Little Klunk

Stan Tracey interview from Rochester International Jazz Festival 2010

2011-06-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

interview by Saby Reyes-Kulkarni

click to load Part 1-4 :
Part 1. - Part 2. - Part 3. - Part 4.

The Duo's

2011-02-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

Stan's first duo recordings begin in the 1970's.
In this era (and in the 1960's before it as well) improvised and free jazz music was being seen as an important development for jazz in Europe and the USA. Free or improvising composers in the UK were growing in number with newcomers and established musicians experimenting with the form.
Stan's first recording in 1972 was with Mike Osborne, an uncompromising soloist who in the previous decade had been with the Mike Westbrook Orchestra and was now with Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath. Stan and Mike recorded again as a duo in 1976, releasing the renowned 'Tandem' album.
The next two years were to see recordings of the explosive double piano duo of Stan and Keith Tippet.
Finally in 1978 came a set with John Surman, who described the meeting: "all the music on the album came about as a result of Stan and myself improvising together without any prior arrangement". On the resulting album 'Sonatinas' they were even experimenting by adding synthesizers to their piano and saxophone.
By the end of the 70's free music was beginning to have less of an importance to many players. Disillusioned with how it had evolved, Stan was involved with no more free-form duos after this and by 1978 had virtually abandoned free jazz.
To quote Stan:
"I started playing with Mike Osborne and y'know the free players who were around at that time because I wanted to bring into the free music the experience I've had with the straight-ahead music. I thought I could make a marriage of the two in some way but I never succeeded so eventually I returned to my first love which was structured."
It wasn't until 2001 that a duo performance reappeared, this time with Andrew Cleyndert his regular bass player through the 90's. This album was live and covered music by Elllington, Monk etc.
In 2004 an album with drummer percussionist Louis Moholo was a further exploration into improvising - "no prior discussion - the music just took care of itself".
Later during the 2000's to quote Stan again: "The only time I play free music now is with Evan Parker and that's once a year up in Appleby for the festival".

...until, that is, 2011 and SOUNDCHECK
In many ways it's what makes the latest recording all the more remarkable.
As Clark says in the album liner notes:
"My mum, ever an influence on Dad's musical output, first proposed that we should record this album. She was emphatic that our soundchecking duets should reach fruition in a recording one day so, in her honour, this is it."
Clark, who, as most fans of Stan's music will know, has been on the drum stool for the many groups of Stan's since the 80's has never been recorded or played live in free or improvised jazz form.
John Fordham's 5 star review in the Guardian said "It's a wonderful improvised dialogue, and reveals percussion resources not all of Clark Tracey's observers might have appreciated he has."
"But it's the impromptu duo encounter featuring simply the two Tracey's on piano and drums – a warmup exercise they've often privately explored but never recorded – that really marks this venture out."

So after 3 decades or so, Stan has returned this time with Clark to produce something of a redefining album. Their performances mark the importance of truly exemplary improvising.
And if back in the 1970's Stan thought he could make a marriage of the two forms of 'free' and 'straight ahead' jazz in some way but never succeeded, in 2011 with the release of SOUNDCHECK the two Tracey's have produced a recording of that very marriage which is possibly as good as it gets.

SOUNDCHECK available from Resteamed.com.

video : Stan Tracey Clark Tracey Duo. - album launch and debut performance of 'Soundcheck'. The Vortex Jazz Club. London. 30th January 2011.

Stan Tracey Duo recordings

Khumbula [Remember]. October 2004.
Stan Tracey - piano
Louis Moholo-Moholo - drums, percussion.

Crevulations. Recorded July 2004.
Stan Tracey - piano
Evan Parker - tenor saxophone

Suspensions and Anticipations. September 2003
Stan Tracey - piano
Evan Parker - tenor saxophone

Just You, Just Me. October 2003
Stan Tracey - piano
Danny Moss - tenor saxophone

Live at the Savage Club London. January 2001.
Stan Tracey - piano
Andrew Cleyndert - double bass

Sonatinas. April 1978.
Stan Tracey - piano & synthesisers;
John Surman - baritone & soprano saxes, bass clarinet, tenor recorder & synthesisers.

Supernova. January 2008.
Stan Tracey - piano
Keith Tippett - piano
Previously unissued Live concert. 1976.
ICA. London. RSJ 105 (cd) on ReSteamed Records

Tandem. July/November 1976
Mike Osbourne - alto saxophone
Stan Tracey - piano

TNT. December 1974.
Stan Tracey - piano
Keith Tippett - piano
Emanem (3307). Reissued on Steam
Reissued as "Duets" on Blue Note

Original. April 1972.
Stan Tracey - piano
Mike Osborne - tenor saxophone
Cadillac LP

2011 release - Sound Check

2011-01-22T03:28:00.000-08:00

Sleeve Notes by Clark Tracey, December 2010

Disc One - Duet
This session was evocative of some of my earliest childhood memories of playing duets with my dad on piano and myself on vibes. We've never performed in public in a duet format since I took up drums and the album title is a clue as to when we do get the opportunity.
My mum, ever an influence on dad's musical output, first proposed that we should record this album. She was emphatic that our soundchecking duets should reach fruition in a recording one day so, in her honour, this is it.
We began without a plan, other than a vague mood or a style, and almost segued between the freely improvised pieces, so it felt more like a performance. The running order is the way we recorded the pieces and the finished version is unedited.
What comes through strongly to me are the many musical influences we've shared, sounds I grew up with and flavours of places we've visited. In this sense, it was a unique experience for us and one that we've ended up happy with, extracting from us both places hitherto unexplored.

Disc Two - Trio
The session continued the same afternoon once Andrew Cleyndert joined us. A trio album was overdue and we'd prepared some material already, including "Angelica" and "Goodbye", both outside our normal repertoire. The trio has been together for about 15 years and also forms the nucleus of Stan's other line ups so, again, the mutual empathy is well founded. Andy has always found a way of comfortably sliding into the dialogue that Stan and I share, complementing both musicians equally while retaining his strong, virtuosic individuality.

Sound Check is available from ReSteamed Records

The Octets

2010-04-03T07:47:00.000-07:00

The Later Works

Spring 2010 sees the release of a new studio album of two of Stan's suites that have never before been recorded.

Commissions to write works for special occasions have come to Stan Tracey in various shapes and sizes over the years. In particular, Stan has had several commissions for his octet over 30 years or so and this double CD features two of them, recently recorded with Stan's latest line up. This is a follow up release to “The Early Works”, RSJ107.

The Hong Kong Suite
This suite was commissioned by Lord Christopher Patten, to mark the British handover back to China in 1997. We had been performing at the Hong Kong Jazz Club in 1996 and (the then Governor) Chris Patten approached Stan after the performance with the proposal. A year later the octet performed the new music in Beijing and Guangzhou in China with the premiere at the last official concert held at the Governor's private residence in Hong Kong under British sovereignty.

The Amandla Suite
Slightly less glamorous perhaps, this suite was commissioned in 1993 by NALGO on its merger with other trade unions COHSE and NUPE, becoming UNISON. NALGO proffered the title “Amandla”, a Zulu word meaning "Power" and a battle cry that became associated with the anti-apartheid movement. The titles, chosen by Stan, allude to events and relationships forged around the world by NALGO.
The humble premiere of this suite was held at a hotel on the outskirts of Newcastle, hosted by UNISON and two of the pieces, “The Cuban Connection” (also released on “Stan Tracey - Live At The QEH”) and “Humberto's Dream”, have remained as regulars in the pad ever since.

