Pat Halcox born 18 March 1930

Patrick John Halcox (18 March 1930 – 4 February 2013), was an English jazz trumpeter. 

Pat Halcox was born in Chelsea and his parents thought that he might be a childhood prodigy, as he was playing the piano from the age of four. He stopped a few years later, but he returned to the instrument in 1945. He played boogie woogie and formed a makeshift jazz band with his friend Mick Mulligan. Halcox was conscripted in 1948 and was asked to play trombone in an RAF band. No sooner had he learnt the instrument than he was switched to trumpet. He was to cite his influences as Muggsy Spanier, Tommy Ladnier and Louis Armstrong. 

Originally destined to be a research chemist, Halcox took a trainee laboratory job at Glaxo, in Greenford, and began to study for his exams while pursuing his nascent interest in jazz. He had stumbled on traditional jazz when a record shop counter-hand played him a King Oliver record; he soon fell in with other like-minded enthusiasts. Having started on piano, Halcox transferred his allegiance to the trombone while in the RAF, but when his local friends needed a trumpeter for their amateur band, he changed instruments again, this time permanently. "I thought I'm not going to be left out," he said. "The trumpet wasn't a difficult leap in those early days." 

Balancing his growing passion for jazz with his day job – he also played football and hockey for Glaxo – proved to be more of a challenge. As he crammed in as many jazz sessions as he could, he began to fall behind in his studies. "I wasn't getting through any exams and before you know where you are, the music becomes the most important thing to you." 

Halcox began to play more and more, sitting in with an early version of Barber's group without anticipating his professional career in jazz. By 1954, Barber's band had begun to prosper, the advent of the cornettist Ken Colyer proving decisive until he decided the band's members were insufficiently committed to his purist viewpoint. Colyer was voted out of the band and Halcox was voted in. He recalled: "I thought I'll give it a go until it wears out, but you soon realise it doesn't." Although primarily the trumpet player, Halcox also had a fine singing voice, and led the band's various renditions of "Ice Cream", one of their most popular standards. He also played piano on the Lonnie Donegan recording of "Digging My Potatoes". 

                              

For the next 54 years, Halcox, Barber and the clarinettist Monty Sunshine (whose recording of Petite Fleur propelled the band to even more success) made up a frontline that balanced clear-eyed traditionalism with driving swing. Early on, Halcox had wedded himself to the strict New Orleans style; later, he broadened his tastes as the band widened its repertoire and toured with key players from the heyday of US mainstream jazz. 

Barber's deep understanding of African-American blues and gospel also brought the group into contact with Muddy Waters (they sat in with the bluesman at his Chicago South Side club) and Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Halcox remembered the UK tour with the ebullient American saxophonist Louis Jordan with pleasure: "Working with Louis Jordan was like being dragged along by wild horses. He went out to enjoy himself and make an impact, which he did." 

Halcox with Richard Burton

An excellent short film Momma Don't Allow, co-directed by Tony Richardson and Karel Reisz in 1955, showed the early band in their element, performing to a club full of happy jivers. Other film associations included the soundtrack for the 1959 screen adaptation of John Osborne's Look Back in Anger – Halcox tutored Richard Burton in how to mime the trumpet and dubbed his playing – and a brief appearance in 1962 by Halcox and a small group in The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. 

Known from 1968 as Chris Barber's Jazz and Blues Band, with the excellent blues guitarist John Slaughter as a regular sideman, it had, by 2001, morphed into the Big Chris Barber Band, with added instrumentalists enabling them to play Duke Ellington's 1920s material. While other band members came and went, Halcox stayed on, always playing with luminous elegance, his partnership with Barber at the core of everything they sought to achieve. 

The Barber band maintained an astonishing workload and Halcox would even guest with other bands on nights off. In 1977, when Barber took a summer break, Halcox formed his own All Star Band and continued this for several summers. He undertook cruise work and played on sessions, notably Elton John's album A Single Man (1978). Another passion in Halcox's life was photography and his work is in many of the band's programmes. 

As the band began to spend more time touring in Europe – they were especially popular in Germany – the travelling took its toll and at the age of 78 Halcox retired. He continued to play and front occasional bands of friends and sometimes returned to guest with Barber. He died on 4 February 2013 at the age of 82. 

(Edited mainly from Peter Vacher obit @ The Guardian with help from The Independent & Wikipedia)

Chris Barber born 17 April 1930

Donald Christopher Barber OBE (17 April 1930 – 2 March 2021) was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist.

