“Their love of music and samba oozed from every note played, and the final encore & applause reffected the joy given out by them to a very grateful audience” - Ronnie Scott’s
Jazz Samba takes its inspiration and name from Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd's ground-breaking 1962 album, the first ever fully-fledged bossa nova album recorded by American jazz musicians which topped the LP charts on its release and produced its own pop hit single ‘Desafinado’.
Led by John Wilson's star soloist MARK CROOKS on sax and clarinet and the award-winning guitarist NIGEL PRICE, with JOHN CERVANTES (piano), MARIANNE WINDHAM (double bass) and DEMI GARCIA SABAT (drums/percussion), this is a joyous celebration of the blending of Brazilian rhythms, jazz attitude and the majestic compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Donato and Sergio Mendes.
"First gig of the Spring season and it was a cracker! The audience loved it!”
- Jazz Steps, Nottingham
Meet the band
Mark Crooks is a lyrical and passionate saxophonist in the Stan Getz mould. He has appeared at jazz clubs and festivals throughout Europe, and at the Lincoln Centre in New York and is a long-standing member of the John Wilson Orchestra with which he has played regularly at BBC Proms. And guitarist Nigel Price is of course one of the unsung heroes of the British Jazz Scene with over 500 appearances at Ronnie Scott’s, three years with the James Taylor Quartet and winner of the British Jazz Awards and Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
The band also features John Cervantes on piano, whose strong roots in the swinging jazz tradition are overlaid with classical and world music influences in, as he puts it, his “quest to express those undefinable flashes of life, creation, emotion C passion that make music so powerful”. His appearance at some of the biggest jazz festivals in the country bear testament to his success! Percussionist Demi Garcia Sabat brings a wealth of experience in Flamenco, Jazz, Arabic, Latin, Iberian Folk and pop music, having toured all over Europe, North Africa and the US, with Marianne Windham, the founder of Guildford Jazz and a well-respected and in demand player, completing the lineup on double bass.
