"British vibraphone virtuoso Roger Beaujolais took up the vibes in his early 30s, after spending many unprofitable years as a rock drummer. He hitched a ride to popularity on the back of the mid-1990s acid jazz movement, although in recent years he has moved into more traditional jazz territory. In Sheffield he appeared with his regular quintet for an evening of pulsating, Latin-tinged hard bop. They melded danceable clave rhythms to driving Art Blakey-style funk work-outs and a generous dose of the blues.

Beaujolais has a band of high-profile musicians, including the sublime Winston Clifford on drums and Mark Lockheart on saxophone. Stir Robin Aspland's spirited piano playing into the mix

and you've got an extremely sophisticated backdrop for Beaujolais's astonishing technique. The show came in two distinct halves; shorter pieces first, then an extended jazz suite of rare depth and cohesion.

Of the shorter pieces, Jazz Syrup best encapsulated the group's approach. Boasting a cosmopolitan swagger reminiscent of a Tubby Hayes band, it ducked and dived through a variety of double and half-time passages. Beaujolais frequently used his vibes atmospherically, lacing his cohort's solos with glowing clusters and graceful little counter-phrases. But he also turned on the heat: in full flight with two mallets in each hand, he gives the world's best vibes players a run for their money. Not bad for a failed rock tub-thumper."

If you've read my biography you'll notice he was a bit liberal with the facts but as it was such a good review I forgive him.....

Below are the usual things - attempts to try make you part with money etc. so please read on.....

I'm still regularly selling CD's through my site but unfortunately I've had to increase the price of the CD's. The exchange rate between £'s & $'s has meant that I was hardly making any money from the sales which didn't bother me too much until CCNow (the credit card company I use to sell them through) started taking a much larger cut from all sales. But if anyone feels like buying a CD (or two!) there are a few available through this site (all the albums from StayTuned Records + a few others including Tim Richards' Great Spirit) & it's possible to listen to a few short samples of tracks to help decide before you buy....... Unfortunately I no longer have any copies of the first Vibraphonic album (called "Vibraphonic"). To buy or listen to any of the CD's please click on the following link - Buy CDs. You can also hear samples of tracks via the pages of the relative band......

The interview I did for the Lunar Lounge website is still on their site if anyone's interested. Lunar Lounge is a club which has jazz/dance live nights at the Spitz in East London. I really enjoyed playing there one hot, sweaty evening in the summer of 2002. The interview can be found at www.lunarlounge.co.uk

Below is a shameless ego boost for me - I thought I'd leave it on the site for a while.

Gary Burton, the regular winner in the "Best Vibist" category of Downbeat magazine's annual jazz poll was in London in the summer of 2000 to play a week at the Pizza Express with Makoto Ozone. While there he was given a blindfold test by UK magazine "Jazz Review" that appeared in Sept 2000. It's the usual format: a musician is played tunes (usually featuring their own instrument) without being told who they're listening to.

Luckily for me, amongst tracks by Lionel Hampton, Roy Ayers, Bobby Hutcherson & Mike Mainieri he was played a track from my quintet album "For Old Times". The track was "Highway One", written by Bobby Hutcherson. Not surprisingly, he didn't recognise my playing but thought it might be one of the top guys in the USA at the moment which was very flattering. Below is a copy of what he said. The "Test" was performed by Mark Gilbert.

"This could be one of the newer players that I'm not real familiar with. I've heard a little bit of Stefon Harris and a little bit of Steve Nelson in recent years, but I'm not sure I would recognise their playing. I'm guessing it's one of those two guys, though there's a couple of other younger players as well. Joe Locke is another one. I would think it was one of those three, but of course it could be someone from Japan or France or something as well."
It's actually an English player, who may well be chuffed to hear you compare him with such distinguished young Americans.
"Well, I think jazz broke out of the bonds of just being an American music about 25 years ago, and became pretty global. We now have players from all kinds of countries that have established themselves as major players. I used to think jazz was just an American thing but when I started recording for ECM I met all these European players who were wonderful musicians. And because of ECM, that was the first time innovations started happening somewhere other than in the States. Here was a label in Europe that was starting to influence people back in the States."