Everyone has their story..

So here mine about my involvement in music from then to now! 

Music has been a core part of me since I can remember- a soundtrack marking the unfolding cycles in my life- providing solace, joy, and inspiration.  Music has also enabled me to express my thoughts and feelings, optimism and uncertainty and been a source of healing to myself and others.  My album “Moments in Time” which came out in 2019 as a download, was  my first “coming out” publicly  as an instigator of musical pieces, rather than a co-creator in improvisation or an accompanist and supporter of others’ music.

I grew up with music in the house, as my dad, Harry Balen was a well respected professional violinist and the house always had musicians dropping by from time to time or on the phone. I absorbed the musicians' often offbeat sense of humour and irony and abstract humour was subconsciously percolating my mind (mingled with 1950s British Comedy -Goons etc) and influencing my world view! 

Dad would practice sometimes at home- I listened to him work out on bits of the Mendelssohn violin concerto, but more usually gypsy flourishes and the latest continental melodies requested by clients of the various venues he played in, as he was more of a popular music player despite his classical training at the Royal College. He was a well respected musician on the scene, plating in all sorts of settings, straight , Ballroom (Victor Sylvester) and even Jazz, dipping once for Stephane Grapphelly in London, after the war.  I was always intrigued by the sound of him tuning up the violin!  He played a lovely small size 18th Century Amati violin very sweetly and his case had a beautiful velvet inside cover lovingly embroidered by my Grandma. She had, with my Grandpa escaped persecution in Russia and arrived in the UK in 1904.  Her Dad – my great grandfather had been a professional gigging musician in the Ukraine. 

We had an old wind up gramophone with scratchy-sounding wax discs that we wore out: classical stuff and jazz music from the 20s,30s and 40s.  Then came the electric autochanger player and my sister would bring modern stuff into the house during the 50s. I first listened to dads influences-mainly jazz 78rpm wax records of Louis Armstrong, Joe Venuti the virtuoso jazz violinist, Eddie Lang the guitarist and many others. Some classical stuff, and records he had recorded himself in his heyday before the 2nd world war, when  he was a featured soloist in the Roy Fox Orchestra, a well known society and dance band during the 1930's and also after the war. 

When my sister Judy started bringing rock and roll records home, I was listening to Elvis Presley ripping it up with Hound Dog and his hits from the late 1950s, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Fats Domino, Little Richard,  Larry Williams etc.  Having been a frustrated singer for most of her adult life, Jude was fiery individualist who followed her dream when she got the chance, and took lessons and developed into a well-liked Swing vocalist in the Cornwall area.  We finally got to play together for a while after she moved much nearer.  We had a lot of fun playing in later music collaborations. We miss her energy irreverence for authority and humour- she passed a few years back.

I remember aged 8 playing what today I guess would be described as “air saxophone”  As I mimed along to the amazing solos of the fantastic tenor sax players in the bands of these big rock stars.  It was only later in life that I started taking lessons and playing the sax and clarinet inspired by them and the greats of Jazz. My first 78 record was Ken Mackintosh playing the American Highway Patrol Theme- unfortunately I wasn’t familiar with 78’s and opened it the wrong way and it smashed on the ground!  My lack of luck continued when possibly my next disc, the “Ying Tong Song” by the Goons (a great love and life influence) suffered being sat on by me and also broke!

I was grateful when plastic discs came along from a risk management point of view, as well as getting more music, less time changing records or sides and less crackle and surface noise.

When the the Beatles and other groups started to be heard on Radio Luxembourg and appeared on TV shows, I got hooked and started beating on anything I could along with them and other groups emerging at that time..  My first drum set was a combination of tin foil dishes, pans and homemade balsa wood sticks. 

Dad understandably didn’t want me to learn music or to be a musician and struggle to support a family in the way that he and others had, so whatever aptitude and passion I had came out unschooled, enthusiastic and mainly self taught. Dad eventually relented. Like the conscientious and sometimes generous dad he was, he helped me to get started financially with the kit and would give me lifts to gigs and rehearsals. In the early 1960s he took me to the meeting place and open air labour exchange of Archer Street where jobbing musicians would meet and fix sessions or get work. 

