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Martin Barre
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martin Lancelot Barre (born 17 November 1946, in King's Heath, Birmingham, Warwickshire, England) is an English rock musician.
Barre has been the guitarist for rock band Jethro Tull since 1969. He has appeared on every Jethro Tull album except This Was. His sound has been marked by a blend of Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton style blues with the baroque complexities of early 1970s progressive rock and traditional European folk music sounds. He has also acted as a flautist both on-stage for Tull, and in his solo work.
Barre began his career playing saxophone with the Birmingham band, The Moonrakers in the early 1960s. During 1966, he joined Beau Brummell's former backing band, The Noblemen with fellow ex-Moonraker, Chris Rodger, and the group subsequently changed name to The Motivation. The band also comprised singer Jimmy Marsh, bassist Bryan Stevens, keyboardist Mike Ketley and drummer Malcolm Tomlinson. The group appeared at London's legendary Marquee Club on two occasions and also supported Cream at the Upper Cut in the Forest Gate district of London.
In the summer of 1967, Marsh and Rodger left and the others brought in former Clayton Squares singer Denny Alexander and became The Penny Peeps. Signed to Liberty Records, the band released two singles in 1968 — Little Man With A Stick backed by Model Village and I See The Morning backed with Curly, Knight of The Road. By this point, Barre had switched to lead guitar and his impressive solo on Model Village has made the track a popular collectors' item.
Alexander left the band in mid-1968 and the group became a blues outfit under a new moniker — Gethsemane. The new band recorded further material which was never released, and broke up in Mid December 1968, when Barre joined Jethro Tull.
For more than three decades, Barre's career focused on Jethro Tull. In the 1990s, however, he began to perform as a solo artist, and has recorded four albums: A Summer Band, A Trick of Memory, The Meeting and Stage Left. On these recordings, Barre combined rock and guitar oriented fusion in his sound.
On one track of 1994's A Trick of Memory, Barre plays a guitar given to him by friend Mark Mancina. 1996's The Meeting features the bassist Jonathan Noyce, who was then introduced to Tull vocalist and flute player, Ian Anderson by Barre and now plays with them.
His most recent solo effort, 2003's Stage Left, saw Barre assay a number of blues, acoustic folk and even ambient electronic styles. The songs were free flowing, yet had strong melodies.
Barre is one of the most accomplished guitarists in rock, and his signature solo on the 1971 Jethro Tull standard "Aqualung" was voted by the readers of Guitar Player magazine as one of the top rock guitar solos of all time. Also, in 2007, this solo was rated one of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos by Guitar World magazine. Dire Straits' leader Mark Knopfler, in a 2005 interview, called Barre's work with Ian Anderson "magical".
In 2004 in support of Stage Left, he played a number of solo dates and played at all of the Tull gigs in 2005. According to his official website, he has also recorded work on the recent album by veteran British folk music outfit, Pentangle.
According to a diary entry on his website dated December 2006, Barre says he "has started work on an acoustic project" with Dan Crisp, a singer and guitarist and Alan Bray, a bassist. Barre states he will be playing a number of acoustic instruments with the group, including bouzouki and mandolin. The group has already played three shows and they will continue to collaborate in 2007. No mention is made of the group recording an album.
- A Summer Band (1992)
- A Trick of Memory (1994)
- The Meeting (1996)
- Stage Left (2003)
- Official website
- Biography on official Jethro Tull website
- The Meeting at All Music Guide
- A Trick Of Memory at All Music Guide
- Stage Left at All Music Guide