The Jazz Champions – The Old Hall, North Deighton

The Northern Aldborough Festival, mainly centred on St Andrew’s Church in Aldborough itself, ventured south for two concerts at the Old Hall in North Deighton, the second of them this splendid sold-out performance by the Clark Tracey Quintet. Out of all the venues played by the members of the band, the stags’ heads and chandeliers of the Old Hall must come as a surprise.

The Jazz Champions featured tunes by some of the great names in jazz, partly commemorating the centenary of Clark’s father, the distinguished pianist/composer Stan Tracey: the programme began with Stan’s 1952 tune, Euphony. From the start the quintet took their time with eight numbers in just over 90 minutes. Even allowing for Clark’s rather rambling introductions, this works out at an average of 10 minutes each. So on Euphony Art Themen had space to build his tenor solo from almost introspective to wild and altoist Simon Allen completed the reverse journey. Solos all round (pianist Dave Newton, bassist Andy Cleyndert and Clark himself on drums) stretched the tune out with minimal ensemble playing.

This simple topping and tailing was not the pattern throughout, with the ensemble sailing through the complicated structure and key shifts of Jimmy Heath’s A Sound for Sore Ears. The band members’ long experience playing together in different groups showed in all the little touches: the friendly competition between Art Themen and Simon Allen, Art quoting Night Train at the end of a solo and Simon picking up the same phrase at the start of his, all the duets that Andy Cleyndert enjoyed, including duetting with his leader on Bit a Bittadose after his stunning bass solo at the start of that number.

Clark took us to the interval with his father’s Rainbow at the Five Mile Road complete with dynamic drum feature, but clearly resolved that in the second half the band would relax with some old favourites: the late Sonny Rollins’ St. Thomas and Thelonious Monk’s Blue Monk. Simon Allen switched to clarinet for St Thomas and he and Art Themen played around with fragments of the calypso theme before Dave Newton brought out the full Caribbean in his solo and Clark soloed with virtuoso flourish.

For the final number, Blue Monk, Art (now on soprano sax) began with winning eccentricity which would have charmed Monk, just as much as Dave’s exploration of all the dissonance of the tune before exploding into a glorious burst of stride piano.

Reviewed on 20 June 2026

The Northern Aldborough Festival continues until 27 June 2026