The Paul Booth / Ross Stanley Band
Wednesday 25th January 2023
We are thrilled to be kicking off the 2023 Spin season with this truly great, super-star band; they will be performing the music from Michael Brecker’s masterpiece album, ‘Time Is Of The Essence’ - regarded by many to be Brecker’s greatest recording.
The band are:
Paul Booth ~ tenor saxophone
Ross Stanley ~ Hammond organ
Chris Allard ~ guitar
Andrew Bain ~ drums
During lockdown, when Ronnie Scott’s were regularly streaming live gigs, this band’s performance (of this material) was - for Team Spin - hands down, the highlight! This may be no surprise to any of you familiar with the personnel’s respective careers. For those of you new to these guys, here’s the briefest of summaries :
Paul Booth has long had a widely varied career which has seen him touring and recording with - among others - Eric Clapton, Chaka Khan, The Brand New Heavies, The Eagles, The BBC Big Band, Jamiroquai, Eddie Henderson and Steely Dan!
Ross Stanley is regarded by most in the know as the UK’s foremost exponent of the Hammond organ (trumpet titan Wynton Marsalis wrote of Ross: ”We haven’t had anything like this in New York for twenty years”!). He is probably the busiest jazz musician in the country, touring regularly with guitar ace Nigel Price, as well as with Trish Clowes, Dennis Rollins, Jacqui Dankworth, Liane Carroll and Stan Sulzmann, to name just a few!
Chris Allard is one of the most diverse guitarists the UK has produced and as such, tours the world with the Palestinian singer Omar Kamal, with multi-million-selling singer Lea Salonga and with trumpet supremo, Alison Balsom. These projects aside, Chris is a highly renowned jazz player, working regularly with Jacqui Dankworth, Charlie Wood and John Turville, alongside his own, critically acclaimed projects.
Andrew Bain is currently Senior Lecturer in Jazz at Birmingham Conservatoire. Aside from his educational work, Andrew has performed with such major artists as Wynton Marsalis, Bob Mintzer, Randy Brecker, Jason Rebello and Iain Ballamy.