Clark Tracey, January 2010 (extract from cd sleeve notes)

The line up is

Simon Allen - tenor saxophone
Mornington Lockett - tnr & sop saxophones
Sammy Mayne - alto saxophone
Guy Barker - trumpet
Stan Tracey - piano
Andrew Cleyndert - double bass
Clark Tracey - drums

available from reSteamed.com

The Early Works

In the early Seventies, Stan had left his long tenure at Ronnie Scott's Club as house pianist and found himself physically exhausted, slightly disillusioned, broke and musically somewhat isolated after years of unique experience and having spearheaded the British jazz movement since the early Fifties. Through interaction on a 'grass roots' level in London, he began moving into a musical area inhabited by the less mainstream 'new kids on the block', forming duet associations with the likes of Mike Osbourne, Keith Tippett and John Surman as well as leading his own larger ensembles, "Splinters" with Trevor Watts, Kenny Wheeler, Peter King, Danny Thompson and John Stevens and "Tentacles", which included Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Malcolm Griffiths, Paul Nieman, Trevor Watts, Art Themen, John Surman, Harry Miller and Louis Moholo. These line ups incorporated a great deal of free improvisation, marking a radical step outside for Stan.
In 1974 he was commissioned to write three pieces for a festival in Fishguard. The size of the band was more or less dictated by the fee available and so the octet was born. For this band he chose Harry Beckett, Malcolm Griffiths, Trevor Watts, Alan Skidmore, Don Weller, Harry Miller and John Stevens. While it retained a spontaneous urgency in its improvisation, Stan's music was turning towards a more structured view of composition again, drawing from previous decades of scoring for big bands, often having his octet classified as a "small big-band".
There were some personnel changes by the time of the first octet release on Steam, "The Bracknell Connection", two years later in 1976: Art Themen for Skidmore, Dave Green for Miller, Bryan Spring for Stevens (representing Stan's then regular quartet) and Peter King for Watts. This was a commissioned work for the most popular British jazz festival throughout the Seventies, held at South Hill Park in Bracknell. The recording on this first disc was from a subsequent live performance at the 100 Club in London. In the same year, Stan was the subject of a BBCTV documentary in the prestigious arts series "Omnibus" in which the octet featured, raising Stan's public profile considerably.
Another personnel change came in late 1976 as Jeff Daly replaced King and the following year Stan was offered a commission for the Salisbury Arts Festival. "Chiffik" is from that premiere performance and has not been heard before. It's an off the cuff improvised piece which was the encore of the concert, to me superbly typifying the free spirited qualities of Stan's previous groups. On a personal note, this track has been a particular golden nugget since first hearing it and it's a delight to be able to make it available at last. An encore from the octet was always a rare treat, always improvised and therefore usually untitled (one exception being a certain concert when Stan felt moved enough to tellingly announce an unexpected new work, "Concerto For An Out Of Tune Piano"). The tape is from my private collection and has been restored lovingly to today's standards for its release here. The second disc of our double reissue, "The Salisbury Suite", was taken from a concert towards the end of a UK tour opposite Gil Evans' Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in 1978, released on Steam later that year.

Clark Tracey, 2009 (extract from cd sleeve notes)

Stan Tracey Octet - The Early Works. Remastered double CD of 'The Bracknell Connection / Salisbury Suite' plus unissued track 'Chiffik'.
Original recording 1975 / 1978. reissued on Resteamed Records (RSJ107)
Released in 2009

available from reSteamed.com

Portraits Plus.

Portraits Plus was recorded in March 1992 and originally released by Blue Note on vinyl LP. It was commissioned by Jazz Services and The Arts Council of Great Britain.

Piano: Stan Tracey
Alto Sax: Pete King
Tenor Sax: Don Weller
Tenor & Soprano Sax: Art Themen
Trombone: Guy Barker
Bass: Dave Green
Drums: Clark Tracey

The 80's

2010-02-05T12:20:00.000-08:00

Did you feel in the eighties there was meant to be this jazz renaissance?

I shudder every time I hear that because every time I hear that jazz is coming back into popularity I know the phone isn't going to ring. As a matter of fact when there's a recession I work a whole lot more than when jazz is coming back.. umm I was defeated by the last recession or the current recession. I think everybody was. Yeah I think it's a thing that journalists like to say but I don't know what the basis is for the saying that, what information they're privy to that I'm not.

Maybe it's a question of the jazz musician as a 'maker'. That always appealed to you... maybe it's a romantic view but maybe the media have a romantic view.

Or be they not.

Maybe when there's a jazz Renaissance it's the image that comes back in.

Yeah, yeah.. god bless them for being interested but there's a lot of wrong ideas floating about with regards to what it's like being a jazz musician.

You had your 40th concert. Did you feel that things were straightening out. Because you had these commissions coming in nice and steady. The quartets steady and you had Clark playing and Steams going OK.

I was more happy about my situation at that time... yeah I was working quite a bit and writing. I enjoyed the music I was playing, the guys I was working with although I have to say I've always enjoyed the musicians I've worked with but um.. everything was cozy at that time.

And whether or not there was a jazz renaissance at that time there were a lot of new players on the scene and you started to work with them. Because the ''Live At Ronnie's' album, was that the debut of Hexad.

...ish

What was that 1985?

yeah it had been around a couple of years before that. I enjoyed working with those young guys. They've got good knowledge of the music they're playing. They know the history of the music.. they listen to it, they're technically better equipped than most of the guys were of similar ages.. contemporaries they had possibly a better knowledge of the harmonies and because a lot of them work in studios they can read anything. Like Nigel Hitchcock, Gerard (Presencer), Guy Barker.

Guy Barker and Jamie Talbot.

Jamie yeah.. they can read anything but they're also excellent players with a good understanding of the music and whatever I put up whether it be big band or octet or sextet I never have to say I want this to be like that or that phrase to be like that because they just play it first time how I want it and you know that's fine with me.

GENESIS (and the firmament)

A big band commission composed around mid 80's, a rather curious concept Stan approached with his usual obliging professionalism.
Stan explains the difficult events that followed. (player below)

1986 brought royal recognition to Stan's contributions to British jazz when he was awarded the OBE.

I've been fortunate in the last few years to have good pianos.. mostly. But I've played my bad piano dues over and over again. Something I hear people say "What did you get the OBE for?,.. What did the Queen say?"... and I say "she pinned the medal on my lapel and said this is for all those duff pianos you had to play Stanley". That's what I like to think. I can't think of any other reason for getting it.

Above and beyond the call.

Yep. But I'd sooner play a really bad piano than play electric. It's touch is different, everything is different. A lot of my technique has been formed through constant playing on bad pianos.. like the percussive thing. You can't play sweetly on a bad piano and as I say during the past few years I've been getting good pianos I'm discovering a whole world of sound that I was never able to access before and I really regret not having had that opportunity of growing pianistically.. y'know had I had good pianos I'd be able to draw more sound out than I'm currently able to.. I feel I'm still learning how to do that. You get a good piano and you realise there's a whole lot in there which is available and once you acquire the ability to pull it out, all sorts of shades and colours you just can't get with a bad piano. You either go wallop or you give up. you can't sweet time a bad piano. you can a beautiful grand. You can get very romantic and quiet and sweet about the whole thing. You do that on a bad piano.. it's quite interesting. It certainly doesn't work.

You just sort of disappear I imagine.

Yeah.. I mean I don't know how to explain it. I have done just for the exercise tried to play really quietly and sweetly on a bad piano. It sounds ridiculous. They only know one language.. you have to be very firm, get it by the scruff of the neck and say this is where we're going and this is what you've got to do. It's the only language they understand.

Stan's 1980's recordings.

We Still Love You Madly - Stan Tracey Orchestra. 1988.
Genesis. - Stan Tracey Orchestra. 1987.
Stan Tracey Plays Duke Ellington. 1986.
Hexad - Live At Ronnie Scott's - Stan Tracey Octet. 1985.
Now - Stan Tracey Quartet/Sextet/Octet. 1985.
The Poets Suite - Stan Tracey Quartet. 1984.
The Crompton Suite - Stan Tracey Sextet. 1981.
South East Assignment - Stan Tracey Quartet 1980.

Hexad and Genesis are available as downloads from Give Me Jazz

Composer - Player & Duke Ellington

2010-01-28T04:20:00.000-08:00

One sheet of Stan's original hand written manuscript for 'Afro Charlie Meets The White Rabbit'

Do you find writing difficult?

STAN: I find it difficult in that I reject a hell of a lot of what I do.. y'know of what I write. For instance I start writing a piece and about 4 or 5 sheets of manuscript later there's just a couple of references in the final product to how it started out. First of all I write far to many notes then I start honing it.. and slimming it down and sometimes in the slimming down something else will suggest itself that is better than what I have and then having done that what precedes or follows that better idea I can hear I could have done something better to get in to that bit or coming out of it, or what follows it could have been better, so what precedes or follows it is rejected in favour of something more sympathetic to the new idea that came about at that spot. As the process, as I say about 5 sheets of manuscript later it has completely or 90% of it is a different theme or piece to the way it started.

Do you work the lines and the harmonies at the same time?

