Chris Barber, one of the greatest figures in the history of British jazz – obituary
He led the Trad revival in the Fifties and his embrace of skiffle and the blues laid the trail for the Beatles and the Rolling Stones
Chris Barber (1970s): he could do whatever he liked, whenever he liked
Credit: David Redfern
Chris Barber, who has died aged 90, led the world’s most popular and longest-lived traditional jazz band. The unflagging appetite for its music, especially among British and north European audiences, defied every conventional tenet of the entertainment business.
Barber’s enduring success was due partly to his astuteness in broadening his style and adapting judiciously to changing times. These innovations were often ahead of fashion and always the sincere product of his own wide-ranging enthusiasms. It is perfectly feasible to claim that neither the Beatles nor the Rolling Stones would have come into existence had it not been for Chris Barber.