DAVID NEWTON

Candid recordings:

Biography:

John Dankworth has said that David is "a national treasure" and I think he was implying that he should be better appreciated in his own country. Since the comment was made, to a large extent this has occurred and his reputation has never been stronger. That this is well deserved goes without saying; that it has happened when other promising British jazz performers have failed to live up to their potential is as much a tribute to David's management of his career as it is to his talent.

This talent not only embraces playing in small group mainstream jazz and accompanying various female singers, but also extends to composition, arranging and a thorough knowledge of stage presentation in almost any form. These latter elements undoubtedly came from his repertory days with Alan Ayckbourn in Scarborough and later in a spell at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh.

He studied music at school, playing the clarinet at first, then bassoon, but when he became interested in jazz he realized he needed to see the keys in order to learn to improvise, so he switched to keyboards. This was in the early 1970s and at this stage he was influenced as much by the electronic outpourings of Yes, Genesis and Emerson Lake &Palmer as he was by Return to Forever. He then went on to study at Leeds College of Music where he graduated. It was at this time he first met Alan Barnes and the two have remained good friends and musical colleagues ever since.

David is unmistakably Scottish, having been brought up in Newton Mearns, Renfrewshire, which is part of the Glasgow conurbation. His wife, Marjorie, is English and it was her job which took David back to Scotland in 1983, where he stayed for nearly five years. In Edinburgh, David became a linchpin of the local scene, working as a musical director at the Lyceum Theatre and providing support for visiting American stars in the clubs.

One of these latter gigs had a significant effect on David's view of his own talent, which up to this time had been moderate. Muddy Waters was over an hour late for a concert and David, without any preparation, had to play a solo piano programme to keep the audience happy. The success of this went a long way to convincing him that his future might lie in jazz.After realizing the limitations of Edinburgh and recognizing that London was the only place to be if he wanted to make a name for himself, he and Marjorie, who was also keen to be "in the smoke", took the journey south in 1987. There, he quickly settled into several different types of work: quartet gigs with Alan Barnes, who also found them radio appearances; accompanying Martin Taylor with whom he had played in Scotland and through his auspices found regular work at the Bull's Head in Barnes where he virtually became resident pianist. "Life became a party, and it still is." he says, happily.

Around this time, David started to record regularly, obtaining a contract with Linn Records, a subsidiary of the Scottish based hi-fi company. Linn was looking to expand their jazz catalogue, having made a strong start with Carol Kidd. Her first choice of accompanist at this time was David; others who used David regularly were Tina May, Annie Ross and, when her husband Laurie Holloway wasn't on TV or radio, Marion Montgomery. David made three records for Linn and then moved to Alan Bates' label, Candid, to obtain distribution in the United States. Ironically, this did not materialise and Linn obtained it! In the event, this did not matter because the success of a CD with Alan Barnes: "Below Zero" on the American Concord label, brought an offer for David in his own right. To date, he has made three CDs in his name for this label and has plans for more, which is good news for his growing legion of fans.

David's musical development has been partly dictated by his own inclinations and partly by circumstance. On his own admission, he has always hated practice, preferring to "do something" rather than suffer a discipline which to him has no enjoyment whatsoever. His stated influences include some personal favourites: Oscar Peterson, especially with Ray Brown on bass, and also the unique Keith Jarret. I think these two pianists represent the acme of the two styles David mostly uses. He is well known as a "swinging" player and who swung more than Peterson in his heyday? More obscure perhaps, is the Jarret connection and here we are entering into an area which I feel David would like to explore further, that of extended improvisation and also, composition.

Whether these influences can be found in his own recorded output, especially his own compositions, is a moot point. Personally, Ithink not, although the piano style may have altered over the years. At a recent trio concert, I noticed that he is happy to play for extended periods, with subtle changes in style throughout. For example, he prefaced a thorough exploration of a jazz standard with a lengthy introduction of his own tune "Blessed Land", one of the few which has a particularly Scottish lilt. The two had no apparent connection, apart from in the mind of David Newton, but they do now.

When I asked about memorable playing experiences, the musician who has had the most influence was a drummer,the American, Jeff Hamilton, who David played with in a Jersey Jazz festival in the 1990s. A "jam session" evening was transformed by the drummer into a special occasion; he lifted all the players in the group: Buddy Childers, Jiggs Whigham, Jack Nimitz, Tommy Whittle, David himself and Dave Green, to heights of performance which surprised some of those experienced musicians. It certainly pleased the audience, which responded at the end with a standing ovation for all concerned. The lesson for David was that an exceptional play, or a good player in particularly fine form, can be responsible for "leading" a group to higher standards of performance than they thought they were capable of.