Image courtesy of Musicians Union

There was a wonderful little musicians drum shop called Len Hunt there, and after that visit I proudly owned a blue pearl Premier snare drum.  After a while I acquired piece by piece the rest of the kit- bass drum, then tom toms. 

Above is an ancient archive pic of my first band at school circa 1965! Great name depicted on said bass drum in luxurious lettraset letters but we didnt hit the big time!

Cymbals came courtesy of another wonderful old haunt of muso drummers- Vic O Brien’s – I can still see his his world-weary face listens to his stories about drums and drum makers and remember his attic space over a shop in New Oxford St.  I proudly bought a wonderful Zyljian 20” ride there and he also gave me an old 18 Zyldjian that looked like someone had bitten a chunk out of it!  Both of these as well as the Premier kit I still have today- mainly sentimental and museum pieces, they are still wearing well despite my best efforts.  My set was finally completed when dad bought me a pair of Zyldjian 15 inch hi hats from the world famous Ivor Mairants Musicentre guitar shop off Oxford St. Ivor was an expert guitarist and educator and an old musician friend of Dads from  Fox’s Band and the Dance Band days so we got  a nice deal- the hats are still going  today- quality lasts!

Although later in life, I was fortunate to have had a few lessons from mentors and heros, for a long time in the first part of my life, I took short cuts  and wanted to do it my way!  I guess I was even more stubborn and self centred then than I am now, Later in life, I have become more disciplined and hopefully more humble and have learned from some of the best and been more diligent in practice.

My journey and influences in music have been -n and are still -both eclectic and varied…

Although my first love was and still is Jazz & improvised music became intrigued by and drawn to Indian Classical music when still at grammar school.  Indian Culture and philosophy has played an important part in my life ever since.

I met my travel soul mate Armand Cazaux, a Frenchman in the bohemian streets of Paris in 1966 when we we hitch hiked around Europe for a bit and had various adventures.   I ran away from School and hoe that autumn to Stockholm where my schoolmate’s brother Steve Roney had an art gallery and was best friends with Don Cherry.  Having harboured illusions about playing with him and hitchhiking with cases of half a drum kit, we came back unsuccessfully after two weeks.  I was later lucky enough to meet him, and he invited me to stay at their school and community, but my life was going elsewhere by then.  

After that I left school having gone off the rails a bit and dropped out of studies, I avoided university and hit the road For a year from 1967-68 with Armand to do the Hippy Trail as they called it to India, but our goal was to learn the music, rather than escape.

Although I had picked up techniques & inspiration along the way. I could never figure out how the drummers made all those sounds, by just listening to the records (No YouTube in those days!) the mystery was revealed when I started to learn and practice in Benares later during our road trip to India. 

We had so many memorable adventures in for us uncharted territory-( no phones, post, internet few airplane routes ) going from Turkey through Iran, lingering in Afghanistan for many weeks, then Pakistan and India- we stil laugh about them today.

On advice of a friend I went to try and get work with a Delhi Street Band doing weddings and so on.  They had a fantastic array of different instruments on show and I was overwhelmed and asked to play them all but without much success!  However when I finally showed them what I could do on the drums they hired me- but my new career as a street musician came to an unfulfilled halt when the very next morning that I was due to show up for a gig, I ended up in Delhi Hospital with what turned out to be a bad dose of infective hepatitis- which nearly caused me to leave this planet! 

I guess that is where my quest for self healing and alternative approaches to health and self care really kicked off- but more of that elsewhere on my site under the “Music and Healing” section of this website if any of you are interested….

We finallly managed despite the challenges to get some time at Benares Hindu University to study a bit of music.

