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Stan Tracey

Stan Tracey is an outstanding figure in the jazz world. His distinguished career has spanned five decades of flourishing creativity. He has been a highly influential and stimulating musical voice, not only to his peers but to each successive generation of musicians with whom he has worked.

Stan’s capricious piano playing combines the percussive melody of Thelonious Monk with the robust lyricism of Ellington in a highly idiosyncratic style. A master of harmony, he possesses a potent and compelling improviser’s intellect. Through Stan Tracey’s unflinching commitment and dedication has emerged a very rare artist who has sustained an output of highly exceptional music throughout his career.

A self-taught musician, Stan played his first professional engagement aged sixteen. The unlikely start of such a prestigious career saw him working for the forces entertainment network ENSA. However he quickly became involved in the lively emerging London jazz scene of the 1950s, playing in the bands of Laurie Morgan, Kenny Baker, Ronnie Scott and Tony Crombie.

From 1957-9 he played piano and vibraphone and arranged for the Ted Heath Orchestra. As house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s club from 1961 to 1967 Stan played with many of the most important figures in jazz history including Ben Webster, Roland Kirk, Wes Montgomery, Stan Getz, Zoot Sims and Sonny Rollins. His stature at that time is illustrated by his collaboration with Sonny Rollins which produced some of the most creative music of both musicians’ careers.

From 1964 to the present day, Stan has led a myriad of innovative groups incorporating the most progressive musicians of each generation which have included Bobby Wellins, Tony Coe, Peter King, Don Weller, John Surman, Mike Osborne, Art Themen, Kenny Wheeler, Clark Tracey and Gerard Presencer.

Throughout his career Stan Tracey has been a prolific composer writing over twenty commissions and music for forty of his own albums. His first work ‘Under Milk Wood’ inspired by Dylan Thomas’s poem of the same title, is widely recognised as a masterpiece. A number of suites for big bands followed, as well as works for his octet, sextet, and quartet, and all his work displays the same dynamic and original quality as his playing.

Over the years Stan’s work has attracted a host of accolades and awards. Throughout the sixties and seventies he regularly topped the Melody Maker polls. Since the eighties the list has expanded to include Honorary Membership to the Royal Academy of Music (1984), Fellowship of the City of Leeds College of Music, (1993), an Hon.D.Litt. from the University of Hertfordshire and the Silver Medal from the Worshipful Company of Musicians (1997). He received the OBE in 1986. He has also received the following British Jazz Awards: Best Pianist (1992), Best Composer/Arranger (‘93, ‘95 ,’97 & ’99), Best Album Release (1993) and Best Small Group (1995). The Under Milk Wood on the Blue Note label was voted Best Re-issue in ’94.

Ignoring the lure of commercialism, Stan remained true to his musical roots and celebrated 50 years as a jazz pianist at a concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1993, (recorded on the famous Blue Note label), and marked his 70th birthday with a 70th Anniversary Concert there in 1996. Recently celebrating his 71st birthday, and going from strength to strength, Stan, composer, band leader and solo performer, says, "Somewhere deep inside the crusty old cynicism is still the bright-eyed lad thinking, ‘Hey this is great!’"

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4
Album Review

Stan Tracey Quartet: Jazz Suite Inspired By Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood

Read "Jazz Suite Inspired By Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood" reviewed by Chris May


Pianist and composer Stan Tracey's Under Milk Wood, released in 1966, was among the first albums to prove that British jazz could, on a good day, stand as tall as its American parent. Over a decade would pass, however, before that fact was widely accepted by jazz lovers in either America or Britain. Indeed, it is only now, in 2023, following the international breakthrough of London-based stylists such as Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings, that British jazz has taken its ...

6
Album Review

Stan Tracey Trio: The 1959 Sessions

Read "The 1959 Sessions" reviewed by Chris May


Sonny Rollins summed up the outsize talent of British pianist Stan Tracey in a remark he made sometime in the early 1960s. Tracey was then the house pianist at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club, where Rollins was playing a season. “Does anyone over here realise how good this guy is?" Rollins asked the audience. At the time, local jazz musicians were automatically regarded as inferior to Americans by many British jazz fans. Not all American tenor saxophonists were ...

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Album Review

Splinters: Inclusivity

Read "Inclusivity" reviewed by Chris May


Archive label Jazz In Britain comes up with another winner. Inclusivity is a 3 x CD collection of the complete performances of Splinters, an all-star 1972 septet comprising three hard boppers, two radical experimentalists and two in-betweeners. They were tenor saxophonist and flautist Tubby Hayes, alto saxophonist Trevor Watts, trumpeter and flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler, pianist Stan Tracey, bassist Jeff Clyne and drummers Phil Seamen and John Stevens. The band assembled for just two London gigs five months apart. It made ...

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Extended Analysis

Stan Tracey: The Flying Pig

Read "Stan Tracey: The Flying Pig" reviewed by Phil Barnes


As premises for an entertaining listen go the idea of a jazz record inspired by the First World War is not the easiest sell, even for a musician as respected as the late Stan Tracey. Yet on this fantastic collection, his final release prior to his December 2013 death, Tracey has somehow managed to pull it off by shifting his creative focus from the horrors of the Great War to the indefatigable spirit and humour of the soldiers caught up ...

3
Album Review

Stan Tracey: The Flying Pig

Read "The Flying Pig" reviewed by Duncan Heining


Stan Tracey is one of the most highly regarded British jazz musicians of any era. Doesn't matter who you speak to--fans, critics or fellow musicians such as Guy Barker, John Surman, Evan Parker or Keith Tippett--Tracey's story is, in many ways, the history of post-war British jazz. This new CD, Flying Pig, is more than a reminder of his abilities. Like its predecessor, A Child's Christmas from 2011, it ranks alongside the pianist's best work. Tracey will be ...

