Chris Barber

April 17, 1930 – March 2, 2021

A significant figure in the music scene of the 1940s, 50s, 60s and beyond, bandleader and trombonist Chris Barber has passed away at the age of 90. He had been suffering from dementia. Barber was an influential musician who linked New Orleans jazz with blues, rock’n’roll and R&B, his role in the skiffle movement bringing blues artists to British audiences during the 1950s and 60s.

“Without Chris Barber,” Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman once observed, “the Stones and the Beatles would not be where they are now.” In 1991, he was awarded an OBE for services to music.

Born in in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, Barber formed his first band in London following the Second World War. He collaborated with many of music’s biggest names, such as Muddy Waters and Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits. In 1972 Barber and his band teamed up with Rory Gallagher to record the album Drat That Fratle Rat! He played live until retiring in 2019.

Hawkwind issued a statement declaring Barber “one of the jazz greats who brought some of the legends of blues to Britain.” It continued: “His influence on rock, blues and jazz in this country is legendary.”

According to Steve Van Zandt, of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band, Barber was “the Godfather of British rock”.