| Stan Tracey |
|
| Background information |
| Birth name |
Stanley William Tracey |
| Born |
December 30, 1926 |
| Origin |
Denmark Hill, South
London |
| Genre(s) |
Jazz |
| Occupation(s) |
Jazz pianist
Composer |
| Instrument(s) |
Piano |
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.
|
Contents
- 1 Early
career
- 2 At
Ronnie’s and the Under Milk Wood LP
- 3 Experimentation
and consolidation
- 4 Reference
- 5 External
link
|
Early career
The Second World War meant that Tracey had
a disrupted formal education, and he became a professional musician at
the age of sixteen as a member of an ENSA touring group playing the accordion, his
first instrument. He joined Ralph
Reader’s Gang
Shows at the age of nineteen,
while in the RAF and formed a brief acquaintance
with the comedian Tony Hancock. Later, in the early 1950s he worked in
groups on the transatlantic cruise liners Queen
Mary and Cardonia
and toured the UK in 1951
with Cab
Calloway. By the mid-‘fifties, he had also taken up the vibraphone,
but later ceased playing it. At this time he worked widely with leading
British modernists including drummer Tony
Crombie, clarinettist Vic
Ash, the saxophonist-arranger Kenny Graham and trumpeter Dizzy
Reece.
In February 1957,
he toured the United States with Ronnie
Scott’s group, and joined Ted
Heath’s Orchestra in September for two years, working as an arranger
and pianist; although Tracey disliked Heath’s music, he at least gained
a regular income. The following year he recorded his first album as
leader, Showcase, for English Decca
(also Heath's label) and Little Klunk in 1959; he had first
recorded in 1952
with the trumpeter Kenny Baker.
At Ronnie’s and the Under
Milk Wood LP
From March 1960
until about 1967
(some sources give 1968),
Tracey was the house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club in Soho, London, and he had
the opportunity to accompany many of the leading musicians from the United States who visited
the club. Recordings of some of these performances appeared on LP and
others have appeared in recent years on the Jazz House and Harkit
labels, recorded by the journalist Les Tomkins, but with non-professional
sound quality. In this context he gained some very high profile
admirers; Sonny Rollins asserted at one concert:
“Does any anyone here know how good he is?” It is Tracey on piano which
film viewers hear behind Rollins on the soundtrack of the Michael
Caine version of Alfie.
The experience of working in Scott’s club ruined Tracey’s
health though; the long hours necessitated that Tracey took various
illicit stimulants, and the low wages also meant that Tracey had to
take the workmans’ bus back home to Streatham at 3am.
At the same time he became active in Michael
Horovitz’s Jazz Departures project of mixing poetry readings with jazz.
The Jazz Departures group recorded an album in 1964; not only is it
the first of Tracey’s classic albums, but his first recording with
saxophonist Bobby Wellins. Both men contributed
original compositions to the album. Wellin’s “Culloden Moor”–its
composition predates the contemporary Peter
Watkins film on the Battle of Culloden–is
particularly memorable.
Tracey’s 1965
album (its full title is Jazz Suite inspired by Dylan Thomas’
“Under Milk Wood”) is one of the most celebrated jazz
recordings made in the United Kingdom. Tracey was inspired to compose
the suite by hearing the original 1953 BBC broadcast on an LP his
wife Jackie had acquired. The track, “Starless and Bible Black”, a
quote from the opening monologue, is probably the best demonstration of
Wellin’s lyricism and the highlight of Tracey’s whole career. Such is
the affection with which these pieces are held that Tracey has
re-recorded them on several occasions, something that is unusual for
British jazz musicians to do. Under Milk Wood was
followed by Alice in Jazzland, an album for big
band, the next year. Later in the decade, Tracey made the arrangements
for an Acker
Bilk record, Blue Acker and his first
album dedicated to Duke Ellington compositions (both
recorded in 1968),
in this case to commemorate Ellington's 70th birthday the following
year.
Experimentation and consolidation
The early 1970s
were a bleak time for Tracey. He almost chose to retrain as a postman
under pressure from the Unemployment Benefits’ office–“I would have
quite a good pension by now” he quips–but then his career began to
revive.
He began to work with musicians of a later generation, who
worked in a free
or avant-garde
style, including Mike Osborne, Keith
Tippett and John Surman. Tracey continued
to work in this idiom with Evan Parker at the UK’s Appleby Jazz
Festival for several years, but this has always been more of a sideline
for Tracey. In the mid-seventies he formed his own record label, Steam. Through it he reissued Under
Milk Woods (the major label which held the rights to it had
allowed it to fall out of print), and over the next decade
he also used the outlet to issue recordings of a number of commissioned
suites. These included The Salisbury Suite (1978), The
Crompton Suite (1981) and The Poets Suite
(1984).
He led his own octet from 1976-85 and formed a sextet in 1979 (later called
Hexad), touring widely in the middle east and India. In this
context he had a longstanding performance partnership from 1978 with saxophonist
(and physician) Art Themen, and his own son,
the percussionist Clark Tracey, the latter continuing
until this day. He was able to share the billing with arranger Gil Evans in
a 1978
concert at the Royal Festival Hall, such was
Tracey’s pre-eminence in the UK. In private, he played for Evans,
Ellington recordings that he had not previously heard. He continued to
record with American musicians on occasion as well, with dates taking
place with Sal Nistico in 1985 and Monk
associate, Charlie Rouse in 1987.
The Steam label ceased trading in the early ‘nineties,
reportedly because of difficulties caused by the retail trades’ need
for its inventory to carry the barcode. However, in 1992 he benefited from
Blue Note’s brief interest in UK
musicians, leading to the Portraits Plus album and
the commercial issue of the BBCs recording of
the concert commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Tracey’s first
professional gig, as well as Under Milk Wood’s
debut on Compact Disc.
In 1995
his new quartet featuring Gerard Presencer recorded the For
Heaven’s Sake album and also performed gigs together. In 2003 Tracey was the
subject of a BBC Television documentary Godfather of British
Jazz, a rare accolade nowadays for any jazz musician, let
alone one from Britain. Tracey's catalogue from the LP era is being
reissued on ReSteamed Records.
Reference
-
John Fordham "The March Hare of Frith Street", Zigzag
October 1973 as reprinted in Shooting From the Hip,
1996, Kyle Cathie, p51.
External link
