Policy Statement
This event is being organised by a local committee of musicians and jazz fans.Our aim is to promote jazz on the Isle of Wight. Members of the committee will not receive any financial reward. Inspected accounts will be made on request.
The committee will cover the cost of the main venues and headline acts. This will be funded by sponsorship, ticket sales and other fund-raising activities.
Any subsequent profits will go towards funding future events and a donation to charity (IW Mountbatten Hospice).
We will encourage other performances during the period. However, we will not act as agents. It will be the responsibility of the performers and venues to negotiate between themselves.
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Art Themen
Art Themen played tenor saxophone with a university jazz band while studying medicine at Cambridge.
After qualifying as a doctor, he moved to London and in the early 60s played in several blues and R&B bands and also worked in the backing groups for numerous pop sessions. During this period he worked with Alexis Korner, Phil Seamen, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker and Long John Baldry.
In the late 60s and early 70s his musical direction shifted towards jazz and he played with Barbara Thompson, Michael Garrick, Henry Lowther and Graham Collier. In 1974 he began a long and particularly fruitful association with Stan Tracey, which continued into the 90s.
He has also accompanied numerous visiting US jazzmen, including Al Haig, Red Rodney, George Coleman and Nat Adderley. A highly individual playing style marks Themen's performances and had he chosen to adopt music as a full-time career he would have doubtless been an international artist of considerable stature.
That he has achieved his present high standing in the jazz world while at the same time pursuing his medical career as a consultant surgeon, is testimony to his remarkable gifts.
Watch Art with 3bpm
