Jack Sharpe (19 August 1930 – 4 November 1994) was an English

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

saxophonist and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or ...

, chiefly active on the London jazz scene.Jack Sharpe biography and discography
at David Taylor's British Modern Jazz website Sharpe began playing tenor sax at age eighteen. He played with

Vic Lewis Victor Lewis MBE (29 July 1919 – 9 February 2009) was a British jazz guitarist and bandleader. He also enjoyed success as an artists' agent and manager. Biography He was born in London, England. Lewis began playing the guitar at the age o ...

and Teddy Foster in the early 1950s and freelanced in the London area. He worked as a taxi driver in 1953, played with

Dizzy Reece Alphonso Son "Dizzy" Reece (born 5 January 1931) is a Jamaican-born hard bop jazz trumpeter. Reece is among a group of jazz musicians born in Jamaica which includes Bertie King, Joe Harriott, Roland Alphonso, Wilton Gaynair, Sonny Bradshaw, ...

in 1954, then in

Tubby Hayes Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes (30 January 1935 – 8 June 1973) was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. Early life H ...

's band in 1955–56. He played with Mike Senn in the Downbeaters after 1957, worked further with Hayes, and led his own sextet in 1958. Additionally, he found work promoting and booking other musicians. In the early 1970s Sharpe managed a night club where he led the house band on week ends. Around 1975, he left music intermittently to drive a cab. He returned to jazz in 1985, playing with Alan Branscombe and leading a Tubby Hayes tribute band.

Discography

* ''Catalyst:A Tribute to Tubby Hayes'' (1987) * ''Roarin''' (1989) * ''Sharpe as a Knife''

Sources

*Mark Gilbert, "Jack Sharpe". '' Grove Jazz'' online.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharpe, Jack 1930 births 1994 deaths British jazz saxophonists British male saxophonists British jazz bandleaders 20th-century British musicians 20th-century saxophonists 20th-century British male musicians British male jazz musicians British taxi drivers

Discography

Sources

Further reading

References