Soirée: Chris Batchelor's 'Happy House'

Soirée: Chris Batchelor's 'Happy House'

Thursday February 22 at 8:00pm (Doors & Bar 6:00pm)
Chris Batchelor’s ‘Happy House’
Chris Batchelor trumpet Margrit Hasler viola Chris Montague guitar Steve Watts bass
Paul Clarvis drums
Happy House is a new London based group of very experienced musicians. Chris Batchelor (founding member of Loose Tubes), Steve Watts and Paul Clarvis have played together for decades in many different bands. Here they are heard in an exciting new combination with Margrit Hasler and Chris Montague. Their unusual instrumentation and the breadth of the repertoire creates a highly original sound. The front line of Batchelor’s trumpet and Hasler’s viola forms a rich and flexible voice, expertly supported and stimulated by the dynamic all-star rhythm section of guitarist Montague, bassist Watts and drummer Clarvis.

Happy House are equally at home with the delicate, folky Americana of Bill Frisell, the splashy themes of Ornette Coleman, the energetic drive of Arthur Blythe’s idiosyncratic material, or Batchelor and Montague’s inventive original compositions. This is all delivered with great flair and sensitivity to style, as you would expect from a group full of bandleaders.

“A fine trumpeter who intriguingly blends Miles Davis's shrewd pacing and evocative long-note sounds with something of Harry Beckett's bubbly phrasing.” John Fordham The Guardian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJV5BT3AoXQ ‘Huckster’