Team to banish the winter blues.Byline: al Javin , They've been described as "the perfect antidote for winter blues" and it is not hard to see why. The award-winning Clark Tracey Quintet plays Huddersfield Jazz next weekend. At the centre of this extraordinarily talented bunch of players is drummer Clark Tracey. Born in London in 1961, Clark first played piano and vibraphones before turning, at the age of 13 to the drums. He turned professional at 17 joining groups led by his father, jazz legend Stan Tracey Stanley William Tracey (born December 30, 1926 in Denmark Hill, South London) is a UK jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk. Early career . By 1981, Clark had formed the first of his own groups featuring Django Bates and Iain Ballamy Iain Ballamy (born February 20, 1964 in Guildford, Surrey) is a British soprano, alto and tenor saxophone player. Biography Renowned in Europe as the "Fantastic Englishman", Ballamy established himself playing alongside notables including Django Bates, Hermeto . Clark also composes and arranges and has received commissions for his own quintet, for an octet An eight-bit storage unit. In the international community, octet is often used instead of byte. (jargon, networking) octet - Eight bits. This term is used in networking, in preference to byte, because some systems use the term "byte" for things that are not 8 bits long. shared with pianist Dave Newton, Continental Drift - an 11 piece band co-composed with Stan Tracey commissioned by The Arts Council An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad. , and big band arrangements for the Berkshire Youth Jazz Orchestra and the Appleby Festival big band. In addition he has written string arrangements for Claire Martin and Tina May. In 1981 he formed the first of his own various groups which featured Django Bates and Iain Ballamy. Later groups have included Guy Barker, Jamie Talbot, Nigel Hitchcock, Dave O'Higgins, Mark Nightingale, Mornington Lockett, Julian Arguelles, Gerard Presencer, Alec Dankworth, Arnie Somogyi and Steve Melling. These days, he leads the Clark Tracey Trio, Quartet and Quintet and Clark Tracey's Tribute to Art Blakey and Ellingtonia. As a freelance drummer he has performed with virtually every important jazz artist in the UK and an ever-expanding list of US and European visitors. Clark arrives in Huddersfield next Saturday, January 14, to play a gig at 8pm in the Lawrence Batley Theatre's Cellar space as part of the Huddersfield Jazz season. With him will be Simon Allen (saxophone), Mark Armstrong (trumpet), Zoe Rahman (piano) and Peter Billington (bass). |
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