Drat That Fratle Rat!
by Chris Barber

From MadhattanJack 12/05/2025 02:02 | #312011

Known mostly as a bandleader and trombone player, Chris Barber made dozens of jazz albums during his long career, and he also made this album. Though not as sought-after by collectors as his "Battersea Rain Dance" LP (due to the latter's inclusion of an exclusive Paul McCartney composition, "Cat Call"), "Drat That Fratle Rat!" was perhaps his only serious attempt at making an album that would appeal to prog-rock fans, of whom there were quite a few at the time it was recorded. The album's cover art is a painting by modern-fantasy artist Clarence St. John Earp, apparently the only time an Earp painting was used as an album cover, which is probably why you've never heard of him. Other Barber albums recorded around this time contained occasional moments that could be taken as nods to "psychedelia" or even progressive rock, but never again to the extent that he attempted with this album. By all accounts a fairly nice guy — even for a British jazz musician — Barber died in 2021, taking the secret of what the invented word "fratle" referred to in this context with him.