Blowzabella

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Blowzabella are an English band who play hurdy-gurdies, bagpipes, melodeons and an array of acoustic instruments to produce an inimitable, driving drone-based sound influenced by British and European traditional dance music.

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[edit] History

Blowzabella is a band that combines hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, violin, diatonic accordion, saxophones, clarinets and bass to produce an inimitable, driving drone-based sound played with a fabulous sense of melody, rhythmic expertise and sheer feeling.

Blowzabella is : Andy Cutting - diatonic button accordion. Jo Freya - clarinet, saxophones. Paul James - bagpipes, saxophones. Gregory Jolivet - hurdy-gurdy. David Shepherd - violins. Barn Stradling - bass guitar. Jon Swayne - bagpipes, saxophones.

Since they began in 1978 their music has evolved from simple performances of traditional English and European dance tunes to more complex arrangements of tunes composed by themselves. Over the years the line-up of the band has changed, and the signature wall of sound has evolved too, while staying true to a set of basic principles that were there from the start - the use of drones and unusual instruments, memorable tunes, an emphasis on strong rhythmic playing and improvisation around the melody, harmonies and rhythms so that every piece can develop over time through live performance.Blowzabella was formed in Whitechapel, London in 1978 by Bill O’Toole (bagpipes, flutes) from Sydney, Australia and Jon Swayne (bagpipes, flutes) from Glastonbury, Somerset. The first musicians they invited to join them either came from London or were living there at the time - Juan Wijngaard (hurdy-gurdy, flemish bagpipes) who taught the band some of the first tunes they played, Chris Gunstone (bouzouki, tapan), Sam Palmer (hurdy-gurdy) who took over from Juan in 1978, and Dave Armitage (melodeon, bombarde, percussion). Dave Roberts (melodeon, percussion) joined in late 1979 when Bill returned to Australia.When the band began Jon, Bill and Dave were studying woodwind instrument making and Sam had just finished studying fretted instrument making at the London College of Furniture in Commercial Road, Whitechapel. Jon and Sam lived in an area of run down tenements rather optimistically called Fieldgate Mansions near the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the East London Mosque and the men’s hostel where Joseph Stalin once stayed. Jon’s flat at 14 Fieldgate Mansions, Myrdle Street was bequeathed to Dave and was Blowzabella HQ for the next five years or so. Chris lived in Blackheath and was heavily involved in balkan music and dance. This led to there being a Macedonian “wing” of the band called Izvoren who played with Balkan dance groups around London. Australian multi-cultural music guru Linsey Pollak (macedonian gaida, kaval, saxophone) was in London around that time and played balkan music with some of the band and Peter Lees, a wonderful hammered dulcimer player who they met at the College, did a few gigs with Blowzabella in the very early days. Blowzabella is the name of an English jig from the late 17th or early 18th century. Bill came across it in Wrights “Complete Collection of Celebrated Country Dancing” while trawling in the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House for one octave English tunes to play on the bagpipes. The “blow” and the “bella” seemed to describe the band and the name stuck. Bill had been playing zurnas (shawms) on stilts in Australia and had the idea of literally elevating the band. The first public performances in 1978/79 were at festivals and fairs with Blowzabella drawing attention as an energetic stilt walking dance band in bizarre costumes. The line-up was Bill O’Toole, Jon Swayne, Chris Gunstone, Sam Palmer and Dave Armitage. The pipes were very much to the fore playing the tune with the hurdy-gurdy close behind and the rhythm being supplied by the bouzouki and percussion - usually a Balkan double-headed tapan or a side drum. The repertoire was a mixture of English, Balkan, French and Flemish traditional dance tunes. Bill made the first sets of bagpipes the band used, Sam made hurdy-gurdies, Jon made flutes and recorders and later went onto pipe making and Dave Armitage made curtals and bombardes. This was partlybecause they could and partly because there were so few others making the instruments they wanted to play. Since then the band have continued to work with a number of instrument makers and the band’s sound is partly the result of their work. In the early days the band played at alternative festivals including the Festival of Fools, the Albion Fairs, Barsham, Rougham Tree and Hood Fairs, in the street, at parties and college gigs. Those festivals were unusual in the way they brought together such a wide variety of alternative entertainment - street theatre, all kinds of bands, stand-up comedy, improvised music, new circus, free poets, performance artists, pagans, bikers, locals and people of all ages. From 1978 onwards the band also went every year to a festival in central France in a small village called Saint Chartier. In its early days the festival was predominantly about the traditional music, dances and instruments of central France particularly the bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and accordion. The alternative festivals with their creative atmosphere and eclectic mix of contemporary, independent artists and Saint Chartier with its great musicians and all night playing and dancing were major formative influences on Blowzabella.

