Remi Harris, ‘Man of the World ; The Music of Peter Green’, Clows Top Victory Hall, Clows Top, Worcestershire, 14/07/2024.

Remi Harris – guitars, Dave Small – vocals, harmonica, congas, tambourine, Tom Moore – electric bass, Shane Dixon – drums

This was essentially a ‘home town gig’ for guitarist Remi Harris, who lives just a short distance away from this village hall venue in rural Worcestershire.

For those of us who live in this part of the world Harris is something of a local here, but he’s a local hero with a national reputation, a musician who tours widely and who has acquired a strong following right across the UK. He has also toured in Canada and appeared at the 2016 Montreal Jazz Festival.

Harris has featured regularly on the Jazzmann web pages and is perhaps best known as a gypsy jazz guitarist. I first witnessed him playing in this style more than a decade ago when he performed with his trio in the nearby town of Presteigne back in 2010. I have seen him perform many times since, both in my capacity as a reviewer and as a very satisfied ‘punter’. I’ve never seen him play a bad gig and over the years he has accrued a very healthy following on the jazz circuit, his reputation flourishing by sheer word of mouth. Audiences at Remi Harris shows tend to come back for more.

As a result Harris has become one of the UK’s most successful gypsy jazz guitarists and an increasingly popular live attraction. He has played sell out shows at the Brecon and Cheltenham Jazz Festivals  and his performances at Cheltenham have led to airplay on Jamie Cullum’s Radio 2 programme and on Cerys Matthews’ show on BBC Radio 6. The summer of 2016 also saw him appearing on national radio and TV as he and his trio guested with Cullum at the latter’s BBC Promenade Concert.  For Harris this represented the culmination of a six year journey from the acoustic nights in the back-room of The Bell pub in my home town of Leominster to the Royal Albert Hall.

But Django Reinhardt and gypsy jazz wasn’t Harris’ first musical love. He was first inspired to play guitar by listening to his dad’s Led Zeppelin records and retains a fondness for rock and blues and music.  Indeed he began his career as lead guitarist of the rock group Mars Bonfire, a band that also included drummer Shane Dixon, and which built up an impressive local following as well as supporting leading hard rock acts at the 700 capacity rock club the Robin 2 in Bilston, one of the Midlands’ leading rock venues.

Harris’ discovery of Reinhardt and his music eventually led to him following a different musical path but a residual fondness for rock and blues remained and in recent years Harris has brought elements of this back into his jazz performances. Far from alienating his jazz fan base he has actually increased his following and his live shows have become more interesting and varied as a result. Even Harris himself has admitted that playing Hot Club style music exclusively can become restrictive and he has welcomed the opportunity to revisit his rock and blues roots.

“Need Your Love So Bad”, a song associated with former Fleetwood Mac leader Peter Green, was one of the first non jazz pieces that Harris brought to the repertoire of his regular ‘Hot Club’ style jazz trio and it remains a staple part of that band’s sets.

Harris has frequently spoken of his regard for the playing of such rock legends as Green, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page and of blues specialists Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddie King. He cites the improvisation that he encountered on live recordings by Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple as being a key factor in steering him towards jazz and it was the riffs of bands such as these, discovered in his father’s record collection, that Harris and Dixon used to improvise around as teenagers.

In 2020 Harris and Dixon, together with another old school mate Darren Beale on electric bass, formed the Electric Beat Combo as they revisited the classic hard rock and electric blues repertoire, bringing to it an impressive technical facility and a desire to put their own stamp on it. In February 2020 I covered a show by this ‘power trio’ at Ludlow Brewery, this review acting as the source for much of the above biographical detail.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/remi-harris-the-electric-beat-combo-ludlow-brewery-ludlow-shropshire-15-02-2020

A combination of the pandemic and the busy schedules of its individual members curtailed the career of the Electric Beat Combo, but its natural successor is Harris’ current electric quartet featuring Dixon on drums and Tom Moore, the regular bassist in Harris’ Hot Club Trio, swapping his upright acoustic bass for an electric bass guitar. The group also features a vocalist, Dave Small, who in the best blues rock tradition, also doubles on harmonica – and also adds a smattering of percussion via congas and tambourine.

I enjoyed seeing this line up perform a Freddie King themed show at the Falcon Hotel in Bromyard a while back but Harris and the quartet have now turned their attention to the music of Peter Green, an artist with a broader appeal than blues specialist Freddie. Nevertheless the blues was an enormous part of the music made by the Peter Green led incarnation of Fleetwood Mac, the band originally named Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac as the guitarist generously acknowledged the contribution of the formidable rhythm section of drummer Mick Fleetwood and bassist John McVie.

Named after one of Green’s best known songs Harris’ “Man of the World” project will embark on a lengthy UK tour from the beginning of October 2024. Tonight’s show represented the second of two local ‘warm up’ events, the quartet having played to a sold out audience at the Market Theatre in the Herefordshire town of Ledbury the previous evening.

