RIP Pete Saberton and Tony Marsh.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Ian Mann pays tribute to two respected senior figures of British jazz.

Sebastian Scotney’s excellent jazz blog has recently reported on the deaths of two of the UK’s most respected jazz musicians, pianist Pete Saberton and drummer Tony Marsh.

Also an acclaimed educator I know Saberton’s playing from his work in trumpeter Henry Lowther’s quintet Still Waters, particularly the 1997 release “I.D.” I later saw the group perform at the 2008 Brecon Jazz Festival with Saberton the composer adding his piece “The Snake And The Tiger” to the band’s repertoire. I believe that Pete had been ill for some time and that a benefit concert was held just before his death.

Tony Marsh was one of the UK’s most celebrated free jazz drummers and was a cornerstone of the UK improv scene. Although suffering from cancer Marsh was musically active until the end and performed at Cafe Oto in Dalston as part of a trio led by American saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell as recently as March 10th. That performance, which also featured British double bassist John Edwards was given a rare five star accolade by my fellow writer Tim Owen and this memorable evening was also broadcast on Jazz on 3.
My sole live encounter with Marsh’s playing was at the 2011 Harmonic Festival in Birmingham where he performed as a member of various ad hoc groups improvising around a food theme under the umbrella title “Mike Hurley’s Tasting Notes”. This was a fascinating series of performances and featured Marsh alongside Hurley (keyboards), Gail Brand (trombone), Simon H. Fell (double bass) Percy Pursglove (trumpet) and Shabaka Hutchings (reeds) in two different groups.

All at The Jazzmann send our condolences to the families, friends and musical colleagues of both Pete Saberton and Tony Marsh, two senior figures of UK jazz who will be much missed.