“Two extra broomsticks, please!” Was Ruben Blades the greatest percussionist ever? | classical music

SSaturday night and the Britten Studio at Snape Maltings is filled with 300 chatty punters. We’re about to record a show that will be broadcast ‘live’ on BBC Radio 3. This is a one-off surprise: for one night only, in this dramatic documentary, we explore the work of percussionist James Blades. Our setup meticulously combines the most stressful elements of a live show, as well as the key aspect of audience participation Obviously we don’t have a proper opportunity to practice it. Nerves get tense. How did it come to this? And who is James Blades anyway?

Born in 1901, Blades was one of the greatest percussionists of the 20th century, and his life spanned the same century – he died in May 1999. His incandescent talent combined with an astonishing ability to work hard took him to the top of his profession, and later made him a mentor to music stars as diverse as rock drummer Carl Palmer, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and a young Simon Rattle.

Blades himself was completely self-taught. The only drummers he saw, who grew up in working-class Peterborough before the First World War, were the man with the big drum in the Salvation Army and, as a 14-year-old apprentice at the foundry, the young man who played in the work band. But when young Jim showed interest, the band’s drummer told him to “fuck off.”

This seems to have increased his desire to learn, and may explain why Blades became passionate about teaching later in his life. He shared his knowledge and skill widely, touring the country giving lectures and demonstrations, especially in schools and colleges, creating the conditions in which music could spread and flourish, firing children’s imaginations and giving them opportunities he had never had before. You will still find people of a certain age who fondly remember as children attending a lecture given by Leeds.

So, in a fitting way to celebrate his life and work in our dramatic audio documentary, we decided to recreate one of these lectures. Here’s the idea: Blades takes to the stage with a bunch of props and a bunch of stories to tell us about his life and work.

There are his early years of poverty and hard work in Peterborough, his adventures as he rose to professional success, his escape to join the circus, playing in a movie orchestra during the silent film era, finding his place in a series of jazz bands, becoming increasingly in demand as his dazzling skills emerged, performing in the West End, on film scores, and finding his way into the classical world, even becoming an important collaborator of Benjamin Britten – part of a very select group. In fact, as far as a classical music career is concerned, the reach is astonishing.

Who was he working with? from He didn’t do that works with? Along the way, there are Chaplin, Auden and Hitchcock. A classic story of Walton’s score for the film Henry V. He sees blades on the tubular bells, detailed to strike them with a broomstick to get the desired rattle, but he needs help – two extra broomsticks, please. Who will go up? Walton, of course, and it turns out Olivier is also willing to step in. If you hear that famous score now, think of the three of them, walking away.

But how can all this be recreated? We needed an expert storyteller and percussionist. Fortunately, we had actor James Anthony Rose for the former. He is best known for playing Richard Carmody in Channel 5’s All Creatures Great and Small, but Allegra Productions – director and producer Fiona McAlpine and I – have known Jimmy since he was a boy growing up in Suffolk, and he told us about his long-standing interest in the other James. Suffolk children get exposure to Britten’s music if they’re lucky, and in 2010, Jamie saw a 1970s video of Blades helping Liston children produce Britten’s community opera, Noye’s Fludde. Something in the way the adults in the room viewed the percussionist, their affection and respect, had a profound effect on young Jimmy. Even as a child, he was so fascinated by this that he began thinking about the character of Blades, and imitating Peterborough’s vowels, allowing the character to grow on him, even as he – as a budding actor – was experimenting with the voice, and taking notes on the script. His interest in Blades has to some extent accompanied his development as a professional actor. Here, then, was Jimmy’s long-standing interest waiting to be exploited.

Experienced percussionist Sam Wilson was tasked with providing the skills that Blades himself would have demonstrated to his auditorium audience. We have compiled the many and varied instruments he may have played to help tell his story, from the ‘snares’ he used when accompanying silent films at the Wisbech Racecourse – rattles, car horn, wooden blocks, whistle and so on – to a jazz band drum kit of bass drum and cymbals – to major orchestral percussion instruments such as cymbals, kettle drums, gongs or tam tams.

And don’t forget the china cups! In the 1950s, Blades began a long-term working relationship with Britten, who invited him to provide unusual and tailor-made rhythmic effects for his operas. To say the least, Britten was special, and sometimes it was the sound he wanted that no ordinary instrument could provide. Blades would be sent out to search for objects that would create the desired sound, or even make them from scratch: cups strung on a string, which are struck to make the sound of raindrops in Noye’s Fludde, are a classic example.

All these disparate elements are brought together to form a strange beast: our dramatic document, a lecture that is also a dramatic retelling of life, a bit of a play, with musical performances but also musical illustrations and accompaniment. And if that wasn’t enough, we decided we needed to engage the audience, tapping, clapping, screaming, and joining the beat to better understand what it was all about. Did it work, did it all come together somehow, or have we fallen for our East Anglia modernity? Listen and find out.

James Blades: Pandemonium of the One-Man Band airs on BBC Radio 3 on November 23, then on BBC Sounds for 30 days