Tonight’s event was also an official sell out but clashed with the England v Spain Euros Final. A few ticket holders opted for the football option and as a consequence there were a few empty seats – but not many. I’m a football fan myself but I wasn’t going to pass up on the music, simply recording the match and catching up with it later. The band obviously intended to do the same and Remi announced a ‘football embargo’ at the venue, no checking of phones for the score, and certainly no sharing of it with anyone else. As a result I enjoyed an excellent night of music and still watched the match ‘live’ later, The less said about the football the better.

Peter Green (1946 -2020) first began to make a name for himself as the lead guitarist with a band led by keyboard player Peter Bardens, of Van Morrison, and subsequently Camel, fame. Green subsequently embarked on a high profile engagement with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, replacing Eric Clapton in the lead guitar chair.

Green appeared on the 1967 Bluesbreakers album “A Hard Road”, a recording now considered to be something of a blues classic, before leaving Mayall, to form Fleetwood Mac. His new band was hugely successful, recording four albums during Green’s tenure with the group and also enjoying a run of success in the singles chart, those hits including “Black Magic Woman”,  “Oh Well”, “The Green Manalishi (With the Two Prong Crown)”, the instrumental “Albatross” and, of course, “Man of the World”, all of them written by Green. It’s almost inconceivable that music so raw, and often complex with it, could become a hit these days.

Of course all these songs are in Harris’ set, which concentrates on Green’s glory days with Fleetwood Mac, with further material sourced from his Bluesbreakers period.

Green’s well publicised drug and mental health struggles saw him leave Fleetwood Mac in 1970. Following rehabilitation he established a solo career, recording under his own name and later as the leader of the Peter Green Splinter Group. He was also part of Katmandu, a short lived blues ‘supergroup’ that also included Ray Dorset of Mungo Jerry and Vincent Crane of Atomic Rooster.

Post Fleetwood Mac Green’s career was erratic and he spent several years away from the music business altogether. Although he remained popular with blues aficionados he never recaptured the mainstream success of early Fleetwood Mac, which may have been just as well as it was this that helped to precipitate his problems. Green was a serious musician who found fame difficult to cope with.

Tonight’s show began with a blistering version of Green’s “Black Magic Woman”, introduced by the whip crack of Dixon’s drums and with Harris delivering the first of many incendiary guitar solos. Singer Dave Small, once of the Worcestershire bands Aura and Naked Remedy, is a highly competent vocalist and a commanding centre stage presence, a perfect foil for Harris’ guitar heroics.

There was no let up in terms of energy levels as the quartet tackled the Green original “Stop Messin’ Around”, the opening track from the second Fleetwood Mac album “Mr Wonderful” (1968) and the B side of the “Need Your Love So Bad” single.

From the same album the slow blues “Love That Burns” was a true tour de force and incorporated a soaring, sustain drenched guitar solo from Harris.

The quartet reached back to the Bluesbreakers era for “The Supernatural” , a Green composed instrumental from the “Hard Road” album that became something of a ‘set piece’ for Green during the Bluesbreakers live shows. Dixon, wielding mallets, combined with Small on congas to create a rolling groove that formed the foundation for a virtuoso electric bass solo from Tom Moore. Harris was featured on an extended solo guitar coda.

Small encouraged the audience to clap along with “You Don’t Love Me”, a song written by the American musician Willie Cobbs that appeared on the Bluesbreakers’ “A Hard Road” album. It was one of only two tracks to feature Green as the lead vocalist. Here Small made the song his own as he doubled on harmonica, sharing the solos with Harris as Moore and Dixon combined to create an insistent, pounding rhythm.

“Need Your Love So Bad” was written by Little Willie John but for many listeners the song has become indelibly associated with Peter Green and Fleetwood Mac. Performed as an emotionally charged slow blues tonight’s version saw Small encouraging the audience to sing along with the chorus as Harris’  soaring guitar headed for the stratosphere.

The first set ended with “The Green Manalishi”, which incorporated a drum kit and congas feature alongside Harris’ guitar solo. Small is also an accomplished drummer and percussionist and sometimes appears as a sideman in this capacity.

The second half kicked off with the core trio of Harris, Moore and Dixon on the instrumental “The Stumble”, a track that appears on the Bluesbreakers’ “Hard Road” album. Introduced by a passage of unaccompanied guitar from Harris this piece was co-written by Freddie King and thus represents a nice link between this quartet’s themed projects.

The instrumental sequence continued through the more reflective “Oh Well Part Two”, with Harris playing unaccompanied guitar. Moore and Dixon joined in for a more full on band section before the music segued into “Albatross”, the haunting and atmospheric instrumental that was a number one hit for Fleetwood Mac back in 1968. A piece that Harris has also included in his Hot Club sets this version included Dixon’s use of mallets and Harris’ deployment of a finger slide as the trio re-created the mood of the original, while still bringing something of themselves to it.