Armand much more than I! Below is the Group photo for the year- included in it was Ravi Shankar’s nephew Ananda Shankar who was in his final year ( we watched his graduation concert) He went on to carve out a succesful career as a composer and soloist merging west and East.  Also there were a sprinkling of western students.

On returning to the UK, my professional career began in the blues and rock bands of the late 1960s.

I had met a griselled and bearded Roger Bunn in Afghanistan- https://www.allmusic.com/artist/roger-bunn-mn0001614978/biography we jammed together and hit it off.  I started playing on the backs of acoustic Guitars as I had no drums with me then. We busked a bit, got chucked into an Afghan Jail and I kept his details to look him up when I got back.  He invited me to join a band he was forming with his partner at the time, Diana and an American couple, close 4 part harmony, original material.  I played and hung out quite a bit with him and did various gigs, jams and close encounters!   He also introduced me to his lyricist John Mackie a poet on the Ladbroke Grove scene, who got me my first full time band gig- Shakey Vick’s Chicago Blues Band. We toured the UK and abroad, and recorded a live LP at Mothers Club in Birmingham.  They were considered more authentic than many of the blues rock bands of the time. 

However I still pined for the freedom of expression that Jazz offered me.  That juxtaposition was made even more apparent when having met Lol Coxhill while he was busking outside the Festival Hall (where I had gone for an Indian Music concert), we rendez-vous-ed at Friars Club in Aylesbury and jammed for the audience in the interval at a Shakey Vick gig. It was exhilarating and memorable. Eventually I left the Band after about a year.  I played in various recording sessions and groups, probably the most consistent was latterly with Quintessence (the Raga Rock Jam Band) through their lead guitarist with whom I had jammed during lunch breaks when we were in the same school together. 

I jammed with some of the members over the years, recorded on their third album and did some touring with them and even did a guest appearance(me in furry hat on floor) on the pyramid stage at the second Glastonbury festival!

I did various recording sessions and gigs in the contemporary music of the time- in particular the “psychedelic inspired” folk scene.

Over the years, I have worked & recorded with many musicians on the Uk Singer/songwriter/folk scene, such as: US Artist Amory Kane, Tim Hollier, Andy Fernbach, Mick Softley, Mick Greenwood, Mick Taylor, Phil Pickett, Casey Synge as well as Jazz/crossover artists such as Roger Bunn, Lyn Dobson, Jonathon Coudrille A brilliant and eclectic musician/artist still going strong in Cornwall today)  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathon_Coudrille

Keith Waithe the Carribean Flautist and in the 90s with Time and Again, an eclectic group formed by Vo Fletcher that included for a time Dave Swarbrick on violin.

I briefly studied tabla with Alla Rakha, one of Ravi Shankar’s main accompanists. In the 1980s, I was a member of the troupe of Surya Kumari, the well known Indian Actress Singer and Bharata Natyam Dancer, playing South Indian Percussion (Mridangam) in various concerts over the years on the South Bank. Some of these included various guest musicians (both Indian and Western) and celebrities, including Larry Adler and Actor Ben Kingsley. 

                                                                                   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suryakumari

Meanwhile My eclectic approach and openness to the music of other cultures brought me to learn and play African, Middle Eastern, Latin American and traditional Irish percussion, while continuing to learn aspects of Indian drumming and music.  Studied Indian Shehnai (oboe) briefly with Qadir Darvish and Nunda Lal’s son in Benares, I studied with and was inspired by Hossam Ramzy the Egyptian Tabla maestro, learned the Irish Bodhran, Flamenco Cajon and also studied Drums with Jazz Master Clark Tracey whose lineage and connection to the greats of UK and US Jazz I respect greatly, along with his impeccable musicianship and skill. Currently studying with The Malvern Jazz Collective originally started by Simon Purcell as Improvisation Classes in which I study Bass Clarinet and help out with drums.

