Art Themen, Karen Sharp, Simon Price Trio

We welcome back Reading's very own "Dr Jazz", Art Themen - formerly an orthopaedic consultant at the Royal Berkshire Hospital, who in his young days was a member of the award-winning Cambridge University jazz band while studying medicine there. He was involved in the early London blues scene and subsequently fronted the Stan Tracey Quartet for 20 years, touring with him all over the world as well as around the UK. A consummate performer and one of the UK's top jazz saxophonists, Art is a busy and sought-after musician who is most often seen on stage with the best of British and international jazz players and is a regular feature on many top jazz festivals.

Catching the jazz bug while still at school, and taking up the saxophone while studying composition at the Northern College of Music, Karen Sharp subsequently moved to London where she became a busy freelance musician working alongside many top class British and American musicians. In March 2004, she began a three-year stint in Humphrey Lyttelton's Band. Two-times winner in the tenor saxophone category in the British Jazz Awards, she is equally at home playing the baritone sax - attracting a 2007 plaudit from Humph: "Having persuaded her to buy a baritone sax when she joined my band, I glow in the dark with the awareness that she now has one of the best sounds on the instrument to be heard on this planet." Karen also leads her own band, has produced several highly regarded albums and has played at top jazz festivals around the world.

Art and Karen are supported by our excellent local trio featuring Pete Billington and Andy Crowdy, and led by Simon Price.

Jazz at Progress is presented in association with Jazz in Reading.