new album Sanctuary Wood out now

‘For at least 30 years, Ali Mackenzie has been the best-kept secret in Northern Ireland’s music scene. He’s an extraordinary musician – a barn-storming virtuoso and yet full of arrangement and compositional ideas of great subtlety and invention. Simple geography and his own humility are the only reasons he is not a musician on the world stage.’

Colin Harper, author of Bathed in Lightning: John McLaughlin, the 60s and the Emerald Beyond (Jawbone, 2014)

Born in Belfast, Ali Mackenzie’s first experience of music was playing tenor horn and cornet in the Boys’ Brigade. At the end of the 70s, aged 19, he took a notion for playing with some friends in a rock band called Black Widow. Every other instrument required was spoken for, so Ali picked up a bass – and the planets aligned. Covering songs by the likes of Wishbone Ash and Deep Purple, Ali’s first gig with Black Widow – at a Lisburn pub – netted him £1.75 and a pint of beer. Golf club gigs with an MOR/Country band followed, which was good experience.

Ali: ‘Even in those early cover band days I was writing music and that’s always been my primary motivation.’

The Bush Turkeys, formed in 1990, provided Ali’s first significant opportunity to perform original music. Influenced by West Coast American music, the band seemed a little out of time but remained a popular attraction on the Northern Ireland pub circuit for the better part of the decade.

Ali: ‘There were casualties along the way – physical and personality-wise – but we did get recognition. We recorded an album – unreleased, alas – did some local TV and radio, and hired a van and played some gigs in London. But the music didn’t seem to fit in easily with anything around at the time. And it was hard to get festivals without being in an obvious category!’

At the end of the 90s, Ali and vocalist Ludwig O’Neill formed a new four-piece, Reef Radio, with local guitar hero Billy ‘The Hat’ McCoy and drummer Brian Warnock. The band was a vehicle for Ali and Ludo to write, demo and perform new original songs and covers in an acoustic pop/rock vein. The band was often compared to Crowded House – upbeat vibes and songwriting sophistication with toe-tapping grooves. 

Ali: ‘As we moved into the 2000s I was doing a couple of degrees and plotting my escape from factory jobs. With Reef Radio it was cathartic to be able to keep the creativity going. We had about 30 songs in the set and circulated a self-pressed demo CD, but it was a band that largely played for beer money and good times at the Rotterdam Bar – a legendary music venue in Belfast. When the bar closed its doors in the mid-2000s, the Reef Radio signal faded into the ether with it.’ 

Ali would often help other local artists and bands on gigs and recordings. One prolific example of the latter has been, from 2000 onwards, recordings overseen by local author/musician Colin Harper. Several of these projects have been nationally released, from The Road to the West (2001) by singer Janet Holmes (co-produced by Harper) to, most recently, Days Full of Rain by Harper’s studio project The Legends of Tomorrow (due mid-2022). On Harper’s Titanium Flag: Expanded/Remastered Edition (2017), Ali can be heard dueling with ex-Focus guitar legend Jan Akkerman.

Ali: ‘Colin seems to like my playing – which is nice to know as that’s not always the case, especially in the world of Belfast bar bands. I frequently don’t know what to do with his music but then you get to the studio and suddenly a lightbulb appears. Curiously, when I hear these things six months later, I never have any memory of playing on them – but I’m always glad I did!’ 

During the 2010s, Ali’s regular gigging opportunities were many and various, reflecting his versatility: Pleasuredome, a popular 80s tribute band run by local radio personality Maurice Jay; Manuka Hunny, a female-fronted classy soul/funk band; and the The Flange Band, a grizzled pub-rock party band that once featured both Ali Mackenzies – the bass player and the lanky late keyboardist with the Suzi Quatro band in the 1970s. Currently, Ali’s main gigging bands are: Sam Davidson’s Taste (a homage to the 1968–70 Rory Gallagher band); Ragbone, a recently formed inventive bluesy pop/rock trio with original material; and The Mighty Mojos, an original-music blues/rock quartet run by guitar/vocalist David McClean, on the go (off and on) since 2012.

Ali: ‘Belfast has had a very strong blues heritage since the 1960s and, for better or worse, I’ve had a lot of opportunities at that particular coalface. I did some gigs in Europe as bass player for ex-Them guitarist Jim Armstrong in the mid-90s, and I’ve also played in the late Jim Gilchrist’s band, in Ian Sands & the Blues Katz, The Lee Hedley Band, Chris Todd & the Hardchargers and The Mama Kaz Band, which felt like a 60s power trio fronted by a powerful personality – but in a good way!’ 

Ali’s first album under his own name was Space Debris – a fabulous all-instrumental set, recorded in 2007 but only released ten years later, partly due to Ali’s reticence in putting himself forward. Sanctuary Wood, recorded during 2021–22, sees Ali building massively on the promise of Space Debris with an extraordinarily vibrant, confident, varied collection of music that exudes both fun and brilliance. Featuring an array of collaborators, Ali has somehow squared the circle of virtuosity and accessibility. 

Sanctuary Wood, recorded during 2021–22, is filled with extraordinarily vibrant confident songs, exuding fun and brilliance. 

LISTEN TO AND BUY THE ALBUM
Available on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music from 30 July 2022

Ali’s first album under his own name was Space Debris – a fabulous all-instrumental set, recorded in 2007 but only released ten years later.

LISTEN TO AND BUY THE ALBUM

Available on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music from 30 July 2022

RELEASED SOON

RELEASED SOON