Whatever comes first. It could be the rhythm or the harmonies or the melody. Just writing the first two bars is the hardest thing even of it's rubbish. If I've got two bars of rubbish I can turn it into something a little better and build on it. But it has to pass my good house keeping test and a lot of it fails that test. Trouble is of you write a phrase instead of doing the wise thing and carrying on I start dwelling on that phrase and the longer you dwell on it... it's like if you start saying a word over and over again it sounds completely silly.. I don't know if you take the word 'belly' if you keep saying the word belly over and over again it looses all meaning. It just becomes a meaningless sound and that's what happens to me if I keep going over a phrase. It becomes meaningless. So I've taught myself not to do that as much as I use to. Just pass on.. come back to it. It's at the back of my mind I'm not really happy with it and I'll build on that or go back to it, and that's when the transformation takes place. Maybe I'll reject... sometimes when I go back to it just falls into place like that. Why didn't I think of that in the first place, it's so simple and so right. Then having done that everything that follows it needs to be changed. Maybe of there's some particular part of it I want to keep I'll try to keep it even in it's original form or a slightly different form, y'know containing the essence of it and then just building it up until I'm satisfied with the whole thing. And it takes along time. I'm not a quick worker. I think a lot of the stuff I do.. like if I'm at the keyboard I sort of disappear up my own arse sometimes.. with it all. I write far better stuff and more logical watching television. Y'know I'll take down on a piece of manuscript.. take it down stairs and I can watch a television programme and I'll drift off the programme in my mind on to the piece of music I'm writing and because I'm not concentrating so hard on doing it ideas come easier, better ideas come easier and a lot of the stuff I've written has been done watching the television. It really works.. which is handy. (laughs)
If I'm sitting at the keyboard I start playing like a piano player and not a composer, when I'm away from the keyboard I'm a composer.

Not that you have to make a choice but would you still rather play. Is playing your main thing?

I would still rather play. I find writing the most difficult thing. All I ever wanted to be was a piano player having fun, but I guess I have to do some writing. There are people who ask me to do it and I suppose I might as well play my own charts than other peoples. Financially it's rewarding, although I have to say I do not do it for the reward. There is no ointment that will take that pain away... but er it not my choice, not my first choice.

There's this nice piano solo album 'Hello Old Adversary'.

Oh right yeah..

Because that has reference to your free (music) periods.

Oh yeah whatever came out of that there was nothing preconceived. I was still on the instant theme packet.. add water and there's the theme.

But the chord changes a lot of times, the harmonics too..

Yeah I can improvise chord changes until further orders, that no problem. I'm lucky in that respect so with an album like that because handling harmonies going in all directions is no problem for me it's fairly easy to fake a theme over it.

DUKE ELLINGTON

One of the tunes on that album is dedicated to 'Eddie K' (title)) which is blues appropriately enough. We haven't talked about the influence and what Ellington means to you.

NOTE: Stan's album liner notes in 'Hello Old Adversary' to the track -
EDDIE K. is, I hope, a not too irreverent diminution of Edward Kennedy Ellington. For me Ellington the pianist, composer and orchestrator is supreme - and a constant inspiration. The contribution made and the enrichment given by the giant talents of Edward Kennedy to Jazz are beyond assessment.

STAN: Well I'd heard Ellington but I didn't really hear him until I was in my thirties or approaching nearly thirty-ish and then suddenly I heard him and I realised what a monster talent he had as an orchestrator, composer and a pianist. Totally unique music. Everything about it just beautiful. I have to say he's been a great influence. Something to aspire to, not to reach those great heights but to inspire me in the direction I'm in.
There's quite a few Ellington pieces I like to play... 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Prelude To A Kiss' several others I can't recall at the moment. Yeah they're fun to play.

Duke Ellington and his orchestra in concert in Copenhagen (1965-1971) - saxophone Harry Carney

The 70's

2010-01-10T04:59:00.000-08:00

In the years following his departure from Ronnie Scott's in 1968, Stan Tracey was often heard in free music circles. His association with younger players was a natural extension of his life long interest in new approaches. At the same time he hoped to increase the expressive range of free music by combining it with the values of classic jazz but he found it hard going.

STAN : I started playing with Mike Osborne and y'know the free players who were around at that time because I wanted to bring into the free music the experience I've had with the straight ahead music, I thought I could make a marriage of the two in some way but I never succeeded so eventually I returned to my first love which was structured.

Time and changes?

Yeah, time and changes.

How had you responded to the changes in jazz?.. you know Coltrame and Ornette and the completely free things. There must have been a fare amount of that around here.

Mmm.. well I have to really say I didn't enjoy Coltrane's free period and Ornette Colman I never enjoyed. Y'can't like everybody I guess... but as I said I wanted to bring into free music a sort of a... oh I don't know. I hate to say but like a floating structure but not a structure.. I couldn't even work out what it was I wanted to do.

It's a tough one.

Yeah... but I had it in my mind it could be done so it wasn't totally mayhem because a lot of free music at that time was mayhem. I thought I could do that... and with Mike I managed to do that particularly on the album which we did from Bracknell. Got close to it then but there after it didn't really happen the way I wanted it to.

Stan tried to introduce structure in his work not only with duo's but combo's and even a big band.

I had that big band called Tentacles which I hoped I could do it with that.. but that never happened. I knew it was time to quit when I did a gig in Ealing with dear old John Stevens, Trevor Watts, Harry Miller on bass and like the whole night was double faulting mayhem musically.. and I had this crap upright piano and there was a point when all hell was breaking loose. John was really giving it one, Trevor was somewhere else, Harry was away and I'm on this totally useless instrument, and I remember during this piece I played in a very straight way, as it should be played...'God Save The Queen' and nobody ever knew I'd played it. They never knew. Finished the number.. "yeah great". I played God Save The Queen and they didn't know. I thought "wait! time to walk away from this". That end of it I didn't really enjoy.

It's funny because in the midst of this you did that album for Ben Webster
(Ben Webster's 'Dictionary').

Yes I guess I was darting about in between styles a bit there. Yeah I enjoyed making that one with Ben. People complain to me as if it's my fault that it's all ballads but the tunes were Ben's choice obviously. He wanted to play all ballads so that's what we did... but it was fun to do.

It must have made you feel like you were getting in touch with a much older more mature tradition.

Yeah back to the old values.umm.. I went over board with the harmonies on that album.

Must have been a relief being able to have harmonies.

Yeah well I never deserted time and changes. I sort of worked between the two. Ever hopeful that I could bring something into the free music that I'd acquired in time and changes but it didn't really happen.

How did it affect what you were doing in terms of your own approach. Because you made that Alone at the Wigmore which is as straight an improvisation as any of those guys. You say in the liner notes what come out comes out.
Stan's Liner Note "The Music is entirely improvised, without preparation or musical points of reference. The piece develops from the first musical thought until I feel the shape it is taking. I develop it from there to its logical conclusion. There are as many interpretations of the music as there are listeners".

Yeah that was during that period I guess. I remember I took a watch on to the stand because I knew I was going to be playing for an hour non stop and I had the watch on the piano and I kept my eye on it because it was an L.P. at half an hour a side and I knew I didn't want the music to continue y'know like a fade and pick up on the other side. So I kept my eye on the watch and after 30 minutes made that break in the music without it being a break to the audience because I knew at that point they could turn the music over. I just finished a musical sentence gave it a couple of seconds and continued. Yeah I use to do a lot of work like that y'know go on play for ever. Well that's what it sounded like. Had to do it to find out.

Was it satisfying? Did you get the same sort of buzz out of that as other stuff?

Er.. I guess at the time I did yeah. I wouldn't now. The only time I play free music now is with Evan Parker and that's once a year up in Appleby for the festival. I enjoy doing that with Evan. I do the occasional piano duo with Keith Tippett which I enjoy very much. We never rehearse, we just go on and do it. I find that the adrenalin that's created under those circumstances makes it happen for us. That's about the only two involvements I have.

What was it like playing with John Surman or was that different.

It was sort of different. We'd occasionally do the structured thing. It would be mixture of the two. Yes I enjoyed working with John. We did that album 'Sonitinas'.

Why was it called Sonitinas.

Well I think sonitinas means little pieces.

Yes, what interested me was John Surman's a very kind of organised player and Sonitinas made it seem like a classical reference the two of you were sort of building. You don't get that double forte blow your brains out. They are very carefully made pieces even if they are improvised. You do have a couple of pieces where stuff was added later. You said there were a couple ones that you knew you were going to do in the studio.

Yeah John took care of that department since he had the instruments and he knew how to work the things. It was John's idea to do it and that was fine by me. I have complete faith in his musicality.

By 1978 Stan had virtually abandoned free jazz and formed a Quartet with Art Themen and he and his wife Jackie had formed their own record label 'Steam' initially to make available an old Tracey hit.

We formed the company in order to reissue 'Milk Wood' and the next one was 'Captain Adventure'. Did the reissue of Milk Wood create a little buzz. Yeah it sold. Not a vast amount but it created a little buzz in Steams bank account but not too much outside.

So Captain Adventure was the first original that Steam did. It was also Art Themen's debut.
(Art Themen - tenor/soprano Stan Tracey - piano Dave Green - double bass Bryan Spring - drums)

Don't ask me where I met Art.. (laughs) we worked together for about 20 odd years. I remember working with him in some pub.. he just sort of drifted into the quartet, that's how it usually happens. I don't sit down and say right here's my master plan for a quartet. I like the sound of someone when they come in and they stay. But that Captain Adventure that's another funny period where I'd just come from free music and the hangover I had from that was to play time and changes but no melody. The idea was to create an instant melody which is difficult, I mean you can improvise but to try and improvise a melody over a set of chords first time is difficult.

