Led Bib – Grin And Bear It
Friday, January 28, 2011
Led Bib come out fighting with their first album since the critically acclaimed Sensible Shoes.
Not content with toning down their act, Mark Holub’s outcast band of five go for broke with Bring Your Own. By Daniel Spicer
The problem with the UK jazz scene is there’s no support for music in general in this country, so if you feed people shit, that’s what they’re going to expect. They’re not even going to bother trying to find something good.” Mark Holub is one of the most forthright voices in UK jazz. Though he turns just 30 this month, the New Jersey-born drummer has already been around the block. For the last seven years, he’s been the driving force behind Led Bib, the quintet he founded while studying at Middlesex University.
Since unleashing their debut CD, Arboretum, in 2005, they’ve released a string of critically acclaimed albums, the last of which, Sensible Shoes, was nominated for the 2009 Mercury Music Prize. After the media blitz of that nomination, Holub can now confidently expect Led Bib’s star to remain in the ascendant, with the release this month of their fifth album, Bring Your Own. Even so, he approaches his new fame with an ironic detachment. “That three minutes you get on telly makes such a difference,” he observes drily. “I mean, it’s not a lot of money or anything, but people know about you.”
This is an extract from Jazzwise Issue #149 – to read the full article click here to subscribe and receive a FREE CD...