Clark Tracey was born on 5 February 1961 and is a British jazz drummer, band leader, and composer.
12 Facts About Clark Tracey
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Clark Tracey first played piano and vibraphone before switching to drums at age 13, studying under Bryan Spring.
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Clark Tracey worked and recorded with Buddy DeFranco and Martin Taylor, then with Charlie Rouse, Alan Skidmore in Hong Kong, Tommy Smith, and Claire Martin.
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Clark Tracey 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 and Zoe Rahman.
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Clark Tracey has worked steadily as a freelance musician and regularly appears in the groups of Alan Barnes.
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Clark Tracey 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.
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Clark Tracey took over promotions for Herts Jazz in 2009 and ran a weekly jazz club in St Albans and an annual jazz festival up until the end of 2021.
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Clark Tracey owns two record labels, Tentoten Records and Resteamed Records, the latter dedicated to re-issues on CD of his father's recordings.
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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.
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Clark Tracey has recently been invited as Musician in Residence at the Maltese Music Academy.
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Clark Tracey was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to music and the promotion of jazz.
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Clark Tracey has won the "Best Drums" category six times in the British Jazz Awards.