Remi Harris Hot Club Trio, Kidderminster Jazz Club, St. Ambroses’s Parish Centre, Kidderminster, Worcs. 04/04/2025.

Remi Harris – lead guitars (acoustic & electric), Tom Moore – double bass, Chris Nesbitt – acoustic rhythm guitar

Tonight’s event represented Kidderminster Jazz Club’s first official sell out in its five and half year existence, with crowd numbers surpassing even the Club’s opening night with pianist / vocalist Wendy Kirkland at Kidderminster Town Hall back in October 2019 and Harris’ previous visit, also to the Town Hall in November 2022.

It’s to the credit of organiser Annette Gregory that KJC is still thriving in the wake of the Covid pandemic and two enforced changes of location. Indeed it seems to be positively flourishing at it new home at St. Ambrose Parish Centre. The success of tonight’s event was very much testament to that.

Of course the presence of the hugely popular Harris, Herefordshire born and Worcestershire based, was a huge help. To accommodate the demand for tickets the audience was seated in rows, rather than in the usual ‘cabaret style’ at tables.

For those of us who live in this part of the world Harris is something of a local hero, with a large and enthusiastic following in his own ‘neck of the woods’. But he’s also 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.

Harris eats, sleeps and breathes music and continues to tour relentlessly, playing venues both large and small right across the country and continues to view live performance as his ‘bread and butter’. He has also recorded four albums, the now deleted “Live At The Hatch”  (2009), “Ninick” (2014), “In On The 2” (2016) and “On Track”  (2022).The three albums that remain in print are all reviewed elsewhere on The Jazzmann and are available via Harris’ website. http://www.remiharris.com

Harris hopes to record again during 2025 but cites the cost of recording as an obstacle, especially in the streaming era when it has become impossible to recoup the expenses from CD sales. The balance has shifted and live shows now represent his primary source of income, as it is for so many musicians of any genre. 

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.

Harris’ gypsy jazz trio has been through a number of personnel changes over the years with a number of bassists (Del Strother, Tom Moore, Mike Green) and rhythm guitarists (Ben Salmon, Andy Wood, Caley Groves) passing through the ranks. Now renamed as the Hot Club Trio the line up has stabilised as Harris, Tom Moore on double bass and Chris Nesbitt on rhythm guitar. It’s a remarkably tight unit that has performed literally dozens of gigs and that togetherness can be heard in the group’s performances. Tonight’s show was the fifth in an eleven date national tour that takes the trio to London and to the North of England, as well as including a number of dates of the trio’s traditional stomping ground of the Midlands. The London date takes place at Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel on 10th April, another leading jazz venue in the capital for Harris to tick off. In the summer of 2024 I enjoyed an excellent performance (as a ‘punter’) by the Hot Club Trio at Ludlow Brewery, the quality of the listening experience enhanced even further by the quality of the beer!

Away from the Hot Club Harris has also been touring Man Of The World, a tribute to the music of former Fleetwood Mac guitarist and leader Peter Green. This finds him playing electric guitar in an all electric quartet featuring Moore on bass guitar and Shane Dixon at the drums. The band is fronted by vocalist Dave Small, who also adds some harmonica and percussion. Playing music from the glory days of the first edition of Fleetwood Mac plus some choice selections from the repertoire of John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers this show has toured nationally and proved to be extremely popular. The Man Of The World band will appear at the 2025 Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Meanwhile I enjoyed an early MOTW show in the summer of 2024, which is reviewed here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/remi-harris-man-of-the-world-the-music-of-peter-green-clows-top-victory-hall-clows-top-worcestershire-14-07-2024

The MOTW line up has also performed themed shows paying tribute to Freddie King, these also representing a rewarding musical experience. However Green is a far more bankable name than King with the MOTW show appealing to a wider rock audience and not just to blues specialists.

Tonight’s show was primarily an all acoustic ‘Hot Club’ performance but both sets featured at least one number with Harris on electric guitar, this bringing a welcome variety to an already excellent show.

Set one started in true Hot Club fashion with a gypsy jazz arrangement of the standard “Exactly Like You” which included virtuoso solos from both Harris and Moore, the latter a graduate of the Jazz Course at Birmingham Conservatoire and a hugely accomplished bass player on both the acoustic and electric versions of the instrument.

In addition to his love of Django Reinhardt and Peter Green Harris is also a huge fan of The Beatles and his gypsy jazz arrangement of “Can’t Buy Me Love” has been a popular addition to his ‘Hot Club’ repertoire for some time now.  A dazzling Harris solo saw him bending notes and utilising the body of his acoustic guitar as auxiliary percussion. Moore was again featured as a soloist, as he was on the majority of tonight’s selections.

