Leicester Jazz House: Jazz Samba Quintet

Featuring leading tenor saxophonist MARK CROOKS and award winning guitarist NIGEL PRICE (as you’ve never heard him before!), _JAZZ SAMBA QUARTET_ spotlights Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd’s ground- breaking 1962 recording, the first ever fully fledged bossa nova album recorded by American jazz musicians. A commercial success, it topped the LP charts on its release and produced its own pop hit single – _Desafinado_.

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. 

Guitarist Nigel Price is one of the unsung heroes of the British Jazz Scene with over 500 appearances at Ronnie Scott’s, 3 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 & 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 USA, with Marianne Windham, the founder of Guildford Jazz and a well-respected and in demand player, completing the lineup on double bass.