Gary Husband Interview & Notes

This is a raw transcription of relevant parts from part one of https://talking2musicians.com/2013/11/12/gary-husband-interview-notes/

Gary talks about Allan and his album "The Things You See".

The transcribed part starts around 37:26 into the interview.

The text has not been edited in any way beyond a couple added headlines.

IOU

could you

share a little bit about how you came to

meet him and how it clicked and and

maybe what you learned from him oh yeah

it was did it was one of those chance

meetings it's you know the the kind of

meeting you

we all hope for one day

and I was actually playing at Ronnie

Scott's we were just talking about the

club Rome years ago and and at this

point I was in about three or four

different working bands and one of them

was led by Barbara Thompson saxophonist

she had been called paraphernalia and I

was just playing I was I wasn't

particularly right for this band you

know we should just say that we all

respect it was the music was not

particularly conducive to the kind of

thing that that that I was you know I

was to exploding all over the place with

emotion and trying to trying to be very

electrifying in the music in it it

actually didn't really call for that you

know I was really playing fire tool out

there for this particular thing and I

think Barbara wandered she just couldn't

handle it anymore she said listen I you

know very good and all that but I just

can't take any more that's great you

know yeah the approach and her husband

actually had been working with John

Heisman you know the Coliseum guy and

responsible for for a lot of historic

things here in England and and he used

to kind of bully me a little bit but

that's not going to that he you just had

his wife's best interests at heart

Veronica this this strange kind of twist

of all this was the fact he was working

with with Allen at the time at that time

this is early I think and and and

with Jack in a group of Jack Bruce which

wasn't really working out too well and I

got fired

this I was I was working out my notice

they say this this one weekend and Alan

came into the club Oh Jack Bruce and and

I guess he liked the madness

nice you know of course I knew exactly

who he was before you know you know

anything about me as I was already a

huge fan

you know of course from the lifetime and

whatever else he was doing and he you

just came up to me said isn't it I'm

just really loving the way you play with

would you fancy having a place I'm kind

of like going well I'm just getting over

the shock of meeting him for us

certainly the shop maybe you guys should

be heard me playing in that situation

which which perhaps wasn't the best and

and thirdly that he he came across with

this request to help to have a play of

and of course you know I believed it but

I didn't believe it and I just said yeah

you know this is my number and I would

absolutely love to and yeah you know

this I don't think I'm gonna hear too

much more about that and then the very

next day called and and said would you

so now I've got the studio and I've got

some some musicians friends coming in

and should we have a jam session and

because I was straight there and and

what and what just happened was was as

was natural because I couldn't have

wished for more natural and freeing

experience to play with somebody

especially at that point where where

there was still some quite a lot of

sessions around and I was was the

pressure was on really to sound like

somebody you know listener we need you

to sound like Steve Gadd we need you to

sound like this we need you know we need

we need this kind of approach and and

and what Alan gave me was this

invitation to please just play what you

feel play what you think you know and he

was the first one ever to say that to me

to the point I was so taken aback by

this it was like wow in actual fact now

what do I do

and it didn't take too long to get

comfortable with it and just and I just

relaxed into this completely creative

realm even at that point you know and I

was still very much under the wing of

Tony Williams one of my prime influences

and and you know it was at that point

where everything turned for me and and I

could start to feel the the seed of what

I was about and what I really wanted to

do coming to the surface and and and

sort of and almost giving birth to that

you know in a very wrong way but it was

it was certainly the beginnings of

everything for me so I mean I've got him

to thank for for everything that's come

afterwards and exactly what I'm about

now you know that's a very big is a very

big happening for me that's amazing well

let's hear a brief sample of you playing

with Allan Holdsworth

and this is a track what's called Tulio

and it's from an album called hardhat

area

IOU USA

so you relocated with him to Los Angeles

also while you were still very young I'm

guessing maybe or something like that

and I was curious you know coming from

Yorkshire and then as a teenager moving

to London and then all of a sudden here

you are in Southern California what were

some of your most vivid memories from

that experience well the Sun was out you

know the air smelled like strawberries

and you know yeah you know and about the

club scene and that kind of thing

believers say was I'm sorry I'm so happy

to have been on the circuit at that

point because you know not only was it

was it automatically very inspiring to

go to America because of course it's the

birthplace of so much I love in music

anyway the Jazz and and and just to go

there but but the the club scene and the

way that Allan's group this this group

we had I know you which which was call I

of you by the way because we couldn't

get any gigs and when we did we we got

so bad an audience whatever money we did

make we had to gift for the hire of the

PA at the end of the evening and we

frequently we just used to get in each

other's cars and drive home without even

saying goodbye to each other I mean it

was it was they were really hard times

so to go to America and capitalize a

little bit on the success that Alan had

had only a few years previously with

with the rock bands UK and the Bill

Bruford bands and and the women's

band and gone and John the Ponte and all

