Gary Crosby Quintet To Celebrate 70 Years of Blue Note At Spice of Life

For this new project he has brought together rising stars, saxophonist Zem Audu; trumpeter Mark Crown; bassist Pete Randall; pianist Peter Edwards; and drummer Andy Chapman, who are all core members of the current Tomorrow’s Warriors roster of young jazz musicians. Londoner Crosby, 54, has a strong track record for developing the best new talent on the British jazz scene. He was a founder of the 1980s big band Jazz Warriors and went on to establish Tomorrow’s Warriors to encourage new generations of jazz musicians and was an important presence on Courtney Pine’s groundbreaking 1986 album, Journey To The Urge Within.

Crosby set up Jazz Jamaica in the early-1990s bringing together a group of Jamaican jazz musicians including legendary ska trombonist Rico Rodriquez and trumpeter Eddie Tan Tan Thornton with fresh new talent from the UK scene. Initially a small group, Jazz Jamaica has increased in size over the years and has toured the world bringing its infectious amalgam of “skazz”, bebop, blue beat, mento, ska, rocksteady, Motown, and more besides to large festival and concert audiences. Crosby is a nephew of the great Jamaican guitarist Ernest Ranglin with whom he and a more recent version of Jazz Jamaica performed memorably at last year’s Coventry Jazz Festival. Crosby also established the hard bop-inspired quintet Nu-Troop. In the 1990s Nu-Troop included future stars trumpeter Byron Wallen, saxophonist Tony Kofi and latin-jazz pianist Alex Wilson. With his partner Janine Irons he founded Dune records in 1997 launching the careers of Denys Baptiste and Soweto Kinch among others.

- Stephen Graham

Gary Crosby performs with his current quintet, celebrating the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records, at the Spice of Life in Soho this Thursday, 18 June. Phone 020 7739 3205 to book or go to www.spicejazz.co.uk