Art Themen Organ Trio with Special Guest Fleur Stevenson
About This Performance
Art Themen is a true jazz national treasure. A fantastically exciting, playful, and inventive saxophonist, he has been one of the most distinctive and beloved voices in British Jazz for over 60 years. Famously combining an internationally acclaimed jazz career with his work as a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Themen has enjoyed one of the most extraordinary and wide-ranging careers in British music. He spent two decades touring the world as frontman of the Stan Tracey Quartet, and has performed and recorded with a remarkable roll call of artists including Alexis Korner, Stan Tracey, Joe Cocker, Jack Bruce, and Bing Crosby, establishing himself as a singular figure whose playful imagination and unmistakable sound transcend genres.
A former winner of the British Jazz Awards tenor saxophone category, a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Worshipful Company of Musicians, Art Themen, is described by The Observer as “one of the tiny handful of undeniably perfect jazz musicians”, Art Themen remains as brilliant, inventive, and inimitable as ever.
Art Themen’s Band brings together friends and long-time collaborators, including the acclaimed jazz vocalist Fleur Stevenson, celebrated for her honeyed tone, charismatic stage presence and effortless phrasing, and one of the UK’s finest jazz organists, Pete Whittaker (formerly of the Nigel Price Organ Trio), with one of the most sought after drummers in Britain, Steve Brown (Stacey Kent, Dave Newton, Andy Panayi, Karen Sharp).
The band delivers groove-led, playful reimaginings of quirky gems from the jazz canon - the perfect vehicle for the twinkling mischief and masterful musicianship of a genuine grandee of British jazz.