these things he would he was doing he

there was there was a big fan base he

was he was like a cult figure even even

then and and and and people were turning

out in droves and that the club owner

had never heard of us

and everything I don't know we don't

know who they sound Allsworth guy is but

you can show come back you know whoever

it is the pundits want him in so so that

was just coolin and we we just used to

drive around in a big Cadillac and then

u-haul and and just go and play gigs

were you guys living in one big

apartment together or did everybody have

their own place or how was that no well

no at the beginning we were staying with

Paul Williams the vocalist who lived in

tests in Orange County and okay we never

saw a station in there in fact the whole

enterprise was because we were we still

didn't have this release for this album

that we made back in late or or

whenever oh we did that at a studio very

close to actually where I where I live

now funnily enough it's strange but they

we we were I remember here we had the

company was called gem distribution and

we just used to press up albums and and

they used to you know with their help

and then and then we did this mail-order

thing and of course no market like the

immediate one we just used so saw them

at gigs and it was all very much like

that you know and it was like it was a

gloriously happy and intensely inspiring

time well it's fascinating you know you

were with him as a drummer and you

eventually recorded a solo piano album

as a tribute to him as a composer and I

was curious how he learned of it did he

know you were working on it or did you

surprise him with a finished product no

I told him because I you know strange

fella sometimes and get a bit you know

his musics he takes his music very

seriously any you know he's disturbed

about things I mean he's disturbed he's

in disturbed when people play like him I

was you know he's got such an

immediately record

musical style and and and I understand

that he's he would like better for

musicians not not to do that now I

remember being around you know

witnessing his disdain to people who

would directly try and just base

themselves on and play like him and he

didn't like that at all so I decided to

absolutely not make it a covers record

and keep a kind of balance where certain

renditions of things would be a little

closer to the original so people can

just get him back into the familiar

realm and then gives other ones as

springboards for sort of a lot of extra

composition and whatever else and you

know all under the band and

interpretations but what was behind it

was with immense brothership that did

that we both have you know we used to

fall out a lot and get back together and

it's it's always been a you know it was

never yeah there was never anything

wrong with that and you know I I hope it

will continue and and and his reaction

to the record by the way

read/write was worth I was I was very

happy for it because he it was very

surprised what was there and and how

things had been formed very differently

and above all it was the best response I

could have wished for because he was

immensely touched by it and that's

exactly why I made the record not to

annoy him as he said we have one other

time when he had a few drinks well let's

hear a bit of a very review beautiful

piece this one's called devil take the

hindmost

THE THINGS YOU SEE

so what would you like to share about

that particular piece well this was one

of the pieces that that really attains

more to the original version but

harmonically it's completely rebuilt I

mean the moment is I actually didn't

transcribe anything when looking at its

material I mean I knew it very well

because I'd played a lot of it as a

drummer and beforehand and for many

years and what I did to go which was

basically take the top line and feel

step by step the movement out in a

different way harmonically and build it

without actually basing on basing it at

all on what was there on the on the

original versions so it was an immensely

creative thing and and that was one of

the tracks that's that was just about to

say it it's quite close in in terms of

form and and its feeling so the original

billionaire to effect it's still really

different right but there is and I'm

very happy about that record well let's

listen to one more this one is I'm not

sure if it's the English kinder or the

German kinder but kindda

yeah the child right and I can't claim

to be very knowledgeable about classical

music but this particular version

reminds me a lot of Eric sati

you

THE THINGS YOU SEE

so what would you like to share about

that particular song well Umesh Mehra's

athenian and Debussy and Gabriel fauré

although all these people from the well

they were moment the Romantic period the

movement right of classical music and

this is an area it's composed of some of

what these people did was was very

affecting to me and and very influential

and you know I kinda think that whatever

you go through you know earlier we were

talking about big bands and then we went

on to the classical piano and I think

that whatever musicians go through the

its it stays with you in a way it it

particularly if you love it and if

something really reaches you on a level

that you know the the the the really

communicates to you and says something

to you emotionally I think the the

actual act of being involved in it can't

help but so permeate how you form things

and a lot of it was very harmonically

inspiring to me Ian and I could really

go to a large extent to try and explain

that in terms of what it is but but

enough to say that it just really spoke

to me this this kind of very simplistic

of and particularly the discipline of

East Eastern European classical music

was had the same thing you know it was

very very harmonically affecting and and

something that gave a lot of power to

piano and I'm reluctant to say power

because it's not something I really go

into with a lot of you know high energy

or strength or hard playing it's

something very understated in

you really take some of the real

subtlety of piano as high as Hawaii love

it and bring that to the forefront and I

think that's that's really evident in

those arrangements thanks for listening