TRACEY, STAN, piano, composer.
b. London, England, December 30, 1926.

Started on accordian. Self-taught pianist; played with Jack Parnell, Ted Heath, Ronnie Scott. House pianist at Scott's club since its opening in 1960, played there and on T.V. with Scott, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, Roland Kirk, Ben Webster, Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, J J Johnson and many other musicians and singers.

His composition Baby Blue recorded by Harry Carney & Paul Gonsalves. His suites, Under Milk Wood and Alice in Jazzland performed on British TV in 1966. Played with New Departures (winner of Melody Maker polls in mid '60s) from 1961. Heard with Sonny Rollins in film Alfie. Powerful, distinctive yet adaptable "composer's style" piano, chordal and percussive; prolific composer of highly personal themes. Own LP's; British Columbia; British HMV; LP's with Paul Gonsalves (British Columbia), New Departures (British Transatlantic.)

Internationally renowned jazz pianist, composer and arranger, Stan Tracey is generally regarded as one of Britain's greatest living jazz musicians. His career spans over 40 years, and entrenches back to the formative days of modern jazz in this country. In 1960 he began a seven year stint as resident pianist at Ronnie Scott's Club, playing with every visiting musicians from the USA. During that period Stan formed his quartet and big band, and in 1965 he reached a wide audience with the immortal "Under Milk Wood Suite", a lyrical setting to Dylan Thomas's play for voices. The following year he produced "Alice in Jazzland", another literary inspired work. Stan's originality has been recognised with about 15 commissions, and he has recorded about 45 albums of mainly his own compositions. Stan has achieved many rare distinctions, being the subject of an Omnibus programme on BBC2, documenting Stan's rise to the status of Britain's most respected jazz musician. As well as touring throughout Britain and Europe, Stan has taken the quartet on a highly successful British Council sponsored tour of Greece, Yugoslavia, the Middle East and South America. He also played at festivals in India and Australia. In 1989 Stan and his quintet performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival and in Hong Kong. Official recognition has come in the form of the BASCA Award (for services to the British Music Industry) and honorary membership of the Royal Academy of Music. Stan received the Melody Maker annual award several times for his work as a pianist, composer and arranger, and of course the O.B.E. In 1985 Stan was voted International Jazz Musician of the Year. In 1989 Stan received the Guardian/Wire Award for the best composer of the year. In 1990 We Still Love you Madly was voted the best album of the year. Stan's work "Genesis" received great appreciation and praise.

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b. Stanley William Tracey, 30 December 1926, London, England. Tracey taught himself to play piano and by his early teens was performing professionally. In the 50s he was deeply involved in the British modern jazz scene, working with musicians such as Kenny Baker, Tony Crombie and Ronnie Scott. For most of the 60s he was resident pianist at Scott's club, backing numerous visiting jazzmen including Zoot Sims and Sonny Stitt. In the middle of the decade he formed a regular band, which included in its personnel at one time or another Bobby Wellins, Peter King and for many years Art Themen. Tracey made numerous albums, many of them on his own label, Steam Records, run with the help of his wife Jackie. Some of his recordings are with a quartet, others have him in duo, with the sextet Hexad, as leader of an octet, and with a powerful big band. Amongst his collaborators on concert and record dates have been Don Weller, Keith Tippett, Tony Coe, John Surman and Mike Osborne, whose 1972 encounter with Tracey helped to revive the pianist's flagging faith in music as a career. For the past few years Tracey's regular quartet has included his son, Clark Tracey, Themen and bass player Roy Babbington. He has also taught for several years, including periods at the Guildhall School of Music. A leading jazz composer, Tracey's work includes Under Milk Wood, a suite inspired by Dylan Thomas' play for voices. He is also an accomplished arranger and has employed this talent to great effect, notably when acknowledging his admiration for Duke Ellington on We Love You Madly and We Still Love You Madly. As a player, his early work showed the influence of Thelonious Monk but over the years he has consistently displayed a distinctive, sometimes quirkily personal, touch. Tracey is one of the outstanding figures the UK has given to the world of jazz.