Jack Robinson - Music from a Saw

Welcome back after a long hot summer break.  Well... sort of hot.  I've spent the summer working on some exciting projects will should bear fruit shortly.  In the meantime back to blogging.

Yep, you've read the title right.  Music from a Saw.  By rubbing a bow along the side of bog-standard carpenters saw the most unusual and amazing sounds can be achieved. And there was no greater proponent of it during the 1920s and 30s than Liverpool based Jack Robinson.

Jack Robinson, from the NML collection

Jack was born in Blackpool in the late 1800s.  In the 1920s he moved to Liverpool and set up a barbers shop in Lodge Lane.  He had always been musical playing ukulele, banjo and double bass but his expertise was in the Musical Saw.

The saw was popularised in America in the early 1900s.  It's not certain when the saw came to Britain but Jack is widely considered to be the first 'professional' saw player in the country.  I think we can claim that as another Liverpool first!

Jack's Saw and Bow are now in possession of the National Museums Liverpool.  Visit their page for more info.

Now, I bet you're wondering what the saw sounds like?  Think of a large tuba, ok... well it sounds nothing like that.  It actually has a sort of ethereal otherworldly sound  - like a modern Theremin.

Sadly no known recordings of Jack Robinson exist although during his time he played alongside great orchestras and in a solo performance on the RMS Duchess of York.

Here is Austin Blackburn (not a scouser) considered to be a modern Musical Saw maestro.

Bonus question: There was a famous Hollywood diva, a mega-star of the silver screen who was herself an accomplished Musical Saw player.  Who was she?

Italian Festival and Ukulele Uff and Lonesome Dave

Have you noticed the recent revival in ukulele music?  Well Liverpool is not left out as we have just sent forth to worthy emissaries over to the Italian Coldogno Music Festival to show them how Scousers do it.

For many years the humble uke has been relegated to the position of a novelty instrument, fit only for people like Tiny Tim and George Formby Tribute acts.  

At one time though, the uke was a stalwart of the Liverpool music scene - especially that which takes place under the radar of the mainstream music. 

From the pre-war jazz of the music halls to the skiffle boom that led to The Beatles the uke played its part.  

Indeed, George Harrison mentioned many times his love for the uke and the proliferation of new ukulele players covering 'Whilst by Guiar Gently Weeps' and 'My Sweet Lord' shows that his passion was not just a one way street.

It seems the time has come around again to produce more Ukulele loving talents; perhaps talents is too mild a word because in the short space of a few months these chaps has gone from playing in pubs and busking at Matthew Street to performing on stage at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall the internationally renowned Caldogno Ukulele Festival in Italy.  

Not to mention another festival over in Dublin later in the year.

Ukulele Uff and Lonesome Dave have taken the musical world by storm.  Check out their unique musical talent performing on stage at the Phil.

I'm sure we will hear lots more of these chaps in the future.

Al Jolson and Liverpool

It has recently been mooted that Liverpool should have a National Migration Centre, sort of like a British Ellis Island.  For nine million people the Liverpool waterfront would be their last view of the grim Old World. 

Many of those emigrants were fleeing poverty and persecution.  They were not just from Britain but from all over Europe.  In 1894 a young Lithuanian family arrived in Liverpool on their way to begin a new life in America.   The family, Naomi Yoelson and three young children had ridden on hay wagons, trains and packet steamers to reach Liverpool where they would board a grand ocean liner to take them to New York.

'RMS Umbria' - the Cunard liner that took the Yoelson family to America.

They must have been anxious, the father Rabbi Mosel Reuben Yoelson had already reached America in 1891 and had been saving money so he could afford to bring his family over with him.  Times had been hard and it had taken four years before he could afford it.

Whilst waiting for passage in Liverpool, Naomi let her children wander the teeming cobbled streets full of sailors, entertainers (like Seth Davy), hawkers, costermongers, prostitutes and the human detritus that so characterised 19th century Liverpool.  Her youngest child, eight year old Asa Yoelson was fascinated by the street life of the city and the day before they were due to board the Cunard ship 'RMS Umbria' he wandered off and got lost.  Naomi was distraught. 

'A young Asa Yoelson'

Luckily no harm came to young Asa, a policeman returned him.  Little did that policeman know that the young Jewish emigrant he had helped would become one of the greatest stars of film and stage in history.

The young Asa and his brother would perform on street corners for coins which they would then spend on buying theatre tickets.  It would be years before Asa Yoelson became 'Al Jolson - The Worlds Greatest Entertainer'.

Did the star of stage and film remember his brief time in Liverpool?  

Later in his career, when filming the seminal film 'The Jazz Singer' a Liverpuddlian would enter the story.  George Groves a Lancashire lad who studied at Liverpool University would become a pioneer of sound recording and so impressed Jolson that he dubbed him 'the quiet little Englishman' and insisted he recorded all his later pictures. 

 Liverpool was the greatest emigration port in the world and it is no wonder that many prominent Americans can trace their origins through Liverpool at one time or another.

Hello -

Hello and welcome to my new blog where I hope to be exploring the rich musical heritage of the City of Liverpool, England.




Now, you probably know about The Beatles - and you can't really talk about Liverpool music without mentioning them - but I want the scope of this blog to go beyond Merseybeat.

The name of the blog, 'Beneath the Beat' isn't just a nod to the fab four. It's a statement saying that beneath all music are the people who make it and listen to it.  I want to focus on the music that came from everyday people - from the basements of pubs right up to the terraces of Anfield and Goodison Park.

 It's an acknowledgement that for every Merseybeat there were other musical threads continuing through Liverpools history, not as popular but every bit as important.  From the sea-shanties and folk tunes of the quaysides to the DIY punk of Eric's and the current resurgence in live jazz music in pubs and bars across the city.

I hope that over the coming months, you will find something here to interest you.

If you have any ideas or comments about what you'd like to see on here, please get in touch. It'd be great to hear from you.