Face the Music October.qxp_Layout 1 22/09/2016 13:29 Page 1
FACE | THE MUSIC
THE GOOD VIBES OF BADBONE
Georgette McCready talks to trombonist Dennis Rollins, who is currently artist in residence at the Wiltshire Music Centre, and he picks his favourite albums
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ometimes great things happen by accident. And if it hadn’t been for a matter of chance the jazz world might not have been blessed with the talents of trombonist Dennis Rollins. Dennis has played at the forefront of the UK jazz, funk and pop scene for 25 years. He has performed with some of the world’s leading jazz and pop artists including Courtney Pine, Jamiroquai, Blue and Maceo Parker, as well as leading his own groups, BadBone & Co and the Velocity Trio. But the young Dennis started out as a schoolboy in Doncaster taking not trombone lessons, but learning guitar. He takes up the story: “I wasn’t that great at the guitar to be honest. I didn’t read the music but picked up the tunes by ear. Then one day my teacher called me out to the front of the class to play a piece and he’d changed the music. I couldn’t read it, so I was exposed. “I didn’t feel like playing the guitar much after that.” Dennis grew up, one of eight children born to Jamaican parents who’d emigrated to Britain in the late 1950s. The family home was filled with reggae, ska and mento, which Dennis describes as the father of ska. One of Dennis’ brothers, Winston, 30 TheBATHMagazine
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was learning the trombone and when he upgraded to a new one the teenage Dennis was given his hand-me-down. The rest, as they say, is history. Dennis remembers the hours of music practice that helped set him on his future career. His brother Winston plays with Jools Holland’s big band and his brother Erroll is a drummer and a music teacher. Do the brothers ever get to jam together, I wonder? “We like to but no it doesn’t happen all that often because we’ve all taken different paths.” Dennis’ playing career began with the Doncaster Youth Jazz Association, and his music took him to London in 1987. From there his distinctive trombone sound joined some other greats, including Courtney Pine and Maceo Parker on stage. It was Courtney Pine who gave him the nickname BadBone, one he used for his band BadBone and Co, going on the tour circuit, before taking a more thoughtful direction in his music making. Dennis has played at the great British jazz festivals, such as Cheltenham and Malvern. In recent years he has used his experience to mentor and teach young musicians, going in to schools and universities. How did the Midlands man get
involved as the Wiltshire Music Centre’s artist in residence for 2016? “I was lucky enough to get a phone call from James Slater [artistic director at the Wiltshire Music Centre]. We have some musical friends in common and I had played in the area before. I was delighted to be asked. I have done a bit of this kind of thing before, in Harrogate and Norwich.” Among the projects he’s worked on in Wiltshire was in the spring when he rehearsed and performed as a soloist with the Wiltshire Youth Jazz Orchestra – the county level jazz orchestra now managed by Wiltshire Music Centre for young musicians aged 16 and over. This provided an opportunity for the young players to learn from and perform alongside a leading performer on a professional stage, and for Dennis to offer performance tips and techniques to improve their playing. He says the jazz scene is very much alive and kicking in this country at the moment, despite financial cutbacks which have affected services including peripertetic music teachers. “It means yoing people have to seek out where they are going to learn an instrument, we have created hubs for people to go to.” Hubs like the excellent Bradford on Avon based Wiltshire Music
WOWING THE AUDIENCE: main picture, Dennis Rollins on stage at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon, where he is artist in residence