It was love at first strike for this vibes virtuoso
If a teenaged Anthony Kerr, growing up in Northern Ireland, hadn't heard a recording of the great jazz vibraphonist Milt Jackson, he might never have become a professional musician - never mind a vibes virtuoso who has been hailed as the most exciting in the world.
'If it hadn't been for hearing Milt and his quintet, I wouldn't have had the curiosity to try the instrument,' Kerr says. 'And without Lionel Hampton, even fewer people would have been inspired to take it up.'
Other vibraphonists have played jazz - Kerr lists Bobby Hutcherson, Terry Gibbs, Gary Burton and Mike Maineiri among those he admires - but there are precious few virtuosi on the instrument.
Vibes are hard to play and difficult to transport, but Kerr was sure from the moment he first struck a bar with a mallet that he'd found his vocation. 'I was playing drums and percussion, but I never connected with those instruments the way I did when I played the vibraphone. A lot of musicians will tell you that when they found their own instrument they knew it very quickly, and I remember feeling that with the vibraphone.
'I realised this was an instrument where I wouldn't be completely without technique because I was used to holding sticks and messing around on the piano finding harmonies. Miraculously, I found a vibraphone in Belfast. I washed windows to save money, and bought it. The day I got my vibes I didn't want to play drums any more.'
While still a teenager Kerr moved to Dublin to join the Irish Youth Jazz Orchestra. The experience of playing with musicians of the calibre of guitarist Louis Stewart convinced him he should turn professional. 'When I started to play with musicians like Louis I realised that this was what I wanted to do full time and forever.'
Having gained some experience in Dublin, Kerr moved to New York - 'Ireland is a small island and it wasn't going to get any bigger' - and put in some serious practice on the instrument. 'New York is full of hungry young players practising every day. It's like a pressure cooker. You cook more quickly in New York than you do in other places. It's a good place to study for a couple of years, but it's tough to make a living there. Supply and demand is very much against the musician.'
Kerr moved to London, and got into the scene by taking his vibes down to a jazz club in Chelsea. Word that a remarkable talent had arrived soon spread, and he was invited to join Georgie Fame's band, of which he has been a member since 1990.
In 1993, he made his recorded debut as a leader, and again British jazz lovers paid close attention. 'I did an album with the singer Jacqui Dankworth called First Cry. It got great reviews, and people liked it. But I was a little naive because I didn't think about how to do a live version of it. When we made the album, I overdubbed the marimba. I hired a five-octave marimba, which weighed about 130kg and made a very subtle sound. It would have been difficult to tour it around.
'We did an album, but we didn't do a tour to back it up, so it could have been more successful had I been more experienced. But that was where I was at the time. I wanted to make that music.'
This weekend's Grappa's Cellar gigs will be Kerr's first Hong Kong performances, although he hopes not the last. He'll be backed by guitarist Eugene Pao, bassist Paul Candelaria and drummer Anthony Fernandes. 'I've heard a lot about Eugene and I'm much looking forward to playing with him.'
Besides a couple of original songs, Kerr will also be bringing along his vibraphone. 'It's an awful bind to carry about, but we all have a price to pay for what we love. Mine is humping a vibraphone around the world.'
Anthony Kerr, tomorrow, Sat, 9pm, Grappa's Cellar, Basement, Jardine House, 1 Connaught Rd, Central, HK$325. Inquiries: 2521 2322
