Jazz at Progress | Matt Skelton presents The Blackhawk Quintet: Celebrating Shelly Manne | Tickets on sale soon

Friday 3 July 2026|  Progress Theatre, Reading | 7: 30pm | £20.00 