Barber was born in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, the son of a statistician father and headmistress mother. He was educated at Hanley Castle Grammar School, Malvern, Worcestershire, to the age of 15, then St Paul's School in London and the Guildhall 

School of Music. 
 

Barber played trombone with Humphrey Lyttleton in 1949 and began leading his own bands in which he played trombone and double bass. Barber and Monty Sunshine (clarinet) formed a band in 1953, calling it Ken Colyer's Jazzmen to capitalise on their trumpeter's recent escapades in New Orleans: the group also included Donegan, Jim Bray (bass), Ron Bowden (drums) and Barber on trombone. The band played Dixieland jazz, and later ragtime, swing, blues and R&B. Pat Halcox took over on trumpet in 1954 when Colyer moved on after musical differences and the band became "The Chris Barber Band". 

In April 1953 the band made its debut in Copenhagen, Denmark. There Chris Albertson recorded several sides for the new Danish Storyville label, including some featuring only Sunshine, Donegan and Barber on double bass. The year 1955 saw the arrival of Barber's future wife, vocalist Ottilie Patterson, a blues-based performer who sang duets with Sister Rosetta Tharpe when the gospel/swing star sat in with the band in 1957. 

 

 

                             

In 1959 the band's version of Sidney Bechet's "Petite Fleur", a clarinet solo by Monty Sunshine with Barber on string bass, spent twenty-four weeks in the UK Singles Charts, making it to No. 3 and selling over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. After 1959 he toured the United States many times (where "Petite Fleur" charted at #5). 

Ottilie & Chris Barber

Although the Barber band featured traditional jazz in the New Orleans style, it later also engaged in Ragtime, Swing, Blues and R&B and worked with other artists including Louis Jordan and Dr. John. After 1959 he toured the United States many times. 

In the late 1950s and early 1960s Barber was mainly responsible for arranging the first UK tours of blues artists Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee and Muddy Waters. This, with the encouragement of local enthusiasts such as Alexis Korner and John Mayall, sparked young musicians such as Peter Green, Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones. British rhythm and blues powered the British invasion of the USA charts in the 1960s, yet Dixieland itself remained popular: in January 1963 the British music magazine, NME reported the biggest trad jazz event in Britain at Alexandra Palace. It included George Melly, Diz Disley, Acker Bilk, Alex Welsh, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer, Sunshine, Bob Wallis, Bruce Turner, Mick Mulligan and Barber. 
 

Barber stunned traditionalists in 1964 by introducing blues guitarist John Slaughter into the line up who, apart from a break between April 1978 and August 1986, when Roger Hill took over the spot, played in the band until shortly before his death in 2010. Barber next added a second clarinet/saxophone and this line-up continued until 1999. Then Barber added fellow trombonist/arranger Bob Hunt and another clarinet and trumpet. This eleven-man "Big Chris Barber Band" offered a broader range of music while reserving a spot in the programme for the traditional six-man New Orleans line-up. 

A recording of the Lennon–McCartney composition "Catswalk" can be heard, retitled "Cat Call", on The Songs Lennon and McCartney Gave Away. Written by Paul McCartney the song was recorded in late July 1967 and released as a single in the UK on 20 October 1967.

Recent band members who have moved on: Pat Halcox, trumpeter with the Chris Barber Band since its formation on 31 May 1954, retired after playing his last gig with the Big Chris Barber Band on 16 July 2008. Halcox and Barber were together in the band for 54 years - the longest continuous partnership in the history of jazz, exceeding even that of Duke Ellington and Harry Carney (48 years between 1926 and 1974).Tony Carter (reeds) also left the band at this time.

In 1991 Barber was awarded the OBE for his services to Music. As a trombone player Chris's work is enhanced by his rich sound and flowing solo style. It is, however, as a Bandleader and trend-creator that he has made his greatest contribution to the jazz scene both internationally and in the UK.

The 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century found Barber carrying the torch of trad jazz into a sixth decade of creative professional activity, often expanding his group to include 11 players while consistently delivering music of unpretentious warmth and historic depth.

In June 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from Durham University, and in September 2013 he was awarded the "Blues Louis" for his services to popularizing the blues in Europe at the "Lahnstein Blues Festival" (Germany), where he is honored with the annual award. In 2014, he was honored for his life's work with the German Jazz Trophy.

He died on 2 March 2021, aged 90, having suffered from dementia.

 (Info mainly from Wikipedia)