Jools Holland and Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra

Jools Holland is a misplaced individual. He has got the classic British stiff demeanour, the slightly awkward smile, the pinkish complexion, he even gives off a slightly regal wave. But he jams on the ivory like Jerry Lee.

He evokes the bayous of Louisiana, the showrooms of Vegas; he busts the Creole swing as though he was kicked to the curb of Bourbon Street with a songbook and a can of beans and basically went from there.

You can envision Kerouac and Cassady pontificating, Dizzy Gillespie tapping along, Nina Simone probably griping in the corner (she’s notoriously difficult to please according to many peer-reviewed accounts). The whiskey’s burning in the veins and excreted from the flesh of a barroom full of revellers and Ginsbergs scribbling away in a Moleskine.

Yes, he’s done stuff with Sting, George Harrisson, Howard Devoto’s Magazine, bloody Bono - he even founded a small cool-as-cats outfit known as Squeeze who did some great songs, ‘Up the Junction’, ‘Tempted’, ‘Labelled with Love’, ‘Hourglass’, and a whole bunch of others. But playing his solo stuff live, you can hear where he draws his real inspiration from.

Jools Holland is the face of live music in the U.K. As unlikely a statement as that might have been back in his days playing the keyboards in New Wavers Squeeze, nowadays it’s pretty much unquestionable, as much a part of the TV furniture as Doctor Who or The News at Ten. However, while we’ve seen him play some impressive piano on his deathless TV show, for most part it’s been featured on songs that have had no real need for it. If you want to see where his boogie-woogie piano style really shines it’s in his shows with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. He and singer Ruby Turner front a twenty piece backing band and together they do what they do best, tear roofs off venues at twenty paces with the power of Old school rhythm and blues, Turner’s vocal mastery and absolutely exquisite musicianship. It might be an underrated quality when it comes to the blues but every single member of the orchestra is an absolute virtuoso, and when paired up with twenty years of experience they really do earn the title of the “world’s greatest big band”. I mean, if they’re good enough to be fronted by singers like Adele, Florence Welch, Paloma Faith, Gregory Porter and Annie Lennox then they’re definitely good enough for anyone to see as soon as possible.