An arrangement of “Honeysuckle Rose”, a song written in 1929 by Fats Waller and subsequently recorded by Reinhardt and violinist Stephane Grapelli, was played at a slower pace than usual, but even so it could hardly be described as ‘sluggish’. Harris’ playing was punctuated by Moore’s double bass breaks and then by a full on bass solo.

A segue followed, with Harris’ own composition “Embers” followed by “Joseph, Joseph”, a gypsy jazz staple described by Harris as “a campfire favourite”. It was fitting that these two pieces should be played together, Harris’ short solo guitar piece having actually been written around a campfire. And this was a fire that didn’t go out as the trio erupted into “Joseph, Joseph”, with Harris deploying a finger slide as he brought a touch of the blues to the gypsy canon. Putting aside the slide he then delivered a series of lightning fast runs, fingers a blur, his virtuosity matched by Moore at the bass. Incendiary stuff.

The first half concluded with Harris moving to electric guitar for the final two numbers. The first of these was “I Loved Another Woman”, a Peter Green song that I don’t recall having heard him play before. Introduced by Moore at the bass, joined first by Nesbitt on acoustic guitar and then Harris on electric this was followed by an effective Harris arrangement of the Duke Ellington tune “In A Sentimental Mood”, an ingenious adaptation that saw the Ellington song re-imagined in the style of Green. In addition to Harris’ own soloing Green’s melodic double bass was also featured and the first set concluded with a solo blues guitar cadenza from Harris. A great way to bring the curtain down on an excellent first half.

The beginning of set two saw a return to the ‘Hot Club’ acoustic format with a lively gypsy jazz arrangement of “Stompin’ At The Savoy”, which included more virtuoso soloing from Harris and Moore. Nesbitt was content to focus on rhythm guitar duties all night, a specialist, much like Dave Kelbie. However his contribution shouldn’t be under rated, his playing in this vital role, allied to Moore’s bass playing, provided the necessary impetus for Harris’  guitar pyrotechnics and Moore’s regular forays into the spotlight. As I’ve said this trio is a phenomenally tight unit and the playing of the unsung Nesbitt is a vital component of it.

The “Ninick” album was dedicated to Harris’ late mother and the title track was a lament for her passing. The guitarist has since written a companion piece, “Ninick Is Here”, which instead represents a celebration of her life. Based on the Reinhardt composition “Django’ s Tiger”, which itself was based on the tune “Tiger Rag” this was a suitably joyous tribute.

Written by Reinhardt himself, in conjunction with Stephane Grapelli, “Minor Swing” kept the pot bubbling, with Moore and Harris sharing the solos, the guitarist inserting a number of amusing musical quotes into a typically fleet fingered offering.

A new arrangement of “Cubano Chant”, a tune written by pianist Ray Bryant, introduced something of a Latin element and also served as a showcase for bassist Moore, who ushered in the tune at the bass and also served as the main soloist, his playing dexterous and articulate throughout. Terrific stuff.

An imaginative adaptation of the jazz standard “All Of Me” began as a solo guitar piece, with Harris eventually joined in duet by Moore. The addition of Nesbitt saw a rapid acceleration of pace, the breakneck rhythms providing the springboard for a Harris solo of such stunning virtuosity that it generated the most enthusiastic audience response of the night, thus far.

Again the set concluded with Harris switching to electric guitar, this time for a version of the George Benson tune “The Man From Toledo”, which saw Harris adopting a more conventional jazz electric jazz guitar sound, as opposed to the blues-rock sound of Peter Green. Nesbitt’s vibrant rhythms underpinned solos from both Harris and Green and the audience gave this outstanding trio another enthusiastic and vociferous reception

Harris is a true guitar fanatic and the deserved encore saw him unveiling another new toy, a beautiful resonator guitar of a type also played by Green and Dire Straits’ Mark Knopfler among others. He deployed this to perform a blues infused arrangement of the classic Nat Adderley composition “Work Song” as he shared the solos with Moore. The semi-acoustic sound of the resonator was also heard on the solo guitar cadenza that finally closed the show.

This was a hugely entertaining performance, presented with wit and warmth and an obvious love of the music. The playing from all three protagonists was exceptional throughout on a well chosen selection of original compositions, gypsy jazz classics and a fascinating smattering of songs from beyond the usual jazz canon. It’s a winning combination that continues to make Remi Harris new fans everywhere he goes, and tonight was no exception.

Congratulations to Remi and the Hot Club Trio and also to Annette Gregory for this marvellous, sold out evening of music making and to Remi for taking the time to clarify the set list with me. Here’s to the next time.

In the meantime check out all of Remi Harris’ forthcoming shows at http://www.remiharris.com

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