Stan Tracey's Hexad

One of the UK's finest drummers, composer, educator, promotor, Clark Tracey has put together a new group to pay tribute to his father's sextet music, spanning from the early 1980s. The line-ups varied over the decades with the likes of Don Weller, Guy Barker and Simon Allen having passed through the ranks, and Clark has chosen some of today's best musicians from a new generation to represent Stan Tracey's music.

Clark Tracey drums, Alex Ridout trumpet, Sean Payne alto, Chris Maddock tenor/soprano, Ashley Henry piano, Daniel Casimir bass

Stan Tracey belonged to the first generation of British performers who were trying, in those restless, optimistic years after the war, to learn from the inspirations of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk despite being 3000 miles away from the source, and then develop a style of their own in a culture that had never been hospitable to jazz. Tracey, one of the undisputed giants of the music in Britain, managed exactly that.

In November 1985, Tracey's new band Hexad played opposite Chet Baker from a season that represented one of Ronnie Scott Club's most perfect balances of utterly different persuasions in jazz. Bothy Baker and Tracey defined the spirit of jazz in their different ways, and the audiences responded by being utterly absorbed in a manner rare for a night-club.

With special thanks to the Cambridge Drum Company for their support.