You mean this wasn't just blowing the idea was to create just a melody on the spot.

Yeah.. the impossible dream.

Because Captain Adventure is rhythm changes.

You see I didn't care if it was a riff or what it was. I didn't want to have a first 8 and a second 8 melody with a bridge and a melody. I wanted it to be like a fresh melody and it only existed for that one time it was played. I mean that wasn't the aim but that's the way it would have been and like the out chorus presented with another melody but er... that didn't work out either (laughs) so...

Why not?

Well it's very demanding.

And presumably if you'd created this instant thing if you played it again it would be completely different.

Oh yeah. That's really pure. That's what appealed to me.. like pulling it off. Actually achieving that, it gets the adrenalin going. It disturbs the grey cells and I really aimed for that at that time.

Captain Adventure has been reissued on CD by ReSteamed Records

1968-70 - "The phone never starts ringing"

2009-12-13T03:57:00.000-08:00

In the midst of his long residence at Ronnie Scott's where he accompanied visiting stars virtually every night, Stan somehow found the time to compose new music and make his own records. This gruelling non-stop regime meant that to Stan the swinging sixties were little more than a rumour.

STAN : When I hear stories and see documentaries about swinging London it's like another town. It was nothing to do with me because y'know if I wasn't down at Ronnies I was at home, and if I wasn't writing at home I was sleeping. It was like that for most of the sixties. Sleep, write, play, with the occasional mini skirt for inspiration, but that flower power thing I wasn't too aware of that.

You're whole life was 'dug in' like.

Yeah, not very pleasant for Jackie I suppose. Living with somebody who totally devoted to going out at night and playing, getting home at 4 or 5 in the morning or staying up all night writing, then sleeping. I just gave myself to it completely.

And you were devoted to it.

Yeah.

Were you having a good time despite being stretched like that.

I was, Jackie wasn't. She was looking after the kids for a cad. (laughter)

You were doing a lot of stuff despite having no time to do it in. A lot of different stuff.

I was even managing to go to places in Wales and up into Manchester with the quartet. I've got all my work diaries from day one. I must go back some time and look how I did it. I also did that solo album...

In Person?

Yeah.

How did you feel about that? Did you regard that as a good opportunity?

I did at the time.

That's a good record.

Well... I'm not too happy with it.

Oh, the way you play Sonny Boy.

..Yeah well I was pretty messed up at that time, when I made that album. In terms of substances and over work, no sleep and the rest of it.

When that record was made were you getting to the end of your span at Ronnies?

Yeah that's getting near the end. Yeah I was getting well messed up at that time. That's one of those albums I regret making given the state I was in. If I'd been a little straighter I'm sure I could have produced something a little better. Maybe it because when I've listened to it on the odd occasion, when I dared put it on. It takes me right back to that time and what was going on in my life then and I guess I hear the music through those ears to do with what was happening to me then.

So despite the fact that you enjoyed it, it was clearly taking it's toll and you knew that to.

No, that's one of the great things about substances, you think you're fooling everybody particularly yourself and you think yeah this is good and you put a little space between the event and er.. say like now I can hear why I thought it was good and I can hear why it wasn't. Y'know complete self delusion.

So if you kept feeling like that you needed some kind of external thing to take you out. So how did it happen.. you decide to leave?

Ronnies?

Yeah.

Well it was Jackies idea. She could see what it was doing to me and she had a word with Pete (King, Scott's club manager). She said "he's got to leave". I was a total wreck. So much so it took me nearly two years to recover physically from that whole experience.

So you left when.. January '68? Is that right?

Your recollection is better that mine, given the state I was in I can't recall.. but it sounds about right. Like I say it took me two years to straighten out. I can remember just walking up stairs was a ghastly experience. Going one step at a time. I was so drained, tired.. and then sometime during that period Tubby Hayes' first wife came over and she was into macro-biotic food at that time and she was going to stay with us for a period. She said OK we'll all go on to macro-biotics. Maggies like that y'know. If she's eating stuffed chips.. you eat stuffed chips. So we went on to macro biotic food.. rice, the whole bit, and I have to say that it really did me good. I mean all that toxic thing that was still inside me, that all came out.. and I'll gloss over that. But y'know after a couple or three months I felt great. I really felt good. I think a lot of it was to do with that diet. Didn't stick to it of course, but it had something to do with me coming out of it. Our finances at that time were completely down the tubes. I was on social security and I remember there was a gas bill we couldn't pay and we had to go to some committee down in Brixton who dealt with people like me. I remember we pitched up and there were a couple of Rolls Royce's outside and a couple of other expensive cars belonging to committee members. People who decide, and I know Jackie presented my case. The history and the financial state we were in. I think the gas bill was £35 and they were very sympathetic and suggested I retrain into some other job. I remember Harry Miller, the bass player, played quite a good bass at that time, He was also in financial trouble, couldn't pay the gas bill or whatever it was and around about that period he went to the same people and appealed for a hand out and they said "how much is your bass worth?". He told them and they said "well sell it and get a cheaper bass". So yeah, that was a dodgey time financially. I guess the odd bits I got were helping but I couldn't have been doing that much because I was on social security, I was still an honest lad, I would have declared it. I know there was a period when I was working at the Plough in Clapham and I had one gig a week for quite a long time, I mean months. One gig a week, 11 pounds on a Saturday night and I even use to tell them I earned 11 pounds.. and they would make the adjustment to my payment.

During this difficult period Stan received some regular employment from Dennis Preston who produced the Lansdowne Series for Columbia Records and offered Stan work as a leader and arranger for a variety of orchestral projects. It was he who had originally commissioned Under Milk Wood and he seemed at least initially to have Stan's best interest at heart.

It started out that way.. giving me my head but then he tried to mold me into something else. I could be Jack of all musical trades for whichever artist he wanted to project at that time.

He wasn't a jazz person really.

He was a devoted Ellington fan. I don't think he really understood jazz musicians. He did tend to treat them as someone you give a few bob to that keeps them happy. He did seem to have that attitude I seem to remember.

You found later projects considerably uncongenial.

Particularly 'Latin American Caper'. I wasn't interested in Latin American music. I didn't know anything about it but that's what Dennis wanted and what he got was something else.

Did he want to turn you into an up market studio arranger.

I think that was the way it was heading.

Because you did all that stuff with Acker Bilk.

I particularly enjoyed the Acker Bilk albums. 'Blue Acker' and I forget the title of the other one.. 'Horn Of Plenty'. Yeah that was the one with strings. I enjoyed Ackers playing. He's a no bullshit guy. I found it very easy to work with him and like myself not the worlds greatest reader (music) so we got on rather well together.

But he is a jazz player.

Oh yeah.. I enjoy his playing.

By 1970 Stan was fully aware Dennis Preston's plans for him did not coincide with his own. His misgivings occasionally appeared in the titles of his compositions.

Yeah I was getting angry with Dennis at that time and a couple of those titles were digs at him. But he never knew. It was for my own satisfaction.

There's another tune.. I think it's on the 'Perspectives' album, is it JIC.

'Just In Case'

Was that what it is?

Yeah, Dennis had annoyed me, we were having disagreements about the music or whatever. It was something and I called it JIC. It was like an extra tune that we did just in case, but I know it was to do with what was going on him and me at that time. The final thing was he wanted me to write straight work for a classical pianist and a string quintet. Like half an hours written music.. no little funky holes for anybody to blow a couple of choruses in and eat up the time that way. He offered me a hundred pounds to do that... and well, did I want to climb Mount Everest for a £100, and I said no and we just went on our merry way. We parted company there.

Transcript of interview by Geoffrey Smith.
BBC Maida Vale Studios. 12 January 1994

You can see more about Jackie Tracey here

The 60's

2009-11-29T11:57:00.000-08:00

While you were playing so much at the Ronnie Scott's club in the sixties were you trying to somehow do your own music as well?

STAN "Well somewhere in the middle of all that, I can't remember how I did but I was getting involved with my own music. I don't know where I found the time, but I did because during that period I wrote Under Milk Wood. That was '64. If I wasn't working Sunday at Ronnies I would be working somewhere else, in somebody else's group or my own group."

Was that the quartet with Bobby Wellins?

"Yeah "

I remember you saying once you did Under Milk Wood because you had an opportunity to record.

"Yeah, also at that time having hooks was very popular.. y'know album concept. So that's why I chose Milk Wood to work on."

You new you liked the poem?

"I'd recently got hold of a double album of the first New York performance with Dylan playing the narrator and so I first heard Milk Wood played by American actors doing a sort of American Welsh accents, which didn't really work but luckily it didn't effect the words or the power of the words. So I was completely bowled over by that work.

