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Jezz Hall is a 30 year Old, Originally from Cambridge but has lived in Nottingham for most of his life. He rather disconcertingly offers Tony lommi and Black Sabbath as his guitar hero and 60s psychedelia as his primary influence. "Through that I got into the Incredible String Band, who were incredibly important to me and they got me not Nick Drake and Pentangle and from their Martin Carthy and Traditional music. I'm still a big fan of Robin Williamson, I love the mysticism and the spritual side of his writing. Theres a mystery about every song
The biggest part of his musical education came during a year out from his American studies course which he spent investigating Mississippi. "I was in Oxford Mississippi which inspired the Dylan song Oxford Town and was where they had all the civil rights marches and James Meredith riots. The music there is fantastic and the level of talent incredible."
He'd been attempting to write for several years beforehand but the Mississippi experience really fired him to make a serious move into trying to establish himself as a singer/songwriter. The Mississippi influence is strongly heard in his modern song Small Town, which is likely to end up as the title track of his debut album. "I met so many musicians and got into so much different music there," he says. "Like John Hartford and all these old-timey musicians. Inspiring stuff".
The last four years since Mississippi have been spent writing, playing in various bands and even as a local Nottingham promoter setting up gigs for people like Dick Gaughan and Robin Williamson "to attract an audiance outside of Folk clubs. I also put on Edward II but didn't sell enough tickets well I was a student at the time."
Playing in different bands, he gradually began to pick solo gigs in clubs around the Leicester/Nottingham?Derby area, infusing his interest in English traditional styles with his facination for Jazz, blues and American roots music. What perhaps marks him with his facination for Jazz, Blues, and American roots music. What perhaps marks him as an exceptional songwriter is his vivid lyricism, perhaps best illustrated on a song called Baxters Mines. "I actually got the idea for that reading D.H. Lawrence, you know, Lady Chatterley's Lover and all that. The mines are in the background to his stories and although we imagine that the thing about privatising mines came up in the battles of the 80's, mine were being privatised long before that."
He's hoping to release a CD soon and build up his growing live reputation to the point that he can turn professional. "Yes , I'm aiming to go pro, or at least spend a few years trying. I've done lots of pubs and I really want an audience who are there to sit and listen to my songs. The night Pete (Morton) came to see me, it was in a pub and it was so noisy. I asked him if he wanted to do it himself but he said no. I've found that when you are confronted with a quite audience like that theres no point shouting louder, its best to do something completely different, like play a quite whistle tune or sing unaccompanied. I've done that and it works"
So why are there so few male singers songwriters doing the rounds?" I don't know. I know there are some fine songwriters out there but they're not really coming forward, which is a shame. I feel isolated musically but I don't mind too much 'cos if I'm isolated I figure it means I'm doing something right.
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