Higgs Boson

Paul Morton talks to emerging jazz keyboardist Higgs Boson…

Named after an imaginary sub-atomic particle associated with the beginning of time (phew! Ed), Higgs Boson has exploded onto the European jazz scene with a critically-acclaimed debut album. ‘Higgs Boson’ features a plethora of respected musicians from the UK jazz circuit, as well as nine original compositions which are strikingly fresh and inventive. So how would this unusual composer and keyboard virtuoso describe his music?

“Well, I’ve been told to call it ‘adult contemporary jazz’, but I personally don’t think that’s a very good description of it, because I always just look at it as my music. It just happens to be jazz influenced, as much as anything else. There’s everything in there, from my early influences like Chopin, Debussy and Schubert, through Pink Floyd and Steely Dan, through to people like Steps Ahead and Dave Grusin. I think it’s impossible to pigeonhole it, but I suppose most people might call it ‘crossover’ or something like that. The album has been accused of being new age, which I think is something that it isn’t.”

That’s interesting, because the first track on the album, Penumbra, isn’t even remotely new age…

“Oh no, definitely not. I wanted to start with something that was going to smack you right in the face and hat track does the trick. I like albums that do that to you and then pull you to one side, make you think a bit, pull you to the other side and make you cry and then leave you with a nice feeling at the end of it. GMTV used the first 20 seconds of Penumbra for some commercial. Someone called to say that my stuff was being played on the TV. But by the time I tripped over things trying to get to the TV, it had gone!”

So things are beginning to happen now, but how did Higgs first get into playing the piano?

“Well, I started when I was about eight. I asked for piano lessons and I was absolutely desperate to play. My mother took me around to see this crotchety old woman who insisted on rapping me across the knuckles with a hammer if I played a bum note. So I learnt Chopsticks, she seemed impressed and my mother paid for the first wave of lessons.

“By the time I had reached my teens I got turned onto people like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Steely Dan, Pat Metheny, Chick Corea and Steps Ahead. But on the other side I was getting into jazz piano players like Dudley Moore and Bill Evans.”

How did the debut album come about?

“I got together with Gareth Young (producer) and a whole lot of talented musicians I’ve known over the years. They did it for practically nothing really; I wanted incredible results for an incredibly small amount of money, which is typical (laughs). Luckily, they all wanted to be involved in the project. I wanted to be in control of all of my own stuff, because I feel that if you leave too much up to other people, nothing gets done. So I was lucky to persuade some very good musicians to be involved.”

But why on earth would anybody want to call themselves Higgs Boson?

“Well, I’m a bit of a space-head, I suppose. The idea of something that briefly existed at the beginning of the universe has got to be pretty inspiring stuff. This is what the album cover is all about - the little man in the livery suit represents society. It is inviting you to so through the arch and step out of you mind. I seemed to have upset a few scientists, though.”

On a more terrestrial level, the album features a variety of rich soundscapes and some tasteful piano work…

“The piano I used was actually a Bosendorfer sample in an Emulator III. I have to be honest, though, and say that I’d prefer to use the real thing. For me, the acoustic piano is the most amazingly versatile instrument. Sometimes I sit down to write with the piano and have so many ideas I’m on fire, but other times I’m bored with the whole thing and I think: twelve notes - is that the best they can do? It isn’t very often I get genuinely inspired to write anything, actually.

In addition to the manually-played material, ‘Higgs Boson’ also houses a fair number of sequenced passages.

“I used Cubase on the tracks Neptune and Big Technology. There were a hell of a lot of samples on those tracks. We ran out of tracks for Big Technology - I really needed a 100-track studio for that one. So, yes, the album was a combination of played and sequenced stuff.”

Everyone has their own shortlist of favourite musicians and composers, so who are the most revered keyboard figures in the Boson household?

“It’s got to be Lyle Mays, Bill Evans, Chick Corea and, of course, Dudley Moore. When I was having jazz lessons a guy brought in some music. It was a funny little bossa nova by Dudley called Poova Nova. It was such a cheeky, quirky little melody with some really nice voicings in it. So I collected together some of his earlier projects. I know everyone sees him as this short comedian, but he’s definitely a great composer and fine piano player too. I actually think it was a real shame he went into acting, because there was some wonderful stuff on those early albums!”

And how does the current music scene differ from the one that existed at the birth of the universe?

“I think that the market has been opened up for non-musicians to create a lot of music. In some ways this has been good thing, but in many ways it has been really bad. It just seems that technology has opened up the music business to people who can’t play a note, and they’re saturating the market with a load of crap. The music industry is churning out fast music in the same way that MacDonalds are doing their fast food. It may be a good product, but there’s just no way you could call it good art.”