Interview with
The New Mastersounds
Eddie Roberts
words: Pete Isaac. January 2010

After many years working with this pasty-faced bunch of Northerners and their jazz funk music, we at Jelly Jazz can quite confidently say that The New Mastersounds are our favourite live act. Hence this interview could be conceived as biased on our part, but then, it's our website! Comprised of lead guitarist Eddie Roberts, Pete Shand on bass, Simon Allen on drums and Joe Tatton on organ and piano, the NMS have in recent years been blazing the funk trail throughout the USA and Japan, picking up legions of fans along the way.

We first became aware of Eddie Roberts with his band, and possibly the first NMS blueprint, The Three Deuces around 13 years ago. Based in Leeds, The Deuces plied gritty organ jazz with a hefty underbelly of funk around the clubs of Leeds and the North, with little spots around the rest of the Country. Jelly Jazz booked them to play at Plymouth University and it was then we witnessed the jaw dropping skill and dexterity of Eddie's sublime guitar playing. The obvious comparison one often makes is with Grant Green, and it's a comparison that I'm sure he doesn't mind too much! The ‘Down at Arts’ EP (Yardbird Suite Records, 1997) heralded one of the band’s first forays into pressed-up vinyl, and as a calling card certainly made fans of the genre aware of them from Penzance to Inverness (at least the lucky few that managed to pick up a copy of that limited 12" from their local record shop.) And it was that record that made us pick up the phone immediately and pursuade them that a trip to Plymouth was what they had to do!

The Three Deuces line-up was relatively short lived though, lasting roughly a year. But this made way for The New Mastersounds to be born. And a dizzying array of line-ups was instigated! Going from 4 to 5 to 6 to 8, back to 4 piece and so on, The New Mastersounds could keep the band evolving and expand their repertoire in leaps and bounds. On their first record as NMS, ('GT' again on Yardbird Records), the band had expanded to include a vocalist and their brand of funk/soul/jazz starting getting into its stride. The sound was rooted in the classic Prestige Records organ and guitar-based soul jazz, inventive for sure and full of individual flourishes from each of theaccomplished players. With the band firmly in their groove, we once again booked them for Jelly Jazz. This time the full 8 piece came down for our year 2000 Christmas Party. Set at Plymouth's Dance Academy, they played to a sell-out crowd of 1500 people all going nuts to the uptempo funk they blasted out. It was one of the best concerts that Jelly Jazz had ever put on.

Roll onto 2001, and after a bunch of killer 7's and 12's, in steps UK funk royalty Keb Darge. Keb helped with promotion and production and in doing so lending an invaluable kudos that would make the rest of the world take notice. 'Keb Darge presents The New Mastersounds' (BBE LP - 2001) was, you could say, the band's first major record. This LP, with its gritty funk and exceptional playing, really cemented their rep amongst collectors and DJs, especially for their funk rendition of the Kenny Dope classic 'Nervous'. This cut got absolutely hammered by all the top funk jocks across the globe, and still sounds fresh today. By this stage no-one could doubt how good the band were, and Eddie Roberts' ability to write and to lead the band into the realms of something really special was entirely evident. He just has to be one of the best musicians this country has to offer. Of course it's not just Eddie, with Simon Allen and Pete Shand providing drums and bass respectively, and cranking it out in the most spectacular way, they had a rhythm section that could hold it down with as much energy and drive as one could wish for. Also adding musical punchiness and flare was Bob Birch on Hammond Organ, such askillful player and full of soul. I personally remember freaking out completely and playing air organ behind Bob as he played an unbelievable solo at a NMS gig with Jelly Jazz at The Maker Festival back in 2003 (...the tragic but inevitableconsequence of one too many ales and blistering funk!!). In 2007 Bob retired from the band, to be replaced by fellow Leeds organ-meister, Joe Tatton.

Eddie and Lou Donaldson - Eden Project

Another notable and awe-inspiring project was the 2004 concert at The Eden Project where the band backed up Blue Note sax legend Lou Donaldson. It was one of those collaborations made in heaven that will never happen again. It was a project that we and Russ Dewbury (Jazz Rooms) conceived; Russ had the foresight to offer NMS the opportunity to back up Lou and of course they jumped at it. Between us we compiled exactly what songs we wanted Lou to play! He of course thought that 'those 60's jams, what, you want those?'! Lou came over, and after just 2 hours of rehearsal, played a show at The Hi Fi club in Leeds, then onto Russ's Jazz Bop in Brighton and finally on to Eden for our 11th Birthday Party. By this time Lou and the band had gelled wonderfully and ran though classics like 'Who's Making Love' and 'Everything I play Gonna Be Funky'. Eddie and the boys also warmed up the crowd before Lou came on stage with a bunch of NMS instrumental killers. I expect that for Lou Donaldson, it could well have been like returning to the late 60's to have such a young, hungry and determined band behind him, creating a tough, funky and completely solid backbone for his sax playing. The atmosphere at that concert was very intense, and packed out with an incredibly diverse audience. Over 1000 jazzed-out hippies, young hardcore clubbers and old-school jazz fans with silver hair, they all relished the music and cheered and danced all the way through. For us, it was definitely one of our proudest moments as promoters.

