Home » Jazz Articles » Profile » Gareth Lockrane: Doing That Grooveyard Thing
Gareth Lockrane: Doing That Grooveyard Thing
Herbie Mann
flute1930 - 2003
Hubert Laws
woodwindsb.1939
Bobbi Humphrey
fluteb.1950
Jeremy Steig
flute1942 - 2016
Paul Horn
flute1930 - 2014
James Newton
fluteb.1953
Lockrane hails from Stoke-on-Trent, in Britain's North Midlands. It's not a prepossessing kind of place. Justly famous for the quality of its ceramics—the names Wedgewood, Doulton, Spode and Minton and thirties designers like Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper, Keith Murray and Charlotte and Frederick Rhead are known the world over— the area suffered greatly from the closures of its steel works, its coal mines and other heavy industries through the seventies, eighties and nineties. Whilst it remains an important centre for pottery, Stoke and the other "Five Towns" have suffered from the both unfavorable economic winds in recent decades, as well as from the blight of sixties-style town planning. It's the kind of place that might produce, let's say, a Robbie Williams, but hardly a major new jazz talent like Gareth Lockrane.
Gareth Lockrane is what might be called an emergent talent. He's not one of those guys who shines brightly, then all too often crashes and burns. His trajectory has been quite slow but, with hindsight, he's been coming in to view for some years now. Having first heard him on saxophonist
Tom Richards
trombone
Jack DeJohnette
drumsb.1942
Phil Robson
guitar
Mark Turner
saxophone, tenorb.1965
All reasons enough to check Lockrane out more closely, but with his third album as a leader, The Strut (Whirlwind, 2012), just released it seems high time to spread the word. The Strut is the second album from Grooveyard, one of three current Lockrane ensembles—there's a septet and a big band as well. The first Grooveyard record, Put The Cat Out (Gailforce), came out in 2003, and in the intervening years Lockrane attended the UK's National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, where he studied for a Masters in film composition. The first question is about how he sees the differences between the new CD and its predecessor. One change seems to involve a greater sense of emotional immediacy with the The Strut.
"That could be connected to film school," he says. "Whatever influence there is is probably unconscious because, I suppose, a lot of these tunes maybe started to be written around that time at film school and I guess I've checked out a lot more music in the meantime. I think with the music on the first one, I was trying to update that whole soul jazz, organ tradition. Unashamedly so because I do love all that side of the music. I was trying to keep the core elements but trying to update it with modern melodies without turning it into a fusion band. For me, it should always sound like a good-time soul band but with all those extra things that say [guitarist]
John Scofield
guitarb.1951
It was clearly important for him to take on the challenge offered by the National Film and Television School and it was a decision that emphasizes both Lockrane's ambition and his commitment to music. His studies there seem to have led to an emphasis on economy rather than brevity in his compositions. If so, then how exactly has he achieved this?
"I think the most obvious impact," he explains, "involved getting into writing minimal melodies and slowly unfolding harmonies-getting into that zone, in particular, because we were mostly doing short, narrative-based films where every note counts and where a few unnecessary musical gestures could throw the whole thing completely. The whole course is built around making short films. You're writing music for a team effort. Often, you end up trimming things down to pretty minimal writing but really trying to consider what you need to communicate with the music.
"It was a really healthy time—back-to-back projects, not knowing how they were going to pan out but just having to dive in there as part of a team situation," he continues. "And, of course, working with non-musicians was a huge thing. You get so used to talking in 'muso' shorthand. With other musicians you take so many things as read and don't question what it is you're trying to communicate with your writing. When you're collaborating with non-muso characters you have to think 'What is this?,' 'What is the music required to communicate?' So, that's a whole new angle really—'What is this piece trying to do?' In a jazz context, you're using an established structure, but with film projects it's more about moving from A to B, from beginning to end."
The music certainly is, at times, filmic but there's no sense that these tunes need visual images to come alive. They have movement and flow and there's a lithe grace and even elegance to pieces like "One For Bheki" (of which and of whom more shortly) and "Memories In Widescreen," and an earthiness to the title track and the opener, "Frizz." In fact, there's almost a hint of
Lalo Schifrin
arranger1932 - 2025
Saxophonist tyro
Alex Garnett
saxophone
Stanley Turrentine
saxophone, tenor1934 - 2000
Ross Stanley
pianoNick Smalley
drums
Mike Outram
guitar, electricIf the inspiration for Grooveyard lies in the sixties/seventies organ-led soul jazz of guys like saxophonist
Eddie Harris
saxophone, tenor1934 - 1996
Les McCann
piano1935 - 2023
Jimmy Smith
organ, Hammond B31925 - 2005
"With the septet, during college and even before that, I'd always been into arranging and composing for larger groups," Lockrane points out. "So, with the septet there was more of a focus on having an acoustic piano trio with horn arrangements, just trying to get into the vibe of that. At the time, I was really listening a lot to
Jimmy Heath
saxophone, tenor1926 - 2020
Tadd Dameron
piano1917 - 1965
Jim McNeely
composer / conductorb.1949
Walt Weiskopf
saxophoneb.1960
No Messin' clearly comes from the same pen as The Strut, but has more of a metropolitan jazz club feel compared to the quintet's roadhouse groove. More than that, Lockrane has then been able to pool the resources of both groups to create a big band that extends the possibilities of his unusual compositional skills still further, allowing him to explore influences as diverse as trumpeter
Kenny Wheeler
flugelhorn1930 - 2014
Don Sebesky
arranger1937 - 2023
Maria Schneider
composer / conductor
Duke Ellington
piano1899 - 1974
Count Basie
piano1904 - 1984
Charles Mingus
bass, acoustic1922 - 1979
There's a fine attention to detail about Lockrane's work that extends to the way his music is presented and to exceptional cover art and graphics that decorate the sleeves of his CDs, courtesy of old friends Bill Bragg and Matt Wiley. Wiley is responsible for the overall design, whilst Bragg does the cover.
