Gary Husband
The Homecoming.

Interview from The Leeds Guide, July, 1999.
This was for a "Homecoming" appearance for the Gary Husband New Trio.





The Gary Husband NEW Trio, featuring...
Gene Calderazzo on drums,
Gary on piano and keyboards,
Mick Hutton on acoustic bass.

Q: So having left Leeds in the 70's to live in London, how do you feel the jazz scene has changed in Leeds?

Gary: I'm never here long enough to be able to tell, but what I do know is that through Leeds Jazz there are a lot of musicians coming from all over to play in Leeds, so it seems to be a livelier scene on this score, musically. Going back to the early 70's, when I was coming up, there were wine bars, places like Grobs. Do you perhaps remember Grobs? I used to play down there when I was only thirteen, or fourteen. There was the Forde Greene pub also, where we used to play a lot. The university I played at once very early on with my new found guitar player friend at that time, Steve Topping! Then there was the old Playhouse, where I visited a few years after with Allan Holdsworth and Gordon Beck.

Q: I remember seeing you at that one, with the mega-guitarist Holdsworth. Are you doing any work with him now?

G: Sure, pretty regularly. We sort of get drawn together through some mystical energy, even though we spend long periods apart, either through arguing, or just geographical logistics - I don't spend as much time as I used to in the States. I go to Japan a lot with him - we still have this Golden Week slot open to us in the Tokyo club Pit Inn on pretty much of an annual basis, and that's great because it's five or six nights on the trot.

Q: How did you manage to link up with Level 42?

G: In late 1987, I was approached by Mark King to come and make up a new version of the band, as the original team seemed to have fallen out! I always loved pop music, but still, it was a pretty different kind of a gig for me being an improviser by nature, but Mark came over in some very sincere terms and I went for it. Some people liked it, some hated it, but that's part of the deal. (Steve) Topping came in with me also, on my recommendation for five minutes.
Y'know, I've played a lot of pop music, and enjoyed it too. I figure that, if I can't do my own thing 100 per cent of the time, then I'd rather be active in some different kinds of music just to keep my interest threshold high.

Q: You also featured as writer and keyboard player during that five year period. What visual artist would you equate yourself with?

G: I feel a great affinity with a lot of the impressionists. It gets to the core of the way sometimes I like to write - definitely the way I play.

Q: This recent album, with The New Gary Husband Trio, "From The Heart", encompasses lots of your improvised rearrangements of jazz standards. How long did it take to put together?

G: It all came very quickly, and it was over a completely concentrated three week period. Almost a dizzying experience. I just allowed it to come in like a breeze through the window, and when it stopped being windy it was no longer there. Everything came, the special guest singers, and the idea to approach each specific one, to the point I was even hearing their voice in my head, singing, while I was arranging. I guess it's all slightly weird, because they all come from very different stylistic backgrounds, but, you go with your intuition don't you?

Q: What made you pursue the piano side of things in favour of the drums?

G: Because, a little voice said "You have to be playing piano at the moment." I mean, I'm always going to love playing drums, but I don't want to be ONLY be playing them tied down in other people's bands all the time, and this started to get a little bit over the top recently. It's been really hard to play my own music from a drummer standpoint, so this new direction is a leap towards an area where there seems to be more of an opening, in terms of general interest. This, I suppose, is the "marketing" side of me getting an idea about making a splash, "changing instruments" and all this! It's just survival, really, and getting behind what you do when others don't.

Gary tinkling the ivories!

Q: How do you see the band evolving?

G: I really, deeply hold high hopes for it. People are really enjoying it "live" too. It's ... a "moving" band, and the day that it stops moving, and travelling, developing, we'll say goodbye."


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