Small returned to double on vocals and harmonica on “Long Grey Mare”, a Green song from the first Fleetwood Mac album. Fuelled by a propulsive bass and drum groove this piece incorporated solos for harmonica and electric bass and a series of guitar and vocal exchanges, the last of these sometimes reminiscent of Led Zeppelin, another of Harris’ favourite acts.

From the third Fleetwood Mac album “Then Play On” Green’s composition “Rattlesnake Shake” became something of a live favourite back in the day,  a time that was recalled here as Harris and the quartet delivered a vigorous performance propelled by Dixon’s dynamic drumming, as Small combined singing with rattling a tambourine. The interplay between Harris and Moore also impressed with the latter’s fluid and mobile bass lines bringing something of a jazz sensibility to the music on a piece that Mac used to use as a springboard for jamming and improvisation.

The temperature cooled again with a stunning rendition of the slow blues “Jumping My Shadow”, a song written by the late Duster Bennett and subsequently covered by Fleetwood Mac. This was arguably Small’s best vocal performance as he shared the limelight with Harris’ guitar.

“Rollin’ Man”,  a Green song from the “Mr Wonderful” album was again notable for the jazz influenced instrumental interplay between Harris and Moore and was segued into an achingly sad “Man of the World”, a song that gave musical expression to Green’s fragile mental state.

“Oh Well Part One”, another hit single, featured Small on vocals and congas as he encouraged the audience to sing along with the “I might not give the answer that you want me to” refrain. Musically the band produced a ferocious performance with Harris delivering a searing guitar solo.

An ecstatic audience response saw the band remaining on stage for a well deserved encore, this being the Elmore James song “Shake Your Moneymaker”, a song covered by Fleetwood Mac on their debut. Featuring Harris on blistering Elmore style slide guitar and with Small whipping up the crowd this was an excellent, high energy way to round off the evening. The performance also included an electric bass solo from the excellent Tom Moore, whose highly developed rapport with Harris was right at the heart of the quartet’s music.

This was a highly enjoyable show that featured some much loved material from the ‘Golden Era’ of the first edition of Fleetwood Mac, alongside some less familiar gems from the Bluesbreakers’ catalogue. The standard of the playing was excellent throughout, although Small’s vocals were sometimes a little too low in the mix. Harris’ jazz audience should be aware that this is essentially a rock performance, with volume levels to match.

My thanks to Remi Harris and his wife and manager Dani for inviting me along to cover this show, and also to Remi for clarifying the set list with me afterwards. One likes to be accurate. Although I’ve seen Remi cover Peter Green related material in his jazz sets this was the first time that I’d seen the full on ‘Man of the World’ show.

My conversation with Remi got me thinking. Yes, I knew all the Fleetwood Mac hits but I was less familiar with the album material and even less knowledgeable about the Bluesbreakers stuff. Even during our brief chat Remi imparted a lot of information about the songs that had been played, and for the tour later in the year it might be a good idea to include some of that in the set.

Remi’s jazz shows have historically featured him talking informatively about the guitars he plays. It would be nice to hear the Peter Green associated songs put into some kind of historical perspective, I appreciate that the ‘Man of the World’ show isn’t a complete career retrospective but a little more biographical detail about the man and his songs would have been welcome – call it ‘info-tainment’, if you will.

Tonight’s announcing duties were divided between Harris as band leader and Small as the front man, which is probably as it should be, but maybe they could work out some kind of between songs script for the forthcoming tour. The musical performance was excellent but I just felt that this biographical / historic aspect would have enhanced it even more.

The forthcoming ‘Man of the World ; A Tribute to Peter Green’ tour dates are;

Tour Dates
2024
​
2nd Oct - The Stables, Milton Keynes
4th Oct - The Groundlings Theatre, Portsmouth
5th Oct - The Borough Blues Club, Cwmbran, South Wales
8th Oct - Red Arrow Music Club, Ramsgate, Kent
9th Oct - Komedia, Brighton
10th Oct - Beaverwood, Chislehurst, South East London
17th Oct - Swindon Arts Centre, Wiltshire
18th Oct - The Roses Theatre, Tewkesbury
19th Oct - Joe Joe Jims, Cofton Hackett, Birmingham
24th Oct - Hampton Hub Club, Greater London
25th Oct - Lichfield Guildhall
26th Oct - The Greystones, Sheffield
27th Oct - Cluny 2, Newcastle
30th Oct - The Tivoli, Wimborne
2nd Nov - St Georges Hall, Bewdley

More information at;
https://www.manoftheworldmusic.com/

See also;
https://www.remiharris.com/