When Ben Higham looks ahead to the album launch for The Brass Monkeys’ latest release, Lullabite, at PizzaExpress in Dean Street on 28 April he says, “It’ll be cosy.” Feature by Rob Adams.

With eight musicians playing instruments including tuba and French horn, alongside trumpets, trombones, tenor saxophone and drums, the intimate Soho jazz club will certainly lend itself to experiencing The Brass Monkeys at close quarters.

“I wanted to create a sound with impact,” says Higham, The Brass Monkeys’ tuba player and founder. “The original line-up of the band was a quintet with three saxophones and that was fun. But the textures we have available now are really interesting to write for. It’s the ideal instrumentation for me. I always wanted a French horn, for example, because it adds a lovely sound to the ensemble without being too sweet.”

The ensemble is only part of The Brass Monkeys’ sonic possibilities. The lush sound of six brass and one reed instrument can be a prelude to the ‘soloists’ – pairs, trios and even whole band improvisations taking the composed pieces off into uncharted territory.

“It’s exciting to have that contrast between the very organised arrangements and spontaneous interactive improvising,” says Higham. “There’s a lot of ‘what would happen if?’ in the space we leave for improvisation. Nobody – and no group of people – has the set solo in any one piece. Where the music goes beyond the written parts can, and does, change from night to night. It’s an adventure and with the musicians we have in the band, that organic element, the bits we leave to chance, are always different.”

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Finding the ideal combination of musicians who can respond to this freedom to be creative, as well as reading the dots, has taken Higham quite some time. The early edition of the band he referred to recorded the first album by The Brass Monkeys more than twenty years ago. 

“We have a real blend of ages in the line-up,” says Higham, “and the experience of all is very impressive.”

French horn player Jim Rattigan’s CV includes Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra and Michael Brecker’s Quindectet and the two trombonists, Annie Whitehead and Kieran McLeod, bring the contrast of playing respectively in drummer John Stevens’ free-spirited Folkus and Freebop groups – and much else besides – and the highly disciplined Scottish National Jazz Orchestra. Joining them are Chris Dowding and Charlotte Keeffe (trumpets and flugelhorns), Paul Jolly (tenor saxophone) and Olly Blackman (drums).

Collectively, band members have worked with Joan Armatrading, Elvis Costello, the Style Council, Robert Wyatt and Joe Jackson at the popular end of the music spectrum and with Chris MacGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath, Louis Moholo, Dudu Pukwana, and Keith Tippett on the more experimental, but still melodically inclined, side.

“It’s inspiring to be able to write for musicians with those sorts of backgrounds,” says Higham. “I’ll often come up with ideas for pieces with this band in mind and keep those ideas in my head for a while until I’m ready to commit these thoughts to paper. Of course, when everybody comes in and plays their parts, it turns out to be similar to what I expected but invariably even better.”

In addition to Higham’s own compositions, The Brass Monkeys play arrangements of existing music. Thelonious Monk, Herbie Nichols and Bill Frisell are three of the jazz composers who, Higham finds, suit the band’s style – blues, soul, reggae, folk music and klezmer are other sources of inspiration.

“I find iconoclastic musicians-composers attract me when it comes to arranging,” says Higham. “The way Monk and Herbie Nichols approach structure and space is very interesting and transferring their ideas into the context of the Brass Monkeys’ instrumentation is both challenging and rewarding. In the end, though, I know that whatever I give the musicians in the band to play, they’re going to bring the kind of engagement and dynamism to it that I want to hear.”

As for the audience, Higham hopes that the energy and variety that the band brings to the stage will appeal.

“It’s a delight for me to see people turning up and enjoying what we do,” he says. “We’re not profound. The music honours the tradition as well as allowing the musicians freedom of expression and there’s an element of comfort as well as surprise and unfamiliar structures. PizzaExpress in Dean Street is a great place for us to play and I think it, and places like it – compact, intimate spaces – will give the audience a great experience.”

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The Brass Monkeys launch Lullabite at PizzaExpess on 28th April. BOOKINGS
The album is released on 33 Records and also available from Bandcamp. LINK