“I’m from the country,” David Lyttle informs us. “Jazz is an urban music. I probably shouldn’t have anything to do with it.”
We will accept the Waringstown lad’s take on the first two points, but the last one? Nah.
If the 24-year-old harbours any doubts over his jazz vocation, he has a funny way of showing it. In fact, the zeal with which the self-taught drummer has promoted his chosen field of music throughout the last two years has verged on the evangelical.
Set aside the raft of shows he has performed with his band, The David Lyttle Trio, and even his debut album, True Stories, which was released late last year – you need only look at some of the names he’s brought to Belfast to play of late (such as the celebrated saxophonist Jean Toussaint, and the Mercury-nominated Soweto Kinch) to realise that David Lyttle’s involvement with jazz is a very good thing indeed.
Truth be told: as both a musician and promoter, Lyttle is developing into one of the most significant and interesting figures on the Belfast music scene – blossoming as a performer in his own right, while also establishing through his near-residency in No Alibis bookstore in Botanic a clued-in and enthusiastic audience in the city for the best of contemporary jazz.
“The notion does exist that you can’t really do anything in Northern Ireland – that you have to leave to achieve anything – but I don’t believe that,” he avers. “My thing is about bringing really great, world-class people over to play and to hopefully have an appreciative crowd for them to perform for. So far it’s been working really well. The world is a much smaller place than it used to be. And the performers who’ve played in Belfast have loved it. It’s developing really well.”
That Lyttle has found little difficulty building relationships with other musicians should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with his background. His parents, Anne and Eric, were a famous showband duo, and from an early age he regularly joined them on stage with his brother and sisters as part of the Lyttle Family group.
“All my memories are tied up with playing music, so I can’t actually remember a time when I didn’t do it,” he reveals. “Looking back, it’s amazing how many different types of music I was introduced to when I was a kid. We were playing a lot of different stuff – music of Ireland and Scotland and the southern states of America. There was a lot of bluegrass, lots of gospel and spirituals. A load of different stuff, even some Beatles. My parents had a very broad range of material. It was all music to them.”
Inculcated with such magpie tendencies, it was hardly a surprise that Lyttle found himself drawn to the light-fingered habits of jazz. A trained cellist, he had taught himself drums in his early teens, but, following a typical apprenticeship in a “ska-punk band that wasn’t any good”, stumbled across some vintage footage of legendary sticksman Art Blakey, and found himself falling head over heels.
“The first time I saw Art, that was me,” he admits. “It was the first time I’d seen drums played in a way that I just couldn’t do. I could do the pop and rock thing, but this was at a completely higher level. It blew my mind, really. I loved it from the word go. Loved the improvisation aspect of it. Loved how much room it allowed for personal interpretation. The more I looked into it, the more I realised that it wasn’t a world dominated by money and image. Then there was the fact it looked like such a challenge.”
After completing his studies at the University of Ulster, Lyttle took advantage of an Arts Council grant and enrolled in New York’s Skidmore Jazz Institute. It proved to be a crucial move - one that allowed him to study under greats such as Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts and Carl Allen, and bone up on the best emerging talent in some of the world’s greatest venues.
“It was incredible. Just seeing these guys in New York. I think for any aspiring musician, being exposed to the very best at the top of their game is a great experience. It shows you the standard you hope to attain. It lays down a massive challenge.”
Since his return, Lyttle has shown no reluctance in stepping up to the plate.
Whether on a long-term basis (with the other members of The David Lyttle Trio), as a one-off event (backing Jacqui Dankworth), or in a loose, but on-going collaboration (with Toussaint and Kinch), it’s clear he relishes the opportunity to challenge himself by performing with other players.
“I love it,” he enthuses. “It’s a big test of your ability. The stuff I do with Soweto is very different from what I do with Jean. I mean, Soweto is heavily influenced by hip-hop, so I’m finding out more and more about it through him. Jean is just a really important figure in modern jazz. He was part of Art Blakey’s band, so he carries that very classic heritage with him. Not only that, if I’m on tour with someone, what we do one night will be very different from what we do the next. It’s constantly evolving; we’re always trying to generate fresh ideas.”