Roy Kerridge

Chris Barber should let someone meaner tell his story

Jazz Me Blues is a memoir of a remarkable life by a man far too nice to do it justice

Chris Barber Photo: Redferns/Getty 
issue 16 August 2014
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  • Jazz Me Blues

    Chris Barber, with Alyn Shipton

    Equinos Publishing, pp. 172

Chris Barber, still going strong with his big band, was born in 1930. He heard jazz as a schoolboy on the radio programme Music While You Work and tried to find out more about this wonderful music. He soon discovered that, in his words, ‘black music was the real thing, although some white people managed it pretty well’.

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