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Pioneering folk band The Easy Club began in Edinburgh\u2019s burgeoning folk scene in the early 1980s, their eponymous debut album releasing in 1984. That first record showcased a combination unlike anything being done anywhere. Music later described in a Living Tradition feature by the group\u2019s guitarist Jack Evans as \u201cScottish rhythm n\u2019 swing\u201d.<\/p>\n
The band emerged from Jock Tamson\u2019s Bairns – another hugely influential group. With the release of their second album The Lasses Fashion on Topic Records in 1982, the band\u2019s fortunes were buoyant. But the demands of young families on some members led to a slowing of the previously busy schedule.<\/p>\n
With time on their hands, guitarist Jack Evans and singer Rod Paterson found themselves more and more involved in Edinburgh\u2019s session scene. Playing in Sandy Bells, they soon hooked in with Jim Sutherland, Derek Hoy and Norman Chalmers, forming a band called The Easy Club for a BBC show about Allan Ramsay – the poet instrumental in the 18th century revival of the Scots language, and a key influence on Robert Burns. The name was taken from one of many drinking clubs on the Edinburgh High Street of which Ramsay was a member.<\/p>\n
In their rehearsals, they zeroed in on an approach that combined folk with jazz and swing elements, which as Evans said later \u201ccaused the tune to burst to life like a roman candle\u201d.<\/p>\n
The session scene soon brought Evans, Patterson and Sutherland together with new-in-town fiddler John Martin formerly of Ossian. The four began working in earnest on that now legendary debut album, self-releasing on their own label – Abbeyhill Music.<\/p>\n
The album was one of the first times where Scottish music and jazz really started talking to each other. Jack said in an interview at the time: \u201cWe don\u2019t know what Scottish traditional music is, in a way, except that it\u2019s music that somebody made up once and has been played ever since. Perhaps what everybody\u2019s doing now will be seen as traditional music in the future\u201d.<\/p>\n
Though it had something of a marmite effect amongst purists, many saw the record for the exciting development that it was. Early converts included Danny Kyle and Scotsman journalist Alastair Clark. As Jack put it: \u201cThey recognised the references to a time when folk, jazz, and blues were part of the same alternative music scene \u2013 a time which had been good for folk music, and raised its profile with the public. Since then, traditional music (as it is now preferred to be called) had attempted to kid on that it was somehow free from the pollution of modern influences\u201d.<\/p>\n
Their manner on stage was a departure too. John Martin: \u201cWe\u2019re all been in bands with people who were very good at entertaining audiences but there\u2019s a limit to how far you can take that. I think the idea for the Easy Club was really to concentrate on the music side of it and if the audience wants jokes, then that\u2019s too bad, you know. None of us are really into that side of the thing\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was all about the music. Jim Sutherland a powerful bodhran and cittern player, taking influence from everything from Indian jazz outfit Shakti to the Dystart and Dundonald Pipe band. Jack Evans, a pioneer of guitar in Scottish music, John Martin\u2019s fiddle playing equal parts supple and explosive, and Rod Paterson, a peerless vocalist, who as his 1986 solo release Two Hats showed was equally as comfortable singing Scots songs as he was jazz standards.<\/p>\n
They continued throughout the 80s, touring hard and making two further albums: Chance or Design in 1985, and Skirlie Beat in 1987.<\/p>\n
Eventually, the constant touring, static fees and rising costs began to wear on the band, and The Easy Club was placed on hiatus. The initial break lasted a few years, before the band came back together in the early 90s to tour and play summer festivals.<\/p>\n
Since, the four have gone on to achieve even more in their own right: Sutherland as a composer producing scores for films such as Disney Pixar\u2019s Brave, and Netflix\u2019s Outlaw King, as well as large scale projects like La Banda Europa and Struileag: Shore to Shore. Martin went on to tour with The Tannahill Weavers for many years; Paterson to a prolific solo career and long time teaching position at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. From Jock Tamson’s Bairns and The Easy Club, Evans went on to be part of Karen Wimhurst\u2019s Cauld Blast Orchestra, work as a record producer, and guitar tutor, first at the-then RSAMD and now an integral part of the team at Scotlands\u2019 National Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music.<\/p>\n
The Easy Club blazed a trail, creating a space for others to approach folk music with the same spirit of inventiveness and experimentation. Jack again: \u201cRemember that the world is awash with music these days, and most of it is pretty ordinary. Do try to invest your music with some special qualities, ones that can\u2019t be found among the presets of a Kurzweil synth, or by becoming a pallid clone of your personal musical heroes. Don\u2019t end up as a nett contributor to the tide of mediocrity that\u2019s already engulfing us. That\u2019s the only message of The Easy Club\u201d.<\/p>\n
Dougie Pincock – former piper with The Battlefield Band, and Director of Scotland\u2019s National Centre for Excellence in Traditional Music:<\/p>\n
“We hear a lot about fusion these days in traditional music, and unfortunately sometimes the people who had the initial idea for the fusion don’t get the credit they deserve. If you want to find out where traditional music and jazz first started talking to each other, go and listen to The Easy Club. It wasn’t everybody’s cup of tea, but innovators are usually met with some kind of opposition. Good innovations stand the test of time. If you’re into the likes of The Unusual Suspects, Snarky Puppy and Fat Suit, you have The Easy Club to thank.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pioneering folk band The Easy Club began in Edinburgh\u2019s burgeoning folk scene in the early 1980s, their eponymous debut album releasing in 1984. That first record showcased a combination unlike anything being done anywhere. Music later described in a Living Tradition feature by the group\u2019s guitarist Jack Evans as \u201cScottish rhythm n\u2019 swing\u201d. The band […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3175,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-3196","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3197,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3196\/revisions\/3197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/projects.handsupfortrad.scot\/hall-of-fame\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}