A selection of just some of the great acts to grace Milestones over the years. Click on the pictures to see them full size. (Images open in a new window, which should be closed to return to this page).

Jeff Clyne (1937-2009)

RIP Jeff. Read Nick Weldon's tribute here

Pete Jacobsen

Jasper Smith

Andy Hamill (The Tony Woods Project)

Oli Hayhurst (Carlos Lopez-Real's Mandorla)

Improvisation takes place not only in performance but in the way a band develops. There is a group decision perpetually taking place, a collective intelligence that wants everyone to express themselves. That's the ideal. Jazz's unique shot at greatness lies in its active creation, which is, as it were, off the cuff. So much of Western art has self-consciously strived to appear artless; jazz has the unique distinction of artlessly becoming artful. To close I offer a scenario: if all the written music in the world suddenly burned up in a flash, who would still do a gig the same night, with complete strangers, and no rehearsals?

From sleeve notes to 'Art of the Trio 4 - Back at the Vanguard', Brad Mehldau (1999)

When an earnest interviewer asked (trombonist) Joe Nanton if he considered (Duke) Ellington a genius, Nanton replied, "I don't know about that, but, Jesus, he can eat!"

From 'Jazz Anecdotes', Bill Crow (1991)

I like to remember that one of the great composers of the time, a man who can hardly be accused of any indulgence for jazz, once listened to the "Bag's Groove" solo with an ear that was more than merely attentive...When the record was over, just one remark was enough to compensate for all the rebuffs that the mediocrities of jazz had made me suffer from his lips; it was made in connection with the F sharp that follows a series of Cs and Fs in Monk's first chorus, and which, for all its brevity, constitutes one of the purest moments of beauty in the history of jazz. "Shattering", was my friend's only comment.

From 'Toward Jazz', André Hodeir (1962)

"There are always people who don't want to make changes, who are set in their ways. It's just the same today. We know we are going to find new and better music. We wouldn't be happy if it were to change back to Bing Crosby or Les Paul or Mary Ford, or whatever it was. Nothing wrong with it, but it's gone. There's a new kind of music, and it's on its way".

Les Paul interviewed by Ed Pilkington in The Guardian (July 24 2008)

"There are only two kinds of songs; there's the blues, and there's zip-a-dee-doo-dah".

Attributed to Townes Van Zandt

"Jazz musicians are the only workers I can think of who are willing to put in a full shift for pay and then go somewhere else and continue to work for free".

George Carlin talking about jam sessions

"If people want sacred experiences they will find them here. If they want profane experiences, they’ll find them too. I take no sides".

Mark Rothko quoted in Newsweek (23 January, 1961)

"The day I met Ornette [Coleman], it was about 90 degrees and he had on an overcoat. I was scared of him".

Don Cherry

Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto [I am a human being, so nothing human is strange to me]

From ‘Heauton Timorumenos’ [The Self-Tormentor], Terence (163 BC)

"I have no interest in being a musician. My interest is in being a better person".

Pat Martino interviewed by Bill Donaldson, April 23, 2001, for Cadence magazine (December 2005)

"He's not just a saxophone player, he's something else. He's iconic, a leader without having to explicitly say it. I think you'd follow Sonny into war".

Charlie Watts on Sonny Rollins, quoted in The Observer Music Magazine, Sunday 24 January 2010

"Jazz is unpredictable and it won’t behave itself",

J J Johnson interviewed in The Jazz Educators Journal, October 1994