In terms of development, between 1978 and 1990 there were three overlapping eras the early days from 1978 to 1980 with the original line-up, full of raw energy and ideas and establishing the Blowzabella wall of sound. The next phase was from 1980 to 1985 with the arrival of Paul James (bagpipes, saxophone, woodwinds) and Cliff Stapleton (hurdy-gurdy) in late 1980, Dave Armitage (who had left in 1980 but rejoined in late 1982, playing bass curtal and percussion) and Dave Shepherd (violin) who joined in 1983. This was a period when the band started to experiment with composing and arranging and when they played at all the major European Festivals including the main stage at Glastonbury Festival. It was also the hey day of The Three Daves (Armitage, Roberts and Shepherd) all great players, dancers and enthusiasts for traditional English dance music. The band was always large enough, usually six or seven musicians, and busy enough, to be self-reliant and there was never much need or opportunity to collaborate with other musicians. The one exception to this was a long-standing friendship with the singer Frankie Armstrong which culminated in the album Tam Lin in 1984 and some live performances in Britain, Europe and Canada. The third phase started with the album Wall of Sound in 1986 and finished when the band split up in 1990. This period saw a major line-up change with the arrival of a very young Nigel Eaton (hurdy-gurdy), Ian Luff (cittern, bass guitar), English folk diva Jo Freya (vocals, saxophone, clarinet) and then another astonishing young player - Andy Cutting (diatonic button accordion). They injected a lot of new energy, ideas and major musical talent. They were able to build on everything that had gone before, greatly increase the amount of music composed by the band, and hone the sound and reputation of Blowzabella as a powerful live band. During this period they travelled widely across Britain and Europe, touring East Germany before the fall of the iron curtain, around Brazil and a tour that took in Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria.

Since 1978 the band have developed an enormous repertoire and can play for dancing continuously for hours on end and still have lists of tunes they haven’t played. Despite making ten albums much of their repertoire has, so far, never made it onto record. In the early days the band borrowed traditional tunes from all over England, Europe and the Balkans and adapted them to their needs and instrumentation. Soon though this wasn’t enough to keep them occupied and the ability of band members to compose and arrange their own material grew in importance and started to define what the band was about.

British and European traditional dance rhythms are pan-European. The local and regional differences are akin to accents and dialects of the same basic language. These differences are best expressed through local variations in instrumentation, tuning, phrasing, tempo and the style of tunes. A polka from Poland and a polka from Ireland sound far apart in character but they follow the same basic rules of what makes a polka dance work. From the outset the band realised that there were far more similarities than differences in the music across Europe and it partly explains why they became equally popular in all the European countries where they played. They had a knack of sounding familiar enough to be accessible and foreign enough to be interesting to audiences both at home and abroad. Possibly because they concentrated on dance music the most basic language and one which needs no explanation or translation - they were able to build an audience of people of all ages with very different musical tastes. The line-up has always included musicians who are also good dancers and dance teachers Dave Armitage, Chris Gunstone, Jo Freya, Bill O’Toole, Dave Roberts and Dave Shepherd. They showed the audience how the dances went and because they were also musicians in the band, rather than an addition or guest, they were able to influence the way the band played in terms of tune structure, tempo and the inner rhythms that make dance music work. In addition, the band made a conscious effort to engage with their audience by staging an annual workshop festival which introduced large numbers of people to playing and dancing and that contributed to the formation of bands in several countries. This whole approach proved to be influential and many European bands who wanted to experiment beyond the boundaries of “folk” music cite Blowzabella as a major influence.

For more information go to www.blowzabella.com or www.myspace.com/blowzabella

Source : Blowzabella. New Tunes for Dancing. ISBN 0-9549013-0-4