"We're old friends," Lockrane says. "I really think when you get an album you should be into it before you've even put the first track on—the artwork and the design, it's all got to be one thing. Bill's fantastic. There's a lovely link, actually. We were basically friends before we were even born because our dads both taught at the same college—my dad taught illustration and his dad taught graphics at what was Stoke Polytechnic and is now Stafford University. We're still best friends. The funny thing with the first album with the two cats—that caricature of Alex and me—we had done a load of photos where we were trying to look mean and edgy and he took one look at these pictures and sat in a corner doodling away and came up with these perfect cat icons of us two that seemed to sum up the whole thing. He just brought out the humor side of it and communicated that and it suited the music. I love what he does."
Lockrane's eye for detail may perhaps owe something to his dad. But his love of music and of film also stem from a rich and fulfilling upbringing at home and in the area of Staffordshire in which he grew up. His dad played chromatic harmonica and a bit of flute as well.
"He played a really kind of mean blues flute in 'G,'" he says laughing. "So, I was used to having this bluesy flute sound in the house. The first things I heard as a baby were
James Clay
saxophone, tenor1935 - 1995
Frank Wess
saxophone, tenor1922 - 2013
"Memories In Widescreen," from The Strut, is, in a sense, a tribute to his father, who died a few years ago. "That was about being a kid, going to the cinema with my dad," he says, "and just that feeling of the curtains opening on this huge widescreen and the whole scope of that. I just used to love that feeling. I guess I was trying to get into those internal memories of that and my dad passed away a few years ago and he really got me into music in the first place. So, it's memories of my dad and going to the movies. I think I wrote that tune round about the time I went to film school. The melody is fairly minimal and, as I said, that was the huge influence of film school because we were all encouraged to write less using minimal melodies and slowly moving harmonies. It was all these things coming together at once."
Lockrane studied for his first degree at the Royal Academy of Music in London with British jazz stalwarts such as saxophonists
Stan Sulzmann
saxophone, tenor
Mark Lockheart
saxophone
Eddie Parker
b.1959
Matt Fishwick
drums
Orlando le Fleming
bassb.1976
The Osian Roberts/Steve Fishwick Quintet
trumpetb.1973
Joe Lovano
drumsb.1952
Dick Oatts
saxophone, altob.1953
Bheki Mseleku
piano1955 - 2008
"Basically from then on," Lockrane explains, "we did endless amounts of duo blows and quartet and trio and quintet gigs. He couldn't write down his own tunes, so we'd do these long rehearsals where I'd video his fingers to get the voicings just right and transcribe and learn all these epic tunes of his. There were loads of new things that haven't been recorded. So, it was an incredible relationship and that was running parallel to film school. It was a really exciting time with all these things colliding at once and getting a whole wave of new influences coming in at the same time and just playing with Bheki and trying to get into the mind of one of your heroes. We had some fantastic gigs together with a few little tours. Steve Rubie at the 606 Club in Chelsea was a massive support. We used to play there every month."
"Bheki was this larger than life personality," he adds. "The sheer projection and whole compositional scope of his music—for me, he is one of those great writers. His compositions have this inevitable flow about them. Once you've heard the whole thing, it's like that was the only way it could have gone, no matter how many surprising twists there are in the tunes. It just feels that it could only have gone that way. These are the only gigs I've done where the whole audience was singing along to these great hooks and all the musicians are sweating it out on stage with their eyes fixed on the charts. It was a great time for me."
In fact, the times seem to get better for Lockrane. His reputation is growing and The Strutwill take that to a higher level still. Whether it's playing in Grooveyard or his septet, leading his own big band or playing with Phil Robson's quintet, Lockrane is becoming a key figure in a very healthy UK jazz scene. Playing opposite figures like Mark Turner or with giants like Jack DeJohnette inspires him but it doesn't faze him. He also seems like a really nice guy. He laughs easily in a way that suggests that he takes his music more seriously than he does himself. Growing up in the British Midlands in a strong and supportive family environment has given him roots which give his writing—and his playing—a depth and a quality unusual in one still so young. Like the man, like the music, in every sense.
Selected Discography
Gareth Lockrane's Grooveyard, The Strut (Whirlwind, 2012)
Phil Robson, The Immeasurable Code (Whirlwind, 2011)
Gareth Lockrane Septet, No Messin' (Gailforce, 2008)
Tom Richards Orchestra, Smoke and Mirrors (Candid, 2007)
Grooveyard, Put The Cat Out (Gailforce, 2003)
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