Welcome to our Jazz Juke Box Jury sessions where you are the jury.
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This month, the music comes from the Daniel McBrearty's new album Clarinet Swing
Daniel McBrearty
Body and Soul
In 2011, Welsh-born reeds player Daniel McBrearty visited New Orleans. ‘I was in Oak Street café one morning,’ says Daniel. ‘Charles Farmer. A lovely local pianist, was playing standards from the 20s and 30s. I sat in, although it’s many years since I played those tunes. Once again I felt the warmth and joy in that music. The way I was received there, the energy I got from the city, made me believe in it again.’
Daniel had no formal musical education but by the age of 14 he was jamming with local jazz musicians and picking up a few paid gigs. ‘I lived with a foster family for a few years when I was very young,’ he says. ‘My foster mother was from a family of professional musicians from the Manchester area. My foster father loved jazz, and one of the first sounds I remember hearing was Louis Armstrong on TV. I still remember his trumpet – truly a joyful noise.’
‘Later, when I lived with my dad again, I started on clarinet after a few years on violin. When a family friend gave me an old Benny Goodman record, that was it. I dug into my dad’s LPs, Basie, Ella, Louis again, Nat Cole. I just wanted to know how they made that sound. We scraped together some money and bought a beat-up old tenor – it had a broken key that I fixed with hair grips – and I played it. I was trying to copy Prez before I knew his name.’
‘There was an amazing ex-marine bandsman that ran the local music shop – anything you could blow, trumpet, bassoon, whatever – he played and taught them 
all. He heard me and helped me.’
Eventually, Daniel left Wales and became an electronics engineer. He continued to have private music lessons and played in bands. ‘I played behind singers, soul, funk, reggae, a bit of blues and jazz,’ he recalls. ‘I learned to think on my feet and find something to play when needed.’A debut home-produced jazz-funk CD in 1996 got some attention on UK radio and in the press, and he was still playing jazz in London with musicians such as Carlos Hercules and Joy Malcolm.
After a year in Dublin, Daniel married and moved to Belgium. Although family life took precedence, he was still playing. A crossover CD with Indian master-percussionist Udhav Shinde led him back to the clarinet and a chance to explore freer modes of improvisation. By 2010, Daniel was playing full-time, but ‘I had given up on playing jazz,’ he says. ‘I still loved it, but didn’t seem to connect with the right people.’
The visit to New Orleans in 2011 changed all that. When he returned to Belgium he went to Antwerp and recorded Clarinet Swing with pianist Dirk Van der Linden (who has worked with Clark Terry, Scott Hamilton and red Holloway) and bass player Jean Van Lint.
Dirk Van der Linden and Jean Van Lint
Three of the tunes on the album are Daniel’s originals, the rest are chosen standards that include Poor Butterfly, Diamond’s Are A Girl’s Best Friend, When I Grow Too Old To Dream and Skylark. This month’s tune for you, The Jury, to vote on is Body and Soul from the album. Cast your vote below.
Daniel is now gigging regularly in Belgium. ‘Unknown to me there was a (jazz) scene here all along – I just hadn’t found it yet,’ he says. You can sample the rest of the album on Daniel’s website by clicking here.
© Sandy Brown Jazz 2012