http://www.clarktracey.com/#/

Over the course of my life, I have taken part in numerous cross-cultural collaborations and musical encounters both professionally and informally with a diverse collection of people such as Davy Graham, Raja Ram, John Barham, Julie Felix, Tim Wheater, Jon Harle, Jim McCarty (of Yardbirds and Rennaissance) Vo Fletcher, Dave Swarbrick, Peter Ind (the Jazz Bass legend), Louis Cennamo, Alan Wakeman , Bheki Mseleku,  Jo Clarkson a Kirtan singer, who is a disciple of Baba Ram Dass and many others. I have also played gigs and recorded with the “New Age Music” group Stairway on their popular Instrumental Album “Medicine Dance”.  We will be reissuing this album on Winged Heart later this year.

I have conducted educational Rhythm Workshops for many years in a variety of situations at conferences and events, and at one time did playshops called “Drumming and Dreaming” with Jim McCarty as co-presenters.

I continue to develop to try and develop my craft as well as playing tablas & percussion for Indian Kirtan Groups and Voice Workshops.

For the last 20 years or so I have been working in various Jazz environments and for the last 12 with the great Bassist and Composer Adrian Litvinoff.  He is always coming up with new stuff and ideas and is an accomplished and experienced music educator. When Adrian was forming his group Interplay over 14 years ago he invited me to occupy the Drum and percussion chair, which I have held ever since.  We have recorded 2 CDs and done many gigs mainly in the Midlands and the North.  Our  Interplay collaborations for International Jazz Day have yielded memorable concerts with Claude Deppa, John Etheridge, Norma Winstone, Byron Wallen and Annie Whitehead, during which I was privileged to play a duet with each of them each year.  A highlight was our atmospheric and enjoyable tribute to Alice (and John) Coltrane with Harpist Alina Bzezhinska and the fantastic Sax player, Tony Kofi in May 2019. 

I am in the group Touch of Jazz and as such am the resident drummer for the monthly Malvern Jazz Jam sessions.  We have done a variety of gigs, including regularly appearing in the Upton Jazz Festival Fringe, curated by the dedicated Jon Parsons and team who have re-energised the festival and given it a new lease of life.

For the last 24 years I have been writing, engineering and recording my own material. I was aided in this originally by the talented Paulo Mellett we had a close musical relationship and friendship for some years before he went to university, but he recently died far too young at 35  some years back, before he could come back from his world travels to help me finish the project. 

I recorded some spontaneous sessions of duetting with one of my favourite reed players, Alan Wakeman who also features on “Moments in Time”.  This is in the pipeline for issue as a CD. Other instrumental encounters are also in the pipeline for recording and eventual release such as some tracks with Peter Ind and  my  collaboration with the fine Sound Healer and musician Tim Wheater.

I am currently playing in three groups plus a Big Band.  I am also involved in long term collaboration with the renowned singer songwriter Linda Angelis. I have bee entrusted with most of Peter Inds legacy recordings on Tape, and am slowly going through these, some of which will be historic issues for digitisation

The latest music community I have helped form, is the Foldhouse Band an eclectic mixture of talented switched on people fusing East and West, in which I play percussion (mainly Tablas) but also get to sing and play Alto or Bass Clarinet ( a current musical passion of mine!).  Awantika Dubey, who is a Classically trained Kathak Dancer and Singer of International repute, Her husband Will Tooby on Voice, Sitar ,Guitar, and the talented and soulful singer songwriter pianist and Cellist Julila (Julia Palmer Price). We play monthly concerts at The Fold in Bransford Worcs.

I continue working in Jazz or Improvised music settings and various collaborations with musicians from many different environments but mainly in jazz and other types of progressive/crossover/improvisation groups. 

I try to keep open hearted and humble- I have been privileged to play and converse with many talented and soulful people over my long life, and still there are so, so many good musicians and so much good music out there, much of which we all will never been able to hear or experience.

The journey never ends and despite my creaky limbs, am still striving to improve and develop on all levels.  Thanks to all of you who listened to or played with me and thank you for patiently reading all this, the latter day musings of an ancient muso!