As half of acoustic jazz and blues duo The Washboard Resonators, percussionist Jack Amblin no doubt feels most at home on the little stages of backstreet bars and cozy clubs—a gig at a provincial theater would have been one of the bigger dates on his calendar, up to now. What’s more, having recently moved back home to rural Wales with his wife and their new baby, opportunities to play even club dates have lately been few and far between.
“I had to wind up two bands when I moved away from Leeds,” Jack told me, when we caught up in October. “I filled in for a big band called Down for the Count last week, in little theaters in Huddersfield and Norwich.” It was an unusually cushy job, for someone used to no-frills touring. “They’re a good band,” said Jack. “The pay was good, they put me up in a hotel—and fed me too. To work with a 12-piece like that is fairly rare.”
Jack had previously told me he was no fan of the limelight, so you might think finding himself on stage at the London Palladium, Liverpool Philharmonic, Belfast’s Ulster Hall, or a Dutch pop festival—behind his vintage Ludwig drum kit and his tricked-out washboard—would be his idea of a nightmare scenario. And yet he played all of these and more besides, touring Europe earlier this year with undoubtedly the biggest brand in old-fashioned jazz today: Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox.
Founded
