Jazz bassist and bandleader Leigh Barker is launching his latest album, Cross Street, at jazz club The Count’s in November.
Leigh Barker established himself on the Australian jazz scene in the early 2000s. Barker, a bass player, specialises in 1920s and 1930s swing and early-20th-century New Orleans jazz.
After 13 years on the local scene, Barker relocated to France in 2016. His repertoire still consists of jazz standards popularised by US artists such as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and Benny Goodman, but the change in context has significantly influenced Barker’s music.
Leigh Barker Presents: Cross Street Album Launch
- Live at The Count’s
- Wednesday 5 November
- Tickets here
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“In June, I was rehearsing some new music with a Swiss trombonist who has lived a long time in Brussels and Paris,” Barker says. “There was a certain syntax in the melody and harmony that can only be European or French jazz. There’s just no way this music could have been composed by an Australian.”
Barker will return for an Australian tour in November. He’s launching his latest album, Cross Street, at Monash University Performing Arts Centre’s dedicated jazz club, The Count’s, on November 5.
The Count’s is known for its program of intimate midweek gigs and its fully licensed bistro. Barker’s gig kicks off a busy month at the venue, which also includes performances from Hetty Kate’s Bass² Quintet and French jazz singer Noria Letts.
Track two on Cross Street, Viper’s Dream, is a prime example of how Barker’s music has evolved as a consequence of the move to Europe. “I would have never recorded it if we didn’t live in France,” he says.
That said, Barker was primarily motivated to move to Paris for practical reasons. The French capital seemed like an optimal location from which to conduct a career as a touring musician.
“It’s logistically and physically the ‘centre’ of the world in terms of having a career as a performer,” he says. “It has changed everything and has surpassed all my expectations too.”
Barker maintains strong ties to Melbourne. The new album was recorded at Brunswick’s Cross Street Music Hall in December 2022, part of a national tour that Barker has described as “a real homecoming.”
Barker has been working with several members of his Australian band since 2004, but the 2022 tour was the group’s first time playing together post-Covid. Despite the drawn-out interval, they’d lost none of their musical synergy.
“All the dates came together beautifully and all the music too,” Barker says. “It was one of the most satisfying trips I’ve ever made.”
Barker will reassemble the same cast of collaborators for the November tour. He’ll also be bringing along pianist Max Teakle, who is from Melbourne but lives in Basel, Switzerland. Abby Constable will sit in on drums for some tour dates.
The show at The Count’s will revolve around the Cross Street album, including various 1920s and 30s jazz staples and some lesser-known blues curiosities from the 30s. The album includes a couple of newer compositions, including Great Big Heart, written by vocalist and violinist Heather Stewart.
“It’s going to sweep the planet,” Barker says of Great Big Heart.
In the Cross Street liner notes, Barker states that “it has always been the goal, mission, dream, concept, vision (whatever you want to call it) to try and cover the widest territory of jazz that we love whilst avoiding any feeling of pastiche.”
This might sound like a straightforward creative mission, but it’s not easily achieved when performing music with such an illustrious history. For Barker, pastiche is avoided by maintaining a commitment to authenticity
“It’s fun to mix styles and eras and genres but you have to just keep trying to find the most authentic representation of yourself in this music,” he says. “So on one hand, I know exactly what I want to play and hear on stage, but it’s ephemeral, and you can lose it really quick in the noisy thoughts – is the band enjoying this? Is the audience on board? Are people dancing? Do I like this?”
But none of these noisy thoughts got in the way when Barker and the band were making Cross Street, he says.
“With Cross Street, I’ve made the most selfish choices, more than ever before. So, to a jazz scholar or hardcore aficionado, we’re a little bit all over the map, but I think the personalities and talents of these eight musicians make the whole bigger than the parts.”
Get your ticket for Leigh Barker’s Cross Street album launch at The Count’s here.
This article was made in partnership with The Count’s.