What was the one stuck with you particularly over the years."

"Starless and Bible Black."

That's it .

"A lot of people tell me that is the piece that they really fasten on to and that was the piece that took the least.. y'know the least writing. All it is really is about 6 or so bars written and the rest is improvised on just one chord until we take it out again. Then we play the 6 bars out. That's it but I have to say that a lot of the responsibility for the popularity of that album rests with Bobby for the way he interpreted the music I'd written and particularly on Starless and Bible Black. Y'know he really captured the mood of the piece although I don't think he was familiar with the written word at the time but as sure as hell fastened on to the various moods of the pieces.. and a lot of credit goes to Bobby for that album."

The recording was a hit, I mean for jazz. It sold some records.

"Yeah, it sold records.. um when Dennis had finished with it, it went to some other company who didn't put it out, and then it came to Steam. Y'know it sold but not in vast numbers and of course Blue Note have put it out again. It's been out 30 years now and I doubt if it's sold 15,000 in that 30 years. Including Lansdowne, Steam and Blue Note. It's the album everybody knows. I think that there must have been an awful lot of one person buying the record and 4 people taping it because everybody knows it but it didn't do an enormous amount in terms of sales. "

Are you still pleased with it..?

(exhales).. "I don't think about whether I'm pleased with it or whether I'm not... it's there. I must have been pleased with at one time. I'm not displeased with it but I don't go into raptures about it. It's something I did then that a lot of people liked."

It was really the start of something.

"Yeah.. (laughs) it was the start of something.. er yeah I suppose a lot of people became aware of me as a composer through that album and I went on to do other albums.. I'm not too proud of."

But some of the things you must have liked. There's also another case of the hook because after Under Milk Wood comes Alice in Wonderland which you turned into Alice In Jazzland.

"Jackie (wife) was responsible for that one happening. There was a guy at Decca who was quite interested in jazz, and Jackie was working at Decca at around about that time and after the success of Milk Wood.. OK this what you do, find a nice book with a nice story and write a piece of music and off you go. So I chose Alice for the next concept album and it didn't have the popularity of Milk Wood but it have some success."

Would you have wanted it to be for big band, was that your idea.

"Well at that time the BBC had asked me to um.. put a big band together for one of the jazz club broadcasts. So I put about 30 minutes worth of music together for the program. Y'know, did arrangements, and unpaid I hasten to add. See.. the tradition was there even then. I enjoyed writing for big band and playing with it, so it seemed natural that I'd do it for Alice In Jazzland album."

This was your second album in two years and still working 6 or 7 nights a week at Ronnie Scott's as well as leading your own groups. With that sort of routine I wondered how you found the time to compose.

"I use to stay up all night. I would think nothing of actually standing on my feet because I found it awkward to write onto the score seated at the keyboard. So I just stood up. I'd go an 8 hour stretch and think nothing of it. Finishing at 6 or 7 in the morning something like that. I did that for a hell of a long time. I used to take all sorts of uppers and downers and leapers to keep awake and I wish I hadn't because I wrote an awful lot of rubbish under those circumstances. I really regret that part. The thinking was stop me feeling tired and give me a clear view of what I wanted to do. OK I didn't go to sleep but like I say I wrote an awful lot of rubbish and I really regret that. "

But there was lots of good stuff on the Alice album.. and you had a quartet album, With Love From Jazz

"Oh yeah.. well that was the follow up for Alice, and the same guy decided we'd do another album, and we were looking for another theme and I chose that. Heaven knows why but there you go."

So what was your slant on the theme.

"I guess I'd have to get back into my head then to fully explain anything."

The Tracey titles are terrific and there also seems to be a kind of attitude behind them.. the first track is Everywhere Derriere, and you think of mini skirts and all that stuff of swinging London.

"Yeah.. totally inspired by the mini skirt period."

Except the thing is, you'd think everywhere is undulating and suggestive but it's not. It's up and sort of hectic and frantic and you wonder..

"At that time derriere was everywhere. I assure you it was the mini skirt period was a golden period if you were a chap that was into derriere's."

When I talk about this slant it was not.. er cynical. It was wry view of all this stuff.

"Yeah you could say that."

That swinging London wasn't quite real somehow.

"Actually a lot of the sixties passed me by, I was down in that club y'know."

Transcript of interview by Geoffrey Smith.
BBC Maida Vale Studios. 12 January 1994

Year by Year

Resident house pianist at Ronnie Scotts from 1959.

1960 - Stan made an album (playing vibes) with Judy Garland in August

1960. early 60's TV show soundtrack : The Avengers (with Laurie Johnson Orchestra);
1962 - Played in the stage show 'A Thurber Carnival'. Formed his own quartet with Bobby Wellins.
1962/64 - Performed with New Departures, an innovative jazz poetry vehicle with Michael Horovitz.
1963 - On film soundtrack : Scene Nun Take One (1963 with Kenny Graham);
1964 - Recorded 'Just Friends' with Paul Gonsalvez & Tubby Hayes.
1965 - Wrote and recorded 'Under Milk Wood'. He wrote the score of his best-known and still-selling album Under Milk Wood Jazz Suite on the night bus to Streatham, after finishing work at Ronnie Scott’s. On film soundtrack : Sounds of the Kalahari (1965 with John Dankworth). Stan worked with Sonny Rollins on the sound track of ‘Alfie’ (released 1966), which features his piano solo.
1966 - Recorded 'Alice In Jazz Land' with his first big band. Left Ronnie Scott's due to poor health.
1967 - Toured and recorded with Ben Webster and Zoot Sims.
1968 - Recorded 3 'concept' albums for his contract with Columbia Records including his least favourite of all time - 'Latin American Caper'.
1969 - Formed new trio with Dave Green and Bryan Spring, the nucleus of most of Stan's groups over the following nine years.

International Times Archive

One of Stan's archive entries in the International Times. This infamous (although not quite as infamous as Oz magazine) underground magazine of the sixties published gig listings for many of the bands and venues of the day in and around London. Click the link to the archive above and an image of the page can be seen. The IT archive produces a fascinating insight into the cultural background of the day.

The 40's and early 1950's

2009-11-10T12:37:00.000-08:00

The Tracey sound is unmistakable, but where did it all begin?

Stan : "yeah.. my first recollections of being anywhere was with my parents in Tooting.. hazy recollections of that. Y'know we never did have a radio and I guess the reason for that is my father out of the house about 13-14 hours a day, he used to work in a showbiz club in Orange Street called Jack's Club and he use to leave the house about 12 noon and get home about half past one next morning. So he wasn't interested in having a radio.
We used to live in house that had an upstairs flat and a down stairs flat but their stairs accessed our hallway. That sort of situation, and I use to sit on the stairs and listen to their radio.. Harry Roy, Oscar Rabin people like that... sort of kindled an interest for me".

When did you first hear jazz?

"When I was about 8 and I heard Andy Kirk 'Scratchin' In The Gravel'.
That belonged to some friends of my parents. We use to go over their on Sunday, parents would go drinking, kids would stay in.. just the two of us, just the two kids. I found this record and I played it into the ground. It was magic, shear magic. I couldn't get enough of it. I can't quite remember what it was I liked
The whole thing was magic, it was like a golden buzz listening to it".

HEAR 'SCRATCHIN IN THE GRAVEL' AT SPOTIFY :
spotify:track:305uR7zt6b9sRTQ3PJVF3g
or web link http://open.spotify.com/track/305uR7zt6b9sRTQ3PJVF3g

Was there an instrument around?

"There was an accordion shop at the top of the road. Accordions at that time were studded with shiny bits, and glitter, and it looked absolutely stunning, and I asked my parents to buy me one and they did. It was my first musical instrument.
I guess I would have been about 12 or 13 at the time.
My mother use to have a crack at the violin and I can still remember that.. and she was a black key piano player. There was a piano around. It was the one that's haunted me ever since throughout my career. That piano has spawned hundreds.. (laughs) of like instruments ever since. I did cop for a lot of those.
Anyway she use to play on the black keys and really no sense of harmony, just the melody and the left hand would be doing strange things in the bass".

Were you an innocent kid?