You could see how much fun they were all having on stage, and it's this feeling of family within the band that makes them so special. They are like a set of limbs on the same body, all totally in tune with each other and able to head off in any direction without so much as a drop of a hi-hat. At the beginning of 2010, with 6 studio LPs, two live albums and stacks of singles under their belt, they are, slowly but surely, conquering the world of funk. As a result of the collaborations each member makes with other projects, and the relentless worldwide touring, they have honed their skills as musicians and performers. And it's as performers that the NMS stand above most other acts: when you see the band live, you are treated to a musically perfect and guaranteed stonking night out.

With the their latest LP ‘Ten Years On’ out now on One Note Records, and because of all the concerts they have played with us (about 10 or maybe more, all over the place!), we decided to give JJ fans a bit more depth to our favourite band. We caught up with Eddie to find out more about the history of The New Mastersounds and to get the heads-up on all the things they are working on right now.

Listen to: NMS 'Better Off Dead'

Hi Eddie. Blimey, it must be around 13 years since you first came down to Jelly Jazz with The Three Deuces, and it's definitely a gig I remember! Can you give us a quick potted Deuces history, and was it your first serious band?
I can remember it too! It was a bit scary to start: we were playing in a Plymouth Uni student Union competing with an International Rugby match on a big screen.. haha. Turned out great in the end though. No, it wasn’t my first serious band…being rather a serious guy, especially in the early days. My First band was The Jazz Mailmen, set up in 1990 to cover Art Blakey Jazz Messengers stuff, and I forced everyone to go and buy 1940’s suits! Then I had the ‘Eddie Roberts Organisation’ with which I played my first European gigs (Amsterdam and Rotterdam 1992), but failed my music degree exam as I was on stage abroad! Oops. The Three Deuces were formed in around `94 I believe and it must have been `96 when we came down to Jelly Jazz…so, yea: 13 odd years.

NMS on the Craig Charles Funk & Soul Show

When you formed The New Mastersounds, was this a continuation of where the Three Deuces left off, or a mindful progression to tackle new areas?
I wanted to play with some guys my own age who were flexible to tour a bit more (the other two Deuces had nearly 20 years on me), and I also wanted to diverge into some chicken-scratch guitar.

At one point there was 8 or 9 people in The New Mastersounds, was it difficult to maintain a large band on the road?
Yes, it was. Hence shrinking back to a quartet after two years of trying to make it work. For the sake of clarity, here’s a potted history of the first years:
- The Mastersounds formed in 1996; Simon (Allen) replaced the original drummer after a year.
- In 1998 the band folded, but Simon and I were determined to continue making music together. In 1999 we teamed up with Bob (Birch) and Pete (Shand) and formed The NEW Mastersounds.
- we released our first 2 singles as a 4-piece.
- we teamed up with Cleve Freckleton and the Haggis Horns for two years, during which time we made Keb Darge Presents…(2001).
- in 2003 we reverted back to the original 4-piece, and made the 2nd album, Be Yourself. Simon set up our label, One Note Records at that point, in order to produce and release that record.

When you settled on the current 4 piece, did you feel that the band could really drive forward and develop your sound?
There was a really nice back-to-basics feel when we settled back as the 4-piece and we felt we could explore our sound a bit easier, on and off stage. Although initially it was really hard to persuade promoters to book us, as they didn’t think we’d be able to cut it live (a notion that was dispelled as soon as we hit the stage.) We used to chant “we believe in the 4-piece!” before we went on!! haha

Listen to: NMS 'Idris'

With the solid backbone of the band that you have, I expect it makes it easy to bring in guest vocalists and players. Do you generally have it in mind what you want from a guest, or are you happy to see where they might take you?
It’s usually quite an organic and natural process when we work with a guest. If it isn’t, and once or twice it hasn’t been, we don’t continue with the idea.

Listen to: NMS 'MRG'

Your on and off stage collective persona is one of harmony and humour without the hubris! Hows it been being virtually married to Pete, Simon and Joe?
It’s like being in a family of 4 orphans: lots of love and hate between brothers. There are disagreements, but we’ve been through too much together not to fall back in line pretty quickly. Very much like siblings, except we’ve learned the delicate art of apology, so no-one is left fuming for too long!

