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Ken Stubbs
About Me
Ken Stubbs became involved with music after being ‘reborn’, after a near death experience.
He was 14. It involved a Football ‘Special’ Train, hundreds of inebriated Glasgow Rangers
fans, a fire hammer and axe, 2 near fatalities, him jumping from a train travelling at 70 mph,
and several broken limbs.
It was then that he decided that this was the wrong game for him, and instead followed his
other passion, which was the ‘Northern Soul’ music scene. Before long he was enquiring
about the strangely alluring horn sounds that were prevalent within that music, the result
being the start of a hot and passionate relationship with the saxophone.
Having been fortunate to experience an excellent music education, at what is now Salford
University, Ken’s first professional music experience involved being fired from Pontins
holiday camp for performing a loud, spontaneous, Albert Ayler impression, during a Lionel
Blair-type dance troupe’s version of Barry Manilow hits – experienced by a large, confused
crowd of Pontins-Punters, baying for his blood.
His second experience was equally as bizarre, involving him playing fast improvised lines
over the Batman riff, for ‘Mary Chipperfield’s Skating Chimps’ (sic), …this lasted for 24 long
weeks.
He knew that this was also not his path and soon followed the trail to London, where he
formed his first jazz group – ‘First House’, with fellow ex music biz sufferers, Tube driver
and Demon of the double bass, Mick Hutton, the marvellous, number-crunching drum
genius, Martin France and the formidable composer and magician-keyboardist, Django
Bates.
This volatile group of eccentrics where fortunate to record twice for ECM, with the
Perfectionist-German-Sound Wizard, Manfred Eicher. Unfortunately, neither album captured
the true essence and brilliance of their music making.
Ken also played and recorded with many other groups and musicians, including Loose Tubes,
Chris Macgregor, Mike Gibbs, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor, Peter Erskine, Jason Robello,
Conrad Herwig, Gary Husband, Phil Robson and fellow Salford-alumni-guitar-gentleman,
Mike Walker.
During this London period, Ken’s woefully inadequate understanding of the new Thatcherite
business model – implemented by many of his peers in the Yuppie Jazz Movement –
compounded by his ‘Metal Ox’ (b.1961) horns, landed him in much trouble, for bad
behaviour.
Moving forward, determined to pursue his love of the Art of the Improviser (thank you
Ornette), he forged a path to Australia where he now lives in a paradisiacal part of sub-
tropical New South Wales, with his family. Here, he enthusiastically tends to his rainforest
patch, trying to improve his carbon footprint, so heavily trudged upon during his jet-gigging
experiences in 30 countries. However, musically he has never veered off-course, and has
during the past 16 years, created what will become a seminal work on jazz improvisation, a
tour de force of recorded material, created, to be used, by global-minded musicians, wishing
to follow the eternal quest of the improviser.