I shudder every time I hear that jazz is coming back into popularity. I know the phone isn’t going to ring” Stan Tracey

Preparing this piece has been a very personal undertaking for me. Stan Tracey was the first live jazz performance I caught- a trio with the legendary Phil Seamen on drums in 1969 at a nondescript pub in Finchley with an almost non-existent audience. I think that Little Klunk was the first jazz album I bought, I still have it.

Over the next 40 years I saw Stan Tracey live more than any other UK jazz musician in all his various guises, solo, free, trio, quartet, octet, and big band. Most often accompanied by Andy Merriman, my oldest friend and jazz aficionado. Everything from tiny venues with beat up pianos to jazz festivals and high profile premieres at concert halls. I still listen to his albums and remain in awe of his remarkable creativity and his totally unique approach to jazz improvisation.

I have often remarked in my pieces about those few jazz musicians who are instantly recognisable-Stan was one of those. Very few jazz musicians globally have composed and produced music of such quality and originality over a 60 year career in music.

The Life and Music of Stan Tracey

I spoke with Stan occasionally, although he was notoriously uncommunicative (at least in public) and attended a jazz harmony course with him in the early 70’s where I learnt very little but had the experience of observing Stan hunched over the keyboard working on substitute chord sequences-and saying very little!

I would say that Stan was laconic rather than uncommunicative.  Think of his album titles or this classic Stan quote,

If I had the confidence on the phone that I have at the piano maybe I’d get somewhere.

Stan’s legendary status dates back to his 6 year stint in the mid 60’s as the house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s accompanying such jazz masters as Sonny Rollins, Roland Kirk, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Yusef Lateef. Stan would be on stage for 3 sets a night 6 days a week, returning home to Streatham on the night bus where he began composing many of the extraordinary, themed albums he went on to produce in that era-most notably Under Milk Wood. This punishing schedule almost broke him and for a few years he sunk into heroin addiction and scuffled for work.  His recovery, and his renaissance was in large part due to Jackie, his wife who took charge of his career and his recordings and was a ceaseless advocate for Stan and his music.

Stan was entirely self-taught. His unique playing style is often (and rightly) associated with Monk and Ellington- and he continuously referenced their influence on his work. But he was very much his own man and for him music was a supremely serious undertaking. Stan had a particular affinity for playing with and writing for saxophonists. Rollins, of course, also the distinctive voices of Bobby Wellins, Art Themen, Mike Osborne, and Peter King from this side of the Atlantic. Sonny Rollins once said, “Does anybody know good this man is” and remained in touch with Stan for the rest of his life.

Stan Tracey and Sonny Rollins

When it came to music, he was absolutely uncompromising whether showcasing his original compositions and suites or re-interpreting jazz standards. He recalls an early experience of playing with Sonny Rollins at Ronnies,

“Working with him musically wasn’t easy. 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 and then you’d be back playing the tune you’d started out with. You never really knew what was going on, it really didn’t matter. One night he came on and we 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”

This quote stands as an epitaph for Stan too.

I have recently read The God Father of British Jazz- The Life & Music of Stan Tracey, well researched and beautifully written by his son and drummer Clark Tracey. Stan hated that godfather soubriquet, so it is interesting that Clark chose it for his title.

After his return to health in the early 70’s Stan led bands where the drum chair was filled by Bryan Spring, a remarkable polyrhythmic drummer- the UK’s answer to Elvin Joines and Tony William. I vividly recall being shocked when Stan replaced Spring with his son on drums. Clark was 17 at the time and references his own anxiety at taking over the drum chair from Bryan Spring. This was an anxiety that Stan did not share,

“I had the utmost confidence in Clark. He told me that he was nervous-I guess you’d have to be. I just threw him in at the deep end. But that’s the way to do it”.

Tough love.  Clark continued as a fixture in his father’s bands until his death. At age 87 in 2013

Here’s a vintage BBC Omnibus documentary on Stan Tracey from the mid 70’s. Note the big hair.

The Playlist

I have put together a selection a tunes from Stan’s 60 year recording career with a strong emphasis on his own compositions. Stan’s particular affinity with Bobby Wellins is beautifully recollected here,

“The thing Bobby and I had together I’ve never experienced before or since. I couldn’t wait to play, with Bobby there was that thing that, whatever I did or whatever he did, I knew that we’d both more or less think it at the same time. He had a unique way of playing. We had a repertoire to start from but every night it would be a different story”.

This quote also describes the essence of jazz itself.