PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

Julia Biel teams up again with the Buck Clayton Legacy Band for a return visit to PizzaExpress with the music of Billie Holiday and Buck Clayton. "Biel has Billie’s way of singing behind the beat, so making the band’s immaculate grooves even more exciting,” wrote reviewer Alison Bentley. With one of the UK’s leading mainstream bands and a fine vocalist interpreting Billie Holiday’s repertoire, this show has fast become a favourite with audiences across the country.

“The vocal line skated on the sumptuous four-horn harmonies; in the thrilling Swing Brother Swing it sounded relaxed, with a fierce energy mirroring Clark Tracey’s powerfully swinging drums. This was a gig to remember, and the audience was reluctant to let the band go. This tribute to Buck and Billie was never pastiche, but played and sung with a very present vitality and personality.”

London Jazz News, November 2018

The Buck Clayton Legacy Band was formed in 2004 by BBC Broadcaster and jazz historian Alyn Shipton to keep alive the legacy of the great swing trumpeter. Joined by many of the UK’s leading mainstream musicians the band has played to great acclaim in the UK, Holland, Germany, Poland and Switzerland, and in the late autumn of 2019 took Buck's legacy to Spain and France. Buck Clayton’s treasury of recordings with Billie Holiday, mainly in Teddy Wilson's small group, are a major part of his work, and in 2017 the band joined forces with award-winning singer-songwriter Julia Biel to perform this music. The band has also taken music from other eras of Billie's work, and interpreted it as it might have been played by Buck and his small groups. So expect songs from her early years, like “What a Little Moonlight Can Do” along with treasures from the Lady in Satin period, such as “I’m a Fool To Want You”, plus other gems from her repertoire like “My Man”, “God Bless the Child” and “Swing Brother Swing”.

Band Lineup

Julia Biel (vocals)

Alyn Shipton (bass)

Ian Smith (trumpet)

Adrian Fry (trombone)

Robert Fowler (alto sax)

Olly Wilby (tenor sax)

Martin Litton (piano)

Clark Tracey (drums)