Live Music: Art Themen

One of Britain’s greatest saxophone icons, Art Themen (b 1939) came to prominence amid the early 60s Blues scene with Alexis Korner, Charlie Watts, Graham Bond, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker and others, before co-leading quintets with Dick Heckstall-Smith, Dave Gelly and Barbara Thompson throughout the 1960s. 

From 1974 (while continuing to combine music with a fulltime career as an orthopaedic surgeon!) he began a worldwide association with Stan Tracey playing for all of his projects over more than twenty years, and also worked with other major contemporaries including Michael Garrick, Henry Lowther Don Weller and Alan Jackson as well as American visitors including Al Haig, Nat Adderley, Red Rodney and Charlie Rouse. More recently he has led his own small groups, guested at major festivals throughout the UK and beyond and today, after sixty years, is recognised as one of Britain’s most deeply respected – and affectionately held - musicians.