Stan Tracey

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Stanley William Tracey (born in Kings College Hospital, Denmark Hill, South London on December 30, 1926) is a UK jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.

1 Early career
2 At Ronnie’s and the Under Milk Wood LP
3 Experimentation and consolidation
4 External link

[edit] 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.

[edit] At Ronnie’s and the Under Milk Wood LP

Through the 1960s, 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.

[edit] 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.