BUNNY MCKENZIE

Bunny McKenzie likes to describe his style as ‘21st century blues’ – a melding of mournful harmonica, soulful lyrics and funk-flavoured bass lines nurtured by his unique life story. Like all great bluesmen, the 56-year-old Londoner has had his share of tough breaks, but one thing has never left him: his love for music. You could say he was born into it. His father, a double bass player, had a large record collection, and the young McKenzie would mimic the solos on Duke Ellington tracks and riff along to blues records on his harmonica. This early ad-libbing shaped his approach to music. Bunny has always rejected formal training in favour of an instinctive style, and his heroes include masters of improvisation like John Coltrane and Jimmy Hendrix. “I was sent to piano lessons when I was a kid for about three years. They threw me out. I couldn’t get used to it, because I want to experiment. To me, music is like an adventure. So if I’m going to play what’s already written down, it’s not adventure,” he explains. By the age of 16, Bunny had added the guitar and bass to his growing arsenal of instruments and got his first taste of public performance. He was an early member of 1970s reggae band Aswad, which would go on to chart success some years later. After leaving the group, he played with the cream of Jamaican reggae stars, including Johnny Nash, U-Roy and The Mighty Diamonds. But Bunny’s personal life was in turmoil. Following the death of his parents in tragic circumstances, he found himself raising not only his younger siblings, but also children of his own. With the advent of computer-generated music in the ‘80s, work for session musicians dried up and he found himself in desperate straits. He turned to crime, robbing banks and getting involved in violent shoot-outs. In 1988, he was sentenced to jail and locked up for 10 years. The stint in prison led him back to music and to his own brand of spirituality. “Music was a great help to me inside, because it’s a negative place,” he recalls. “I saw a lot of people just fold up and give up. But to me, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel, no matter what happens.” Bunny has channelled these painful experiences into personal compositions like ‘Prison Cell Bluz’ and ‘MidNite Train’. Music is his lifeline, and he is always seeking the next level of discovery. “I always practice, keep it constant, even when I don’t want to, so when things come, they come strong,” he says. “I don’t believe you can have perfection in life, but you can strive to do the best that you can. That to me means a lot.” A born survivor, this blues veteran now looks forward to bringing his distinct style to a new audience.