Chris Flegg

Chris Flegg is a singer, guitarist and song writer based in St Albans, UK, who has produced a number of albums, some of which feature songs in a contemporary folk style and some which have instrumental jazz tracks, with albums of both styles getting radio play, mainly on local UK radio stations.

Background

Originally from Eastleigh in Hampshire, he moved to London to graduate in physics from Imperial College in 1970, becoming involved first with Imperial College Folk Club and the Troubadour Folk Club where he became coresident with Redd Sullivan and Martin Winsor, remembered in his song Troubadour Cafe.^[1] This started his song writing and solo work and at the same time he took an interest in jazz, notably through a chance meeting with guitarist Diz Disley.^[2] After leaving college, jazz tended to have a greater influence with London based bands ranging from a Hot Club style acoustic band to mainstream combo and Dixieland bands such as Dick Laurie's Elastic Band.

Moving to St Albans in 2000 he discovered the remnants of the folk scene through meeting singer/guitarist John Breeze and became resident at John's Windward Folk Club alongside songwriter George Papavgeris and this rekindled his urge for song writing. Currently he plays local gigs with his jazz trio and solo gigs including folk clubs, also charity fundraising by busking supporting British Heart Foundation.^[3][4]

Albums

A back catalogue of compositions written as a vehicle for jazz improvisation led in 2000 to a jazz quartet album of original tunes, Moving On. On the folk side, a retrospective album in 2004 of covers and originals, Solo, was followed by three albums of newly written original songs, My Sweet Lady, Through The Window and The Sound Of Life.^[5] In 2009 he recorded a jazz album called Her Favourite Flower,^[6] playing jazz standards plus a few original instrumentals, with bassist John Rees Jones, and a solo guitar instrumental album called My Green Guitar, playing a range of material from Cavatina to Round Midnight. A new album for 2010 called Time Precious Time is in production and features original songs.

Radio play

Tracks from the folk oriented albums Through The Window and The Sound Of Life are frequently listed in play lists for local stations such as the Folk Show on Radio Argyll.^[7] The jazz oriented albums such as Her Favourite Flower similarly have tracks listed in playlists for jazz programs such as John Hellings Jazz Show on Midlands BBC.^[8]

Instruments

For acoustic and folk gigs Chris favours Martin guitars, recording using mainly a D41 and sometimes OMC41 (Richie Sambora signature model). For jazz, he uses a Les Paul Custom or a Gibson L5 as shown on the cover of the album Her Favourite Flower. There is also the Green Gibson L4A acoustic featured on the My Green Guitar album. Chris has also experimented with alto and soprano sax and more recently Anglo concertina to add colour to recordings of new songs.

References

1. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE3PdF0Wp90 Youtube video with images of the Troubadour
2. ^ http://www.pattynanmedia.com/452/178301.html Pat Tynan Media: Chris Flegg page
3. ^ http://stalbansbusking.blogspot.com Chris Flegg's busking blog
4. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1pL5SwBOpw YouTube clip busking at Padstow
5. ^ http://www.netrhythms.co.uk/reviewsf.html#flegg Review The Sound Of Life NetRhythms
6. ^ http://www.allgigs.co.uk/view/review/3981/Chris_Flegg_Her_Favourite_Flower_Album_Review.htm Review Her Favourite Flower Elly Roberts
7. ^ http://www.campbeltown.org.uk/aggregator/sources/3 Radio Argyll playlist
8. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/stoke/hi/tv_and_radio/newsid_8454000/8454389.stm John Hellings Jazz Show playlist

External links

• Pat Tynan Media
• Chris Flegg

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