The much-loved festive, annual tradition of Guy Barker’s Big Band Christmas returns to the Royal Albert Hall for its ninth year, a swinging, soulful celebration of big band music with a Christmas twist! Guy Barker’s inimitable mixture of jazz classics, unearthed treasures and Christmas oddities will put a swing in your step in the midst of the festive season.

Guy will be joined on stage by special guests Paloma Faith, Tony Momrelle, Clare Teal, Vanessa Haynes, Giacomo Smith and Ian Shaw, helping him raise the Royal Albert Hall roof, and converting even the grumpiest bah humbugs to the joys of Christmas! Book your tickets here!

We sit down with Guy Barker to chat about the next Big Band Christmas…

So first question, your Big Band Christmas has become a beloved tradition over the  last nine years. What inspired you to first create this set of event and what do you  think has contributed to its lasting appeal? 

First of all I must say that this wasn’t my idea. And interestingly, many of the projects I’ve done that have worked out well have not been my idea, It was always someone else’s  suggestion that I took and ran with. It was Lucy [Noble, former Artistic Director] at the Hall who suggested after we had spoken about another project that was huge, So much so that I couldn’t work out how we would get it off the ground. So we put that to one side. And then just a few days later the suggestion came in, “how do you fancy doing a big band Christmas concert?” My immediate reaction was, what would I do for that? I started to think…“cheesy”. How could I make this work? So I was asked to go away and have a think about it and then come back we’ll see what happens. 

So, I went away and started investigating. And I discovered many Christmas recordings  created by truly great Jazz musicians. Obviously though when you search through Xmas repertoire sometimes you feel like you’re wading through treacle because you come across some stuff that’s really not that good. But then I found Christmas albums by jazz musicians like Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Oliver Nelson Jimmy Smith, Ramsey Lewis and others. I suddenly I thought, “Wow, this is great!” I could make this happen. As well as being great fun it would also be full of musical integrity.  

I also discovered this wonderful hit that Louis Prima had in the 30’s, and it made me laugh so much, I said, we’ve got to do it. The song was song What would Santa Claus say when he finds everybody swinging? Goodness me, how the language has changed over the years. So I knew this could work and I started planning straight away. Sorting out the line up of the band and the material etc… Then I asked my dear friend Clare Teal if she would come on board, and, as well as sing, also co present the show with me so I can concentrate on steering this huge ship.

We had some amazing guests on that first one. Kurt Elling, Clarke Peters, Vanessa Haynes and Soweto Kinch. And something seemed to happen on that first night. Everything felt really good. I also received a lot of messages saying that this should be an annual event! 

So the show blends of jazz classics, less known gems, as you kind of mentioned  already, in sort of these unique holiday pieces. How do you go about curating such a diverse and engaging set list that keep the audience surprised and entertained for  each sort of following year?  

Well… it is Christmas. and at this time of year there’s things that we just expect. Like Jingle Bells, The Christmas song, or Brussel sprouts and Christmas pudding. However the point of this is to give the tunes something different and present in a more  swinging and groovy way – for example we’ve played Jingle Bells as a Count Basie swing  number and also as a Mambo Another important point is that Christmas is a time for fun and celebration so not every song we do has to be about Xmas, there are songs in the great swing band tradition to keep your toes tapping. For many people Christmas has a  deeper more religious meaning. So therefore, we’ll create some songs that have a more gospel edge to it, and some that  have a soul element to it 

For example last year, when we had Flight Call, that wonderful vocal group, they came to  me and said, “look, we’ve got two ideas”. And one of them was an old Louis Jordan song, a Christmas song. And I said, “Oh, great, I’ve done that one. I’ve got an arrangement”. They  said, “No, we want to do it differently”. So I sat down with them and their Musical Director,  and we compiled a brand new way of doing that particular song. And then they found this  James Brown rarity. So every year we discover something, and then it’s a mixture of what I  think will go well in the program and what the artists would like to sing. For this year, Vanessa told me about a particular gospel song that I’d never heard of. And she said, let’s try this one. So it’s a mixture of everything – you want to introduce people to ones they’ve never heard before, but still have the atmosphere is Christmas, whereas you there are certain songs that you just absolutely must do.

So this year’s lineup features Paloma Faith, Tony Momrelle and Claire Teal. Can you  tell us about the process of selecting your guest artists and how they contribute to  the show’s unique atmosphere? 

Well, we’ve also got Ian Shaw and Vanessa Haynes and Giacomo Smith. In fact a variety of  people have come in over the past years . Georgie Fame did one year. Liv Warfield, the great American singer, she came in one year and gradually we build up what becomes part  of the Big Band Royal Albert Hall Christmas family, if you like.  

But the songs that are chosen all come out of conversations I have with the artists. Sometimes I might say “how about this or how about that and sometimes the artist knows exactly what they want to do and that’s always great. Like Paloma. I’m really excited about the fact that she will be joining us this year. We have known each other and worked together of and on for the past 15 years.

Also this year, as musicians in this particular world of music, we couldn’t ignore the passing of the great Quincy Jones, who I worked with a few times, and so did some members of the  band. So this year within the programme, we will do a tribute to Quincy because I just think  that is really important. If we let that go, that would be a sin. 

How does the grandeur of this venue influence your approach to orchestrating the  performance? 

I was a guest on Robert Elms’ [BBC Radio London] radio show, and they had a listed  Londoner section, and the first question was, What’s your favourite building in London? And I just said the Royal Albert Hall. It’s my favourite venue anywhere. It’s because when you perform there you don’t play a concert – it’s an occasion! And you feel that. And what’s interesting is that you can walk out and see this vast expanse of the seats and the colour and the size of the Hall, and yet on the stage, it feels quite intimate, and I’ve heard a lot of  people say that, and it’s just an incredibly special place to perform. I think what happens is even if you didn’t plan your programme to suit the venue, the audience and the venue will  bring that out of you. And I think the way the audience has an effect on the people on stage is quite amazing. It’s the most exciting thing. It’s a thrill. When the Hall had its 150th anniversary, I wanted to make sure that we paid tribute to that as well as Christmas. So I went into the archives and discovered which artists have played at the Hall and what was  significant. One thing that I discovered was that there was a Charleston competition in the 20s, and Fred Astaire was one of the judges. So we did a Fred Astaire song. My dad took me to see Benny Goodman at the hall when I was 14 so we played one of his numbers in that anniversary show . 

And then final question, what do you hope audiences will take away from this year’s  show, especially for those attending for the first time. How do you infuse the holiday  spirit into the music to make it memorable for everyone? 

Well, that all happens with the music. There are people who have said to me that when  they’ve experienced this show they’ve gone away saying, “Right, it’s Christmas now”, and that’s what you want. You want the audience to share all of the good feelings and the party  atmosphere, I guess. But at the same time, I want them to hear some great music. And by paying tribute to some of the truly great artists and musicians of the 20th century, and just incorporate a variety of things…You want them to have an adventure, really. You want them to say, “oh, yeah, I know this song” then “Oh, I don’t know that one but it sounds really great  though.” There’s a 1940’s Lionel Hampton song called Boogie Woogie Santa Claus, which is  great fun, and it’s introducing people to those kind of rarities that make it so much fun I think. All I know is that when I look at the audience, I see some people who’ve been there every  year, so I guess what I want to give the people [attending] for the first time, is that they’ll  want to come back.