I would have said the Keb Darge Presents The New Mastersounds LP was the one that got you going, or maybe the'Nervous' track on it's own. But it's in recent years that the band seem to have exploded internationally. At what point do you feel everything slotted into place?
Hitting the US gave us experiences that we could have only ever imagined, and with that, the band has grown and grown beyond recognition. The first gig in that opened things up to us over there was High Sierra Music Festival in Northern California in summer 2005. We arrived unknown, and left two days later having picked up a following that’s still with us.

In 2004 you played with Lou Donaldson at The HiFi Club in Leeds, The Jazz Rooms in Brighton and then culminating at the Jelly Jazz 11th Birthday at The Eden Project. It must mean so much to play with people like Lou. What other notable musicians have you performed with?
Idris Muhammad, Cyril Neville, Melvin Sparks, George Porter Jnr (Meters bass player)….

It looks like it's the USA where you are most successful at the moment with many tours under your belts. How have you managed to break into that huge market?
Luckily, the American crowds love our sound. I think they’re very intrigued that a bunch of Brits can play their music - that was definitely the initial intrigue - but now we’re fully accepted into the scene all over the continent. It’s taken a lot of legwork, but we’re really feeling the rewards from 4 years of hard work. Japan is also great for us, although we can only play there once a year (that’s how they like it – I’d go every week!). We sell a lot of records in Japan.

What kind of audiences are you getting there?
US audiences are very mixed, and you can’t really generalize with it being so huge, but I would say our core audience is music fanatics aged 25-35. These people are prepared to travel huge distances to get their fix, so we often see the same people popping up at different ends of the country.

How was it playing at The Fillmore in San Francisco last year? I was very close to flying over for that one, it must have been special.
Incredible! The build up of the day was amazing - we were driving from L.A. after our first good show there (after 4 years – L.A. is weird, and tough). I was highly conscious of the achievement of getting to the Fillmore without any major label, marketing budget, etc. I was peaceful, not anxious, and felt that it was the most important point of my musical journey. We had a fantastic turnout, the gig was amazing, and the feeling afterwards was amazing. Not bad eh?

Tell us about the Jam Cruises you do in Florida, 5 days stuck on a large cruise ship in the sunshine to party with funk and jazz music, sounds mad!
Mad is an understatement! We’ve played it twice now and you really have to experience it: 24-hour music, amazing bands and legends, all in one floating city. You hardly feel like you’re on a ship, it’s so big. And what a way to start the year! (It usually sails around January 4th)

Eddie & Dionne Charles

So do you see the US tours getting bigger all the time? How far do you think you can takes things there?
Well, it appears that it is getting bigger, and frankly I think we’ve got a long way to go - as you say, it is a big country. We’re headlining the Fillmore again in March, we’ve had some great offers in from major US festivals, and are pretty much booked solid till August. The next step is to start collaborating on record with some of the American heavyweights - that’s the plan for the next album. How easy that will be, I don’t know, but the intention is there.

You also played the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan last year, how was that?
It was the most gruelling travel itinerary we’ve ever attempted. We walked off stage in Minnesota at 2am Wednesday night; drove to airport in next state; flew from Fargo ND, via Chicago, to Tokyo; cleared immigration; were driven 5 hours straight to the backstage of Fuji Rock; and within an hour of arriving went on stage for a two hour set 2am Friday night. All without seeing a bed…ouch. It’s the most amazing festival - I’ve never seen so many people with no litter! Bizarre! We had one day to soak it all in before returning to USA.

Listen to: NMS 'Make Me Proud'

What other territories are you looking to visit? Is there a particular venue that you've always dreamed about performing in?
I think we might be getting to Australia in the near future, which would be a nice experience. But I think anywhere in Asia would be very cool and interesting. As for venues, the Fillmore was definitely the biggie, but I guess the Apollo in Harlem would be pretty mad!

I know that you have other projects on the go including the Roughneck project which produced a fine album in 2007 and the Fantasy Funk Band thing last year, what other collaborations have you been involved with over the last 12 months?
I’ve been playing in Spain with the bassist and drummer of Sweet Vandals in a project called the Fire Eaters, which has been a lot of fun. Spain has got a great music scene at the moment, Madrid in particular. I’ve also made a few remixes with Lack of Afro, and rumour has it we may collaborate on an album this year (the rumour starts here!)

What's coming up with the Mastersounds in 2010?
Gigs, gigs, new album, gigs and more gigs… living the dream.

Quick fire five!
1. Rabbit or cat? Rabbit – rabbit pooh doesn’t smell
2. Lego or Meccano? Lego technics
3. North or south? South!
4. TV or no TV? no TV
5. Beach or city? Beach – I’m from Swansea boyo

Links
The New Mastersounds
One Note Records
NMS on myspace


NMS on Facebook