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Live Review

London Jazz Festival 2013

Read "London Jazz Festival 2013" reviewed by Duncan Heining


Enrico Pieranunzi, Julie Sassoon and Stan Tracey--Pianos on the Edge London Jazz Festival November 15-24, 2014 The Bishopsgate Institute in the City of London, a few blocks from the Bank of England, might seem an odd place for a jazz gig but--under the auspices of the Vortex Jazz Club in Dalston--stranger things do happen. On this opening night of 2013's EFG London Jazz Festival, this double bill of the Enrico Pieranunzi Trio and Julie Sassoon ...

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London Calling

London Jazz Festival Preview: November 10th to 19th

Read "London Jazz Festival Preview: November 10th to 19th" reviewed by John Eyles


Now that autumn is here, the London Jazz Festival can't be far behind. This year, the LJF runs from Friday 10th November until Sunday 19th November. In those ten days, the festival will include its usual mix of jazz superstars and legends, rising stars, crowd pleasers, cult heroes, great freebies, plus--with nearly twenty gigs on some days--a large slice of frustration that one cannot be in two (or more) places at once. Birthday celebrations abound this year--Dave Holland's 60th, Mike ...

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1

Recording

Stan Tracey Trio: The 1959 Sessions

Stan Tracey Trio: The 1959 Sessions

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

As admired and as influential as Thelonious Monk's piano playing was, his fascinating, jagged style wasn't often imitated. Monk's original compositions, however, were quick to become jazz standards and were played and recorded nearly as often as songs by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. But unlike Bud Powell, whose piano style was incorporated by many artists, few dared to play like Monk. Sure, there might be a Monkian figure here or there as a tribute, but most pianists wouldn't dare ...

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TV / Film

Documentary: Stan Tracey

Documentary: Stan Tracey

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers

Little-known in America but a jazz force in the U.K., Stan Tracey was a British pianist who was highly influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Tracey's keyboard attack was stormy, percussive and deeply felt, but he also could play straight-ahead jazz and worked and recorded with Ted Heath for years. He also was the house pianist at Ronnie Scott's behind touring artists. Perhaps his most important albums are Jazz Suite Inspired by Dylan Thomas's “Under Milk Wood" (1965) and ...

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Obituary

Passings: Stan Tracey, George Buck

Passings: Stan Tracey, George Buck

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey

Stan Tracey, the pianist sometimes called the godfather of British jazz, died on December 6. He was 86. Tracey helped to draw international attention to jazz in the United Kingdom and influenced the development of scores of younger players. Through most of the 1960s he was the house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s club in London and frequently accompanied visiting American musicians. Of that period, he told The Guardian’s John Fordam, ...with people like Rahsaan Roland Kirk or Sonny Rollins and ...

1

Obituary

Stan Tracey dies aged 86

Stan Tracey dies aged 86

Source: Michael Ricci

Stan Tracey, a prime mover in British jazz for more than half a century, has died at the age of 86. The jazz pianist and composer had a keen musical intelligence and was renowned for Under Milk Wood, his 1968 suite based around Dylan Thomas's radio play. Tracey was born on December 30, 1926, in Denmark Hill, South London, and made numerous albums, some of which deserve a place among the great post-war jazz recordings. His father was not musical ...

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Performance / Tour

Stan Tracey, Get the Blessing, Ronnie Scott's and Gwyneth Herbert for Made in the UK in NYC

Stan Tracey, Get the Blessing, Ronnie Scott's and Gwyneth Herbert for Made in the UK in NYC

Source: Michael Ricci

This week sees the Made in the UK concert series return to New York at venues throughout Manhattan. Legendary jazz pianist, Stan Tracey, kicks off proceedings with two shows at Dizzy's tonight in his first appearance in New York since touring with the Ted Heath Orchestra in 1959. Tracey's 1965 recording 'Under Milk Wood' is widely heralded as one of the greatest albums in European jazz. At 83, he is playing as well as ever with ...

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Performance / Tour

Stan Tracey and Keith Tippett Reunited - 37 Years On

Stan Tracey and Keith Tippett Reunited - 37 Years On

Source: All About Jazz

January 30th sees piano legend Stan Tracey play a major concert at the Barbican, London. The concert will range across Tracey's career, with the London premiere of a major big band piece, Genesis, a sequence of pieces for an Octet with a front line of fine soloists--Guy Barker, Alan Barnes, Mornington Lockett and Mark Nightingale--as well as solo and trio sets.

For many fans, the highlight of the evening will be a very rare performance of Tracey's spectacular piano duet ...

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Radio

Clare Teal presents the 40th Anniversary of Stan Tracey's "Under Milk Wood"

Clare Teal presents the 40th Anniversary of Stan Tracey's "Under Milk Wood"

Source: All About Jazz

Last Friday, April 22nd, Clare Teal hosted a special 40th anniversary celebration of Stan Tracey's “Under Milk Wood" suite for BBC Radio 2. The show was recorded live at The Mermaid Theatre in London and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on Monday 2nd May 2005 (8pm-9pm). The show features Stan Tracey on piano, Clark Tracey on drums, Andrew Cleyndert on bass and Bobby Wellins on saxophone who played with Stan on the original 1965 record as well as ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Inclusivity

Jazz In Britain
2021

buy

Soho Scene '66 and...

Rhythm & Blues Records
2020

buy

The Flying Pig

Resteamed
2013

buy

Videos

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