Peter King Memorial Sax Summit: Mornington Lockett, Tommaso Starace, Karen Sharp, Denys Baptiste & the Rob Barron Trio

About

Tonight we will be hosting an evening dedicated to one of the greatest saxophonists the UK has ever produced, the brilliant alto player Peter King, who very sadly passed away in 2020. He led our Sax Summit, which features a remarkable 4-sax front line, for well over a decade and so we have renamed this evening in his honour. A regular at the Club Mornington Lockett , who performed here with Peter for many years, is one of the UK’s leading tenor sax players. A former member of the Ronnie Scott quintet he has worked with singer Sarah Jane Morris and the Tracey’s - Stan and Clark - and was the driving force behind the brilliant “Celebrating the Jazz Couriers” quintet. He can be seen regularly at the Club with his own group. Alto saxophonist Tommaso Starace has performed at many of the top European jazz clubs and festivals and his fluent, hard-bop influenced playing has been heard with a notable cohort of international jazz musicians, including Billy Cobham, David Liebman and Kenny Wheeler. With 11 albums to his name (the latest just launched at the Club) it’s a pleasure to welcome this impressive, highly respected, player to the Sax Summit this evening. A prominent figure on the UK Jazz scene since moving to London in 2000, the multi-Award-winning Karen Sharp is universally admired for her melodic yet distinctive, saxophone playing. A member of the iconic UK trumpet player Humphrey Lyttelton's band, she’s since appeared as a soloist with an impressive array of high-profile artists, including the likes of US stars Scott Hamilton, Warren Vache and Bucky Pizzarelli as well as with larger ensembles such as the Guy Barker Big Band at the BBC Proms and Ronnie Scott's Jazz Orchestra. A nominee in the Rising Star category of the US Downbeat Critics Poll, she has won the British Jazz Award on several occasions.