"Totally! I was reared on B movies because before I went on ENSA, no school just roaring around. I use to go the cinema maybe 3 or 4 times a week and see all those dreadful B movies when good always conquered evil and nice guys always came out on top. And I grew up thinking the world was like that.. and of course it patently isn't. But I believed it and that stuck with me well into my middle twenties. That life was a B movie. Then I went on ENSA and I was er.. just after 16 I think. War was still on. I toured in ENSA unitl I was 19. While I was on ENSA some of the guys use to have a wind up gramophone and they use to bring records.. people like Basie, Teddy Wilson.. they were the sort of bands that were around... Benny Goodman all those sorts of bands. We use to get hold of the occasional 'V' disc of Art Tatum, people like that. But it wasn't until I heard boogie woogie that I decided that the piano was what I wanted to play.
Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, Sammy Price, Hazel Scott, Pinetop Smith, James P Johnson.. though he wasn't so much boogie woogie. The whole lot because suddenly at that time Boogie Woogie was the thing everywhere. There was suddenly a load of piano players playing Boogie Woogie and then I sussed out it wasn't the real Boogie Woogie it was commercial version. So that sort of lured me onto the piano".

NOTE : V-Disc ("V" for Victory) was a morale-boosting initiative involving the production of several series of recordings during the World War II.

Was it the rhythmic thing?

"Yeah and I used to like the lines that would go on in the treble. That appealed to me. People like Freddy Slack... and Will Bradley.. yeah yeah that's right 'Down The Road A Piece'"

You Tube link for 'Down The Road A Piece'

Did you decide that jazz was what you wanted to do?

"Yes I thought that I'd like to be a jazz musician without any idea what a jazz musician was or did or what it meant. My approach was 100% romantic... and totally wrong".

Attracted by the lifestyle?

"No, no it was always the music".

The influence of Art Hodes?

"No, no he was never an influence, I bought that record in desperation. My first ENSA-ing experience was to go out with a four hander concert party, touring factories playing to the workers in their lunch break and I felt pretty much cut off from everything. I mean there was an alcoholic playing the piano, a singer, and a master of ceremonies playing the guitar and god knows what else he did, but he was in charge and the whole thing was totally alien to me. The music we played, the places we were playing... and I bought this record, I knew it was a jazz record. I never got much chance to play it but I bought it because.. how can I put it.. uhm.. this was something to do with me. Not to do with what I was doing. And I was quite happy to carry the record around with me and never play it. Because I knew it was a jazz record and that was part of my life. Then when I went into the Air force I got into the RAF Gang Show where I was playing accordion and piano and we went to Egypt, Palestine as it was then, and Cyprus playing various camps and I had one of those dreadful little pianos that looked like a Bryant and May (matches) box for the keyboard as played by Princess Ingrid of Sweden. Was it's only claim to fame. And we toured that piano around with us all through those countries. And I use to play 'Riding Along On A Crest Of The Wave' and that type of number and the various musical bits that were required. Did an accordion solo during the show and eventually when that all finished I came out and tried to form a double act with one of the guys who was in the RAF Gang Show. A guy called Barry Martin, sort of songs at the piano type of thing. Like Bob and Alf Pearson.
The world wasn't ready for that and then I found myself back on the accordion again playing for people like Eddie Thompson. We had a quintet with Vic Ashe on clarinet, myself on accordion, Eddie of course, Dicky Devere on drums and I forget who was on bass".

The RAF Gang Show (Stan 2nd from left)

That was the 'in' sound of the time.

"It surely was".

Why was that?

"I think it was to do with Joe Mooney. Remember the Joe Mooney Quartet...'Tea For Two'. I loved it to death. What a twit.
I liked the harmonies, it was slick, and it appealed to me. Although I heard it recently and I hear it with slightly different ears but I can hear what it was I was hearing and what appealed to me at the time. There were loads of bands like that and I played in quite a few of them. We use to do gigs all over London. I remember travelling from Tooting Broadway to Camden Town with an accordion to play in a pub for 6 shillings and 8 pence and then going back at night lugging the accordion back to Tooting Broadway.
I got involved with a Scottish guitar player called Tommy Middleton who taught me a hell of a lot about harmony just by working with him and him explaining things to me and we use to play pubs. There was the Queens in Brixton. This place in Camden Town and it was quite a nice little trio I guess and even though it was a pub we use to play those Joe Mooney things and we'd take it in turns to go round with the hat whenever we didn't get payed. Which is why I got 6s/8d. We'd take it in turns if Tommy did it last night it would be my turn to go round with the hat.. I mean literally a hat to all the customers in the pub. We'd get coppers and that thrown in.. (laughs). But I enjoyed it. I didn't think this was a drag. I enjoyed playing the music so much that getting a little money at the end was OK. It payed the bus fair".

After the RAF?

"I was concerned with earning a living for a while.. uhm.. I went with the Melfi Trio at a place called The Paramount in Tottenham Court Rd. It wasn't a very happy experience. First of all we had to where the enormous red jackets... I mean if you thought Dynasty had shoulders, these were the original shoulders. They were enormous. Don't know why he had these jackets made like it.. it added possibly a foot, y'know 6 inches either side of the shoulder. I'm deadly serious. It looked absurd. The bass player doubled hi-hat. He would play 1 and 3 on the bass, 2 and 4 on the hi-hat. Melfi played mandolin, guitar, sang.. he wasn't very good at it. Any of it either. And I'm just pumping away on the accordion. Playing things like my 'Grandfathers Clock' in a jazzy way and I defy anybody to play that tune in a jazzy sort of way but anyway it was done. Then they decided Monday night would be a jazz night, then they bought in people like Ronnie Scott and Harry Klein and even at one point they had Leon Roy. Leon Roy had a big band and he was playing the Gillespie big band charts which they got hold of and it was a magic night when Kenny Clarke came down and sat in with the band and played all the charts. So that was an experience.
Another guy who came in at that time was Laurie Morgan, a drummer, and he persuaded me to join his band, which at the time was called Lorrie Morgan's Elevated Music, which is a name I love.. and that was I guess when I turned to jazz full time".

Were you playing accordion with him?

"Nooo.. I was happy to lose it. No I played piano with Laurie. It was a quintet, trumpet, tenor, piano bass drums.
It was a very exciting time. Bebop had just happened and everybody was listening and writing. Taking things down off 78's to understand the music... and it was really an exciting period. We would hire a rehearsal room just to go and play. We put in how ever much each it cost to pay for the room for 2 or 3 hours and just go in there and play. Nobody does that now. Today's players of equivalent ages are really so much more advanced than we were at that time. We were scratchin' in the gravel. It was a very exciting period".

Who were you listening to?

"As many people as I could. Y'know all the bebop players".

Not just pianists?

"Oh no. Y'know, Parker Gillespie, JJ Johnson, all those people who were on the scene at that time. Then of course some time after that I went on the Queen Mary in order to get to Birdland to hear all those guys. I did about 6 months and I heard practically everybody there was to hear. I heard the original Parker Gillespie Quintet with Tommy Potter, Max Roach and I sat there all night and watched them for a dollar. That was great. Like I said I would go every night and pay my dollar entrance and sit there until it closed. Y'know I saw so many people, Miles Davis, Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt.. there was so many of them I can't really recall off the top of my head".

Did you see Bud Powell?

"Yeah.. I saw him with that quintet. But I saw him at other times playing with other groups at Birdland. Even managed to see the Ellington band playing at the Apollo up in Harlem. That was a nice experience".

Bud was the man on piano. Were you one of his admirers?

"I admired him but I didn't try and emulate him. Not with those chops.
I know when I'm beaten".

Were you already doing chordal harmonic stuff? Did you feel that was your way already?

"It was a bit yeah.. and then I first heard Monk. What he was doing had more appeal than Powell".

Same time as those first Blue Notes and stuff?

"Yeah, I mean he really turned me round. His harmonies and his vibes. So I devoted a lot of time listening to him".

When were you in a band that recorded?

"I think the first one I did was with the band of Victor Feldman's. I did an arrangement of 'Drop Me Off At Harlem', the Ellington tune. And I did an original called Euphony.. and I think that was about the first jazz album I appeared on.
I really can't recall years but to my mind I think that was the first. That was a 78 of course. That was the first one".

Victor Feldman All Stars - Bop In Britain
Recorded London, March 3, 1952
Jummy Deuchar (t), Ken Wray (tromb), Derek Humble (as), Harry Klein (bs), Victor Feldman (vib), Stan Tracey (p), Lennie Bush (b), Martin Ashton (dr).
[1] Lullaby In Rhythm (Goodman, Sampson)
[2] Serenity (Feldman)
[3] Just Friends (Klenner, Lewis)
[4] Euphony (Tracey)

Transcript of interview by Geoffrey Smith.
BBC Maida Vale Studios. 12 January 1994

The Quartets

2009-10-02T11:12:00.000-07:00

2010 reissue - Under Milkwood : Jazz Suite

In March 2010 The Stan Tracey Quartet's classic Under Milkwood went for another re-pressing after the last had sold out yet again.
It was decided that to mark this moment a new cover could be issued. The last version had been in circulation for quite a few years and this had been an altered version from a Blue Note issue even earlier than that.
With new faster technology in printing the old cover artwork was now taking it's place in history along with the original sleeve you'll see illustrated below at the bottom of the Quartets releases.
The inner pages has a picture of the four members of the Quartet now over two pages , previously printed much smaller on the past reissues. The photograph as evocative of the 60's era as the album itself now has it's due prominence.
left to right : Jeff Clyne, Stan Tracey, Bobby Wellins, Jackie Dougan.

Senior Moment
With the Autumn 2009 release of 'Senior Moment' it's a good time to look at Stan's quartets over the decades. It's surprising that the quartets have only recorded 2 albums (about) every decade.
To quote Chris Parker from the latest sleeve notes "Stan has had an unerring ear for the suitable musical collaborator in the past, which has led Tracey to many great musicians – Art Themen, Bobby Wellins, Gerard Presencer, Peter King, and Bryan Spring, to name just five".

The new addition being Simon Allen, "is the latest in a long line of superb saxophonists connected with Tracey's music, his sound (on whichever saxophone he happens to be playing) always polished and assured, yet joyously effervescent."
With this latest quartet album Stan has selected compositions from those decades plus the 'Grandad Suite' written some 15 or so years ago and never before published.

Jools Holland introduces Stan's Quartet on Later.
The Quartet play 'Triple Celebration' from 'Senior Moment'
broadcast BBC2. 20th November 2009.

From the first quartet recording in the 1960's these groups were to be the heart of the sextets, octets, and orchestra over the decades. More on those in future posts.

Here are the line-ups of the quartets for the last 50 years :

Senior Moment - recorded April 2008
Simon Allen - tenor, soprano
Stan Tracey - piano
Andy Cleyndert - bass
Clark Tracey - drums

Tracey and Wellins Play Monk recorded December 2006
Stan Tracey - piano
Bobby Wellins - tenor
Andrew Cleyndert - bass
Clark Tracey - drums

Under Milkwood(3) - recorded May 2001.
Stan Tracey - piano
Bobby Wellins - tenor
Andrew Cleyndert - bass
Clark Tracey - drums
Philip Madoc - narrator

Comme D'Habitude. recorded June 1998.
Stan Tracey - piano
Bobby Wellins - tenor saxophone
Andy Cleyndert - bass
Clark Tracey - drums

For Heaven's Sake. recorded September 1995.
Stan Tracey - piano,
Gerard Presencer - trumpet/flugelhorn
Andrew Cleyndert - bass,
Clark Tracey - drums

The Poets' Suite. recorded June 1984.
Stan Tracey - piano
Art Themen - tenor/soprano saxophones
Roy Babbington - bass
Clark Tracey - drums

South East Assignment. recorded June 1980.
Stan Tracey - piano
Art Themen - tenor, soprano, sopranino
Roy Babbington - bass
Clark Tracey - drums

Under Milk Wood (2). recorded May 22, 1976.
Art Themen - tenor saxophone
Stan Tracey - piano
Dave Green - double bass
Bryan Spring - drums
Donald Houston - narrator

Captain Adventure. Recorded November 1975.
Art Themen - tenor/soprano
Stan Tracey - piano
Dave Green - double bass
Bryan Spring - drums

Free An' One. recorded September 1969.
Stan Tracey - piano
Peter King - alto Sax
Dave Green - bass
Bryan Spring - drums

With Love From Jazz. recorded 1967.
Stan Tracey - piano - vibes - celeste
Jackie Dougan - drums
Dave Green - bass
Bobby Wellins - tenor sax

Jazz Suite: Under Milk Wood. recorded March 1965.
Stan Tracey - piano
Bobby Wellins - tenor saxophone
Jeff Clyne - bass
Jack Dougan - drums

The latest quartet release 'Senior Moment' can be purchased from ReSteamed along with a re-issues of 'Captain Adventure' and the latest 'Under Milkwood'

Stan at the Movies

2009-09-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

From the fifties (and earlier) and into the sixties, jazz would still have a place in the movies. Occasionally some of the film plots themselves would have a 'jazz' theme with even an occasional appearance from the musician themselves. The following are the films Stan has been on the soundtracks to. They represent an interesting insight into the trends and fashions of the day. The last entry of "Alfie" is still to this day a recognised classic 60's British film.

Genevieve (1953 comedy)

Two men race their vintage cars on the annual London to Brighton rally. "Genevieve" is the name of one of the cars, which, like her competitor, runs into one problem after another.
Dinah Sheridan, John Gregson, Kay Kendall. Kenneth More.
Had a popular soundtrack in it's day.
Original Music: Larry Adler.
Larry Adler (harmonica) Stan Tracey (piano)

Face the Music (1953 thriller)

Suspected of murdering a singer, idolised trumpeter James Bradley (Alex Nicol) finds himself wrongly accused of murder and sets out to clear his name. Finally, he uses a tape-recorder and snapshots to prove that recording studio manager Maurice Green (Geoffrey Keen) is a dangerous psychopath and a real killer.
Original Music: Kenny Baker. Stan Tracey (piano)

I Am a Camera (1955 drama)
Julie Harris.

In the early thirties, aspiring writer Christopher Isherwood, living in Berlin, meets the vivacious, penniless singer Sally Bowles. They develop a platonic relationship while Sally has a wild time spending other peoples money.
Stan was the piano player on screen as well as soundtrack.

Jazz Boat (1959 comedy thriller)

Songs : "Jazz boat", "Someone to love", "I wanna jive tonight" by Joe Henderson; "Don't talk to me about love" by Ken Hughes, Joe Henderson; "Oui, oui, oui" by Hubert Giraud, Michael Julien. with Anthony Newley, Anne Aubrey, Bernie Winters
Personnel on camera : Ted Heath and his Music
(including Don Lusher, trombone; Stan Tracey, piano).

Fantasia Romano (1960 story unknown)

Short film (under 30 minutes)
Soundtrack personnel Jimmy Deuchar, trumpet; Ronnie Scott, tenor sax; Stan Tracey, piano; Bobby Orr, drums.

Stolen Hours (1962 drama)

Racing drivers had a suitabley sixties jet set image. This one is concerned for an "old flame", Laura, who undergoes surgery then lives a hedonistic life. Until an accident at the race track brings her to her senses.
Susan Hayward, Michael Craig, Diane Baker also with Chet Baker as himself.
Musicians on soundtrack : Tubby Hayes (sax), Stan Tracey (piano)

Sounds of the Kalahari (1965 adventure drama)
Stuart Whitman, Stanley Baker, Susannah York,
Sandy survival corner, more grit than anyone could want.
Original Music by John Dankworth.
Johnny Dankworth (saxophone)
Stan Tracey (piano)

Alfie (1966 dramatic irony)

Michael Caine's first starring role. Scripted by Bill Naughton from his novel and play.

Original music by Sonny Rollins. Lyrics: Burt Bacharach.

With Sonny Rollins the film soundtrack was recorded with English musicians : Keith Christie(tb), Sonny Rollins, Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes (ts),
Stan Tracey(p), Ernie Shear or Dave Goldberg(g),Johnny Hawksworth(b) and Phil Seamen(d)

Tracey - Tippett, the early 70's free jazz.

2009-09-15T08:15:00.001-07:00

Keith Tippett and Stan (1974)

Stan had left Ronnie Scott's pretty much by 1970 and only rarely returned to the jazz club over the next years. Also by now a new generation of musicians had arrived. Their interests and musical directions were not altogether going to fit into the usual jazz club venues that had established themselves, like Ronnie Scott's, in the 1960's. These young improvising players were the ones now scuffling for work and Stan who'd become free from Scott's club and hence also the regular work, had become one of these scufflers too.

Amongst this new generation of new players had come the South African musicians, Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath for example was using many of the free British players alongside the SA greats like Mongezi Fesa, Dudu Pukwana, Louis Moholo and Harry Miller. (See also Frank Perry's web site for the SA connections).

Hazel Miller and Jackie Tracey (Stan's wife) ran the Grass Roots Jazz Club which provided gigs and one off seesions for many of these musicians, plus employment teaching at the Lambeth Summer School which they also ran in the early 70's. Hazel Miller (widow of Harry Miller) also runs Ogun Records where much of this period is being reissued.

Stan became interested in this new expression in music. At the time one young talent was Keith Tippett. Keith had left Bristol in 1967 an had begun his own sextet along with the ambitious project Centipede, a 50 piece jazz orchestra, in the late 60's. Stan had become aware of Keith and other young improvisers when working around the London gigs. One meeting had led to another until one fortuitous occasion as Stan's son, Clark recalls -
"We had temporarily landed ourselves the loan of a second piano. I doubt whether this duo would have emerged if that unusual but happy circumstance hadn't occurred. Soon there was a live performance and a recording taken from London's Wigmore Hall in 1974, subsequently released on Emanem Records as "TNT" and later reissued both on Steam Records and Blue Note International. That album has remained one of my 'Desert Island Discs' ever since. Hearing these two is simply like being taken to a new musical realm you were unaware of and every performance thereafter was the same quality. They only performed, mostly at festivals, a dozen or so times over that ten years here and overseas. This pairing has always been a personal favorite of mine in any musical context. Since that first day in the early Seventies when I stood outside 'the piano room' with my mother, keenly taking in the explosive sound of Stan and Keith on two grand pianos, we were both aware that here was something unique and special".

In 2008 a previously unreleased recording of Stan and Keith's performance at the ICA in London in 1977 was unearthed from Stan's archive of reel tapes. This has subsequently been released on CD - 'Supernova'. Resteamed Records. RSJ105.

Chris Parker. Vortex Jazz "..this album captures 50-odd minutes of peerless improvising from two masters of the craft".

below : Short sound check before gig at Pizza Express in London, sponsored by Steinway, in March 2009 (with tongue-in-cheek ending).

During 1972 and 75 the bands were a veritable who's who of free jazz in the UK (although one noticeable addition from the previous decade is the presence of Tubby Hayes in SPLINTERS just one year before his death).

This list is just some of the bands and combinations -

1972 : SPLINTERS with Kenny Wheeler, Trevor Watts, Tubby Hayes, Stan Tracey, Jeff Clyne, John Stevens, Phil Seamen.

1972 : SPONTANEOUS MUSIC ENSEMBLE - Paul Rutherford, Lol Coxhill, Peter Westbrook, Trevor Watts, Herman Hauge, Lou Gare, Larry Stabbins, Imon Denis-Chevsky, Utako Ikeda, Chris Turner, Stan Tracey, Christopher Small, Derek Bailey, David Toop, Mike Barton, Jeff Clyne, John Stephens, Jak Kilby, Paul Burwell,.

1972 : JOHN SURMAN QUARTET - John Surman, Stan Tracey, Harry Miller, Louis Moholo.

1972 : STAN TRACEY-MIKE OSBORNE - Mike Osborne, Stan Tracey.

1973 : TENTACLES - Henry Lowther, Harry Beckett, Malcolm Griffiths, Paul Nieman, Trevor Watts, Art Themen, John Surman, Stan Tracey, Harry Miller, Louis Moholo.

1974 : STAN TRACEY OCTET - Harry Beckett, Malcolm Griffiths, Trevor Watts, Alan Skidmore, Don Weller, Stan Tracey, p; Danny Thompson, John Stevens.

1974 : T’n’T - Stan Tracey, Keith Tippett.

Ronnie Scott's in the Sixties

2009-09-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

In the autumn of 1959 Stan Tracey ended his two year association with the Ted Heath Band which had provided financial security and musical frustration in equal measure. His new freelance career included frequent gigs at the jazz club Ronnie Scott and Pete King had opened in Soho and it wasn't long before he became the clubs resident pianist.

STAN: "I went into Ronnies and did some gigs there and then eventually wound up on a regular basis at the club."

1960 you started?

"Around about 1960 yeah.. because my son was born in '61.. yeah."

So you became a family man not long after leaving Ted? Not the way it's usually done. Usually when you become a family man you want the pay cheque. That's not when you leave.. (laughs)

"No um... I never used to think about money. Now I've got some I think about it a lot. I was one of those people who didn't have any and didn't worry about it. I'm awfully glad I felt that way because you see so many people leading wretched lives without money. Again ignorance is truly bliss.. I thought I'd always get by fifty bob (£2.50) here two pounds there.. (laughs). No I never even considered it.. I guess my wife Jackie probably worried about it more than I did as she had to have money to keep us together, the family together. Food.. the rest of it. I just went on my merry way."

That's great, the ideal life.

"Well a bit selfish.. I didn't think I was being selfish at the time but looking back I guess but I was so caught up with the music I was doing."

You were house pianist. Was there a house rhythm section or did that change and you remain?

"That constantly changed. For instance the month that Dexter Gordon did we went through 11 drummers."

Stan with Dexter Gordon

Why?

"Well I think Benny Goodman was the intended drummer but he couldn't join us until.. maybe the third week or something like that and as I said while waiting for Benny we went through 10 drummers. They were either destroyed by Dexter or he said he didn't want to play with them. Because those guys used to come on really heavy."

What Dexter?

"Yeah.. and particularly he was a little messed up at the time. So there wasn't a lot of compassion flying around and he said "I don't want him.. and I don't want him, I don't think he wanted me particularly, but he was stuck with me... and one or two of those guys unless you believed in what you were doing they could destroy you. Lucky Thompson was like that. Don Byas was like that. Not nice people to work with."

Zoot was meant to be a good guy.

"Yeah, Zoot (Sims) and Al (Cohn) were great. Y'know we may not have been up to the standards they were use to but they could appreciate what we were trying to do and actually when I hear the album we did with Zoot.. it's come out on CD again, it doesn't sound too bad. I mean the rhythm section. It had Kenny Napper, Jackie Dougan and I think we did OK.
I was intensely patriotic at that time about British jazz. Mainly because I think the critics were always writing us off or the only mention you'd get would be "..and ably supported by the British lads". Yeah that was painting a different picture to the way it was in my eyes. Always making comparisons, always y'know semi apologising to whoever or whichever instrumentalist was coming in. Semi apologising in the review "this wonderful man has to put up with this.. blah blah blah".

Real encouraging.

"Yeah there was one... he really took us to the cleaners as a rhythm section accompanying whoever it was at the time, so much so that quite a lot of people wrote in defending us. If you took it to heart it would destroy you, you wouldn't want to play again. That's the sort of thing that hardens you up, puts a different slant on life."

Who were the guys that particularly suited you?

"Well Al and Zoot, Ben Webster, Sonny Rollins."

Stan with Sonny Rollins

Rollins must have been an experience to play for.

"Yeah it was a great experience and at that time you'd start off on one tune and then suddenly go into bar 4 in a different key of another tune and maybe play that for 6 bars then you'd be back playing the tune you'd started out with, and go through every number like that. Jumping in to another tune, not from the top.. y'know somewhere in the middle in a different key or the tune you were playing would suddenly be in a different key for four or five bars and back... it was, it was like a helter skelter.
There was one night he came on, we did the first set and he played 'Night and Day' for an hour and the second set he came on and played 'Night and Day' for an hour. It was fresh from beginning to end. Constant invention. It was a joy to listen to."

Must have been a joy to play behind.. hairy but..

"Yes hairy it was...(laughs). So who else now.. Freddy Hubbard, he was all right... a bit of an ego trip. Stan Getz of course.. .total ego trip. I went and played with Donald Byrd... Wes Montgomery I enjoyed, he was a nice guy. Got on quite well with him. Sonny Stitt... haha, a different sort of a feller. I never could make him out. He was heavily into alcohol at the time and he was somewhere else. There were quite a few more... but I can't remember them at the moment."

Stan and Yusuf Latif

But some of them must have really appreciated what you were doing.. I mean Rollins, that famous quote "does anyone around here know how good he is?", talking about you.

"I like to think he enjoyed my playing."

The players that responded to you who obviously would have really been on your wavelength, I mean Rollins with that sort of attacking style and never knowing what sort of angle you would take, I mean that's your sort of thing too.

"Roland Kirk I enjoyed playing with although physically I found him the most demanding. So intense what he did, to keep up with him was really hard work both mentally and physically.
I played with JJ Johnson, I enjoyed that... I think he was the only trombone player they ever had there."

It was very tenor heavy wasn't it?

"Oh yeah it was. That might have been something to do with the owner of the club."

Yeah.. but the whole thing must have been physically demanding?

"It was."

There was that punishing routine.. what, Monday through Thursday was your regular night time thing and then the all nighters on Fridays and Saturdays and some times on Sunday as well... phew.

"Yeah I had to take the occasional aspirin."

Transcript of interview by Geoffrey Smith.
BBC Maida Vale Studios. 12 January 1994

Ben Webster and Stan Tracey - Soho Nights

Recorded live at Ronnie Scotts, this unreleased recording of the 'tenor giant' performing with Stan's 'in-house' trio of the time is now digitally remastered from the original reel tape. The album perfectly captures the atmosphere of the club in 1968 (including Ronnie Scott as MC).
Along with Simon Spillett's superb liner notes putting the people and the era into context the cd is a must for fans of this classic period.

Ben Webster - tenor saxophone with Stan Tracey - piano.
Dave Green - bass. Tony Crombie - drums

Soho Nights is available from Resteamed Records

Ben Webster Quartet - Poutin'

Ben Webster - tenor, Stan Tracey - piano
Rick Laird - bass, Jackie Dougan - drums