Roger Beaujolais’s new album Bags of Vibes, a tribute to Milt Jackson with special guest Jim Mullen, will be out on StayTuned Records on 13 May 2024. He starts a tour in Plymouth tonight, with other dates in Leicester, Norwich, Cheltenham… and will then be touring Japan and the UK with Fairground Attraction.
Roger Beaujolais, probably the most well-known and popular of the UK’s jazz vibraphone players, is self-taught and steeped in the history of some of the greatest players of that instrument over the past century.
In his new album Bags of Vibes, coming out on 13 May on StayTuned Records, he pays special tribute to jazz vibes maestro Milt Jackson, one of his earliest influences, and his record features a soaring cover version of ‘Moonray’, the song Jackson cut for Prestige Records back in 1955. “That’s from Milt Jackson Quartet, the first Milt album I heard,” Beaujolais tells UK Jazz News. “and I play that arrangement on the record.”
Beaujolais, who was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, on 22 November 1952, lived for a time in Devon and he is touring the West Country in May (including gigs in Plymouth, Newton Abbot and Totnes) to promote the album and celebrate his favourite instrument, in a show called ‘100 Years of Vibraphone’, which will also feature tunes by Lionel Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson and Gary Burton.
On the new album, he is accompanied with panache by pianist Robin Aspland, Simon Thorpe on double bass and drummer Winston Clifford, who together interpret Jackson’s work with dedication and soulfulness.
The tracks include ‘Some Kinda Waltz’, the swinging ‘Bags Groove’ a slick cover of ‘Heartstrings’ – a Jackson track from 1957 that featured jazz titans Cannonball Adderley on saxophone and Horace Silver on piano – along with the bossa nova tinged ‘Come to Me’. Among the highlights is ‘Blues for Bags’, which features a Wes Montgomery-style octave solo from guitarist Jim Mullen (who also guests on versions of ‘SKJ’ and ‘Jingles’).
What qualities does Mullen bring to the album? “In my opinion, Jim Mullen is one of the most soulful musicians in the UK, so it was an honour to have him on my album,” responds Beaujolais. “For me, one of the hallmarks of a great musician is that they’re instantly recognisable. And Jim is certainly that. Essentially, whenever he’s involved, the bar is raised!”
Beaujolais has been a professional musician for more than 40 years and admits he was a “late-starter”, in part down to what he admits was a lack of confidence that left him tongue-tied in some public situations and a “dysfunctional upbringing” that saw him spend a lot of time out of his family home and socialising with a wide range of people from different backgrounds. “Basically, I learnt how to fit into lots of different groups of people who wouldn’t necessarily get on with each other. And this is precisely how I’ve been able to make a living playing vibraphone. I’m not as opinionated as some and I’m not a musical snob so I can move from one musical circle to another without ever feeling like I’m compromising myself. If I hadn’t been able to do this I don’t think I could have survived.”
What got him to what he calls a “happy place” – one where he is capable of talking eloquently in front of audiences, was playing music. So was it hard to teach yourself the vibraphone in the era before YouTube videos? “I knew nothing about music and had to learn all the scales and how chords were constructed as well as how to technically play. I tried to get lessons but had no money so I learned from three books, including one about the tuned mallet technique,” he says.
He is now an expert and audiences on his tour will be treated to swinging music and a history of the vibraphone, an instrument that first went on sale in 1924. He will talk about its master players. “Very few people know what a vibraphone is, so I often end up explaining what makes it unique. It has a vibrato and on the original models that was run by a clockwork motor and there was only one speed – fast – which is why Lionel Hampton has the sound he does. At the time there was no choice, it was either off or on. Since the mid-1940’s the motor which runs the vibrato has been electric and the speed can be varied. If Milt Jackson had appeared on the scene 10 years earlier than he did, he wouldn’t have been able to use a slower speed for his vibrato, which became his signature sound.”
Hampton remains one of Beaujolais’s favourite players, along with Cal Tjader and Bobby Hutcherson. “Hampton, being the first jazz vibes player, has a special place in all vibes players’ hearts,” he explains. “He was a man of his era and was a great entertainer and always played with a lot of energy and with a smile on his face. He opened the door for the rest of us. I’m a fan of Latin music, so Cal Tjader has always been an important vibes player for me, as that’s his speciality. He’s a very tasteful player and less technical than a lot of other players. Not that he doesn’t have a great technique, he does, it’s more that he never sounds like he’s trying to impress. A very musical approach and I listen to him a lot.”
He also says he owes a lot to Blue Note star Hutcherson. “Hearing a couple of Hutcherson albums in 1977 is what inspired me to play vibraphone, so he is special to me,” says Beaujolais. “He came up at a time when jazz was becoming more experimental and more harmonically challenging and was influenced by the new music that was being played by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and others in the late 1950’s & early 1960’s. Hutcherson mellowed a bit over the years but always had an edge to what he played. Again, a man of his time, he’s probably the most experimental of the top vibists in jazz history.”
Beaujolais has had an eclectic, interesting career, performing with stars as diverse as Slim Gailliard and Suggs. After his own eight-day tour, starting in Devon and Cornwall, and – with a trio featuring guitarist Neil Burns – he will be heading to Japan in June to perform with the re-formed folk-rock band Fairground Attraction, who are playing their first gigs in 35 years with featured singer Eddi Reader. “I have quite a bit of work coming up with them this year and recently spent three days in the studio with them recording a new album,” he says. “Fairground Attraction are an acoustic band and one of their strengths is creating atmospheres, so they like vibes for that reason. They’re fun to play with! Also, they’re nice people and very good musicians. In some ways, it’s like hanging out with old friends.”
For now, though, there is the excitement of his own new album and a tour that will aim to educate audiences about the vibraphone, a quest that is perfect for his goal in life: to communicate. So how does his personality fit in with playing the vibraphone? “I’m sociable and a good listener – so many people have told me – and that has been an asset. On a good night, I’m able to make people laugh and that’s satisfying,” he says. “A lot of people think the most important thing in jazz is to know all the modes of the melodic minor scales (or whatever), but if you can’t get on with people, or are aloof or arrogant, or very opinionated, less people will book you.”
Bags of Vibes sounds like bags of fun.
Roger Beaujolais: Bags of Vibes is out on StayTuned Records (ST013) on 13 May 2024.
Friday 3 May Roger Beaujolais/Neil Burns Trio
Patchwork Studios @ 7:00 pm
Barrack Block, Torpoint, PL10 1LA
Saturday 4 May Roger Beaujolais/Neil Burns Trio
The Dog & Donkey Inn @ 7:00 pm, 24 Knowle Rd, Budleigh Salterton. EX9 6AL
Sunday 5 May Roger Beaujolais/Neil Burns Trio
The Bay Horse Inn @ 7:30 pm 8 Cistern St Totnes TQ9 5SP
Further dates – and a Japan tour with Fairground Attraction – are linked to below
