'By 1959, jazz had reached maturity. And thanks to successive innovations...it was about to enter a wild new phase.'
Billboard magazine 'Remembering Jazz's Greatest Year'

There's long been a strong argument for 1959 being jazz's 'greatest' year. Think about it: the vast majority of the idioms finest veteran innovators and bandleaders were still alive and active, and performing as well as ever (think Armstrong and Ellington); a new wave of young lions were fast expanding the envelope of acoustic bop (Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Dave Brubeck et al.) and major labels were recording and issuing albums that soon became signal masterpiece that helped define the music: Giant Steps, The Shape of Jazz To Come, Time Out and, of course, Kind of Blue, prominent among them.
Tonight, Clark Tracey and Arnie Somogyi's truly 'all-star' line-up celebrates another two 1959 album high spots: bass maverick Charles Mingus's Ah Um and drum icon Art Blakey's Moanin'
This isn't, however, one of the frequently opportunistic anniversary cash-ins we see elsewhere in jazz; both Somogyi and Tracey know these records (and their leaders’ styles) inside out, making this much more than an on-paper 're-imagining'.
Indeed, there'll be no added 'break beats', no unnecessary 'updating' or excrescent 'reworking' to make this music find its spot; no, it'll be exactly what you'd want it to be – acoustic jazz played by those who know full well the value of what they're handling.

Saturday September 28, 8:30pm

• > Clark Tracey - Drums
• > Arnie Somogyi - Double Bass
• > Mark Edwards - Piano
• > Tony Kofi - Alto Sax
• > Karen Sharp - Tenor Saxophone
• > Jeremy Price - Trombone
• > Steve Fishwick - Trumpet