Stan Tracey albums
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Notes: © Alun Morgan In recent years Britain has produced a wealth of good jazz pianists. Some of them have emigrated to the United States where their talents have been recognised: falling into this category are George Shearing, Ralph Sharon, Ronnie Ball, Joe Saye, Derek Smith and multi-instrumentalist Vic Feldman. Amongst those who have elected to remain in Britain Stan Tracey has helped to maintain the standard of keyboard jazz in clubs and on concert platforms.
This, the first album, to be released under Stan's name, is a showcase for his own musical abilities as well as providing a cross-section through more than two decades of successful stage and screen hits. The twelve songs have been chosen with care and prove again that it takes discriminating jazz musicians to seek out and revive the better-quality numbers of past years. Rich in melodic and harmonic qualities the compositions of Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, etc., have found lasting favour with jazzmen.
London-born Stan Tracey has become a familiar figure in British jazz circles and his instrumental versatility makes him a useful man to have on a session. With tenor saxist Kenny Graham and the Afro-Cubists he has recorded on piano, vibes, celeste and bongos while trumpeter Kenny Baker featured him on piano and accordion. Baritone saxist Harry Klein included Tracey's composition Euphony amongst the numbers taped at one of his studio dates and the Ronnie Scott - Tony Crombie library was enriched by Stan's distinctive arrangement of It Might As Well Be Spring in which case the saxes were called upon to contribute a unique 'slow-slow-quick-quick-slow' figure behind Jimmy Deuchar's trumpet solo.
Tracey's first professional engagement before an audience occurred during 1942. "I was sixteen at the time" he told me, "and I played accordion at an ENSA concert for the troops" .The following year he commenced his studies as a pianist, his first name-band experience being with Roy Fox. Subsequent engagements with the Kenny Baker and Basil Kirchin groups preceded his entry into the newly-formed Malcolm Mitchell orchestra at the beginning of 1955 (Kenny Napper was in the band too), then, when Vic Feldman emigrated to America, Stan took over the piano in the combined Ronnie Scott - Tony Crombie unit. His consistent work with this band, with the Ronnie Scott Quintet (which made a brief tour of America) and on frequent jazz club dates brought him to the attention of various knowledgeable parties and when Frank Horrox decided to leave the Ted Heath band in favour of free-lance employment Tracey was recommended as the replacement. He joined the Heath organisation on October 1st 1957 in time to take part in Ted's third American tour and became an established member of the Tracey-Hawksworth-Verell rhythm section.
Stylistically Stan Tracey favours the Bud Powell - Thelonious Monk approach, a far cry from that of Art Hodes, the first jazz pianist he recalls hearing on record. Journeys to and from America as a member of ships' bands gave him opportunities to hear Powell at his peak whilst a visit to the 'Five Spot' during the Heath band's New York visit resulted in his witnessing Monk's distinctive creations at close quarters. "I was impressed by Wynton Kelly too" he says. "He was with Stan Getz's group when I heard him. Herbie Nicholls, another of my favourite pianists, made two fine LP's for Blue Note a few years ago but I've not heard of him recently".
Stan's predilection for the percussive, angular styles of Monk, Powell and Herbie Nichols is best reflected here on Surrey With The Fringe On Top where his economic use of notes is forcefully effective. By the way of contrast his tasteful circumspection is evident on the slow tunes particularly the elegant This Nearly Was Mine.
Since 1956 Stan has been playing vibes on intermittent occasions but apart from some brief appearances on record with Kenny Graham and Ted Heath. (C Jam Blues, etc) this is the first time he has been heard at any length on the instrument.
For the three vibes tracks a guitar player was added to fill out the harmonies behind the soloist: on Over The Rainbow and Mad About The Boy guitar was played by Ike Isaacs, a busy session man and a kind of honorary member of the Ted Heath band for recordings and broadcasts while on I Can't Give You Anything But Love the guitarist was Ray Dempsey, late of Kenny Graham's Afro Cubists. Stan's touch on vibes is sensitive and expressive, the graceful variation on the melody of Rainbow being particularly noteworthy.
Accompanying Tracey at the first session for this LP were two familiar jazz club personalities in Kenny Napper and Phil Seamen. Apart from their club and recording appearances both musicians once worked together with Don Rendell's Jazz Six. On the remaining tracks Stan's companions were two of the men with whom he works most frequently. Johhny and Ronnie have both been in the Ted Heath line-up for several years which can be taken as some measure of their musicianship and dependability.
The dozen tunes which Stan interprets so ably come from the pens of well known popular music masters and a survey of their history reveals lists of continuing successes. In playing order the tunes are: Almost Like Being In Love by Frederick Loewe and Alan Jay Lerner from the show Brigadoon. Loewe and Lerner scored another success some years later with My Fair Lady. Harold Arlen, a master craftsman, wrote the music for Over The Rainbow in 1939 and "Yip" Harburg wrote the words which Judy Garland sang in the film Wizard of Oz, Surrey With The Fringe On Top by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II comes from the perennial Oklahoma! which made its first appearance, in America, in 1943. Cole Porter's I Love Paris, from Can Can, and Irving Berlin's The Best Thing For You from Call Me Madam are post-war tunes while I Can't Give You Anything But Love dates right back to a stage production called Blackbirds of 1928. Jimmy McHugh composed the music, Dorothy Fields wrote the lyrics.
The second side of the LP opens with a lovely tune from Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific, This Nearly Was Mine. Enzio Pinza and Mary Martin co-starred in the original Broadway production in 1949. They Can't Take That Away From Me came out in 1937 in an Astaire - Rogers film entitled Shall We Dance? George Gershwin was responsible for the music. Ira Gerswhin for the words. I've Got Five Dollars, by Richard Rodgers and the late Lorenz Hart, made it's initial appearance in a 1930 production called America's Sweethearts. Britain's Noel Coward was responsible for the atmospheric Mad About The Boy while George and Ira Gershwin composed But Not For Me.
This latter number was included in the 1930 film Girl Crazy which marked the screen debut of Ginger Rogers. Finally Love Is, a song of more recent vintage by Martin and Blane from the film-revue Ziegfeld Folies of 1946, the star studded cast of this postwar picture included Lena Horne (who sang Love Is), Fred Astaire, Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Judy Garland, Kathryn Grayson and Esther Williams.