54:45] on Youtube above)
Iain Ballamy – Saxophone
Huw Warren – Piano
Dudley Phillips – Bass
Dave Smith – Drums
The 606 Club has a concert in memory of Martin France on 3 March 2025. All tickets have been sold. Donations to the Prostate Cancer Targeted Therapies Group at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden.
