Clark Tracey
Clark Tracey (born 5 February 1961) is a British jazz drummer, band leader, and composer. Career. Tracey was born in London, England. He first played piano and vibraphone before switching to drums at age 13, studying under Bryan Spring. Tracey played in several ensembles with his father Stan Tracey (1978–2013), including a quartet called Fathers and Sons with John and Alec Dankworth in the 1990s. In addition to his extensive work with his father, which took him to the US, Australia, India, The Middle East, South America, Africa and Europe, Tracey has played with numerous visiting American musicians , notably Bud Shank, Johnny Griffin, Red Rodney, Sal Nistico, Conte Candoli, Barney Kessell, John Hicks and Pharoah Sanders throughout his career. He also worked and recorded with Buddy DeFranco and Martin Taylor (1984–86), then with Charlie Rouse (1988), Alan Skidmore in Hong Kong (1989), Tommy Smith (1989), and Claire Martin (1991-2004). In 2011 he replaced Tony Levin in the European Jazz Ensemble and toured and recorded with them until 2017. He has led his own ensembles since the early 1980s; in these combos he has played with Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, Guy Barker, Jamie Talbot, Mark Nightingale, Dave O'Higgins , Steve Melling, Nigel Hitchcock, Gerard Presencer, Mornington Lockett, Simon Allen, Kit Downes, Zoe Rahman and Alan Barnes. As a bandleader he has had two tours of the Far East, Yugoslavia, France, Gibraltar and Finland as well as many national UK tours. Now concentrating on promoting the music of his late father, his last sextet includes Mark Armstrong, Tom Ridout, James Wade Sired, Gareth Williams and James Owston. Clark has worked steadily as a freelance musician and appears mostly in the groups of Alan Barnes and Alex Clarke. He has been awarded "Best Drums" in the British Jazz Awards six times  and in 2007 won "Best Drums" at the Ronnie Scott's Club Awards and his quintet won the Best Performance Award for Birmingham Jazz in 2006. Tracey took over promotions for Herts Jazz in 2009 and runs a weekly jazz club in St Albans and an annual jazz festival. He owns two record labels, Tentoten Records and Resteamed Records, the latter dedicated to re-issues on CD of his father's recordings. Clark Tracey has been commissioned to write "Exploring Jazz Drums" for Schott Publishing, an instructional book, and "The Godfather of British Jazz" for Equinox Publishing, a biography of  Stan Tracey. Previously a tutor at the Purcell School of Music, he is currently a visiting tutor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire of Music and was also asked to compose the jazz syllabus for Trinity College 2020–2024. In 2020 he was commissioned compose and prepare the first drum grades syllabus in China. He has recently been invited as Musician in Residence at the Maltese Music Academy. Tracey was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to music and the promotion of jazz. Discography. As sideman. With Stan Tracey With Steve Waterman With Claire Martin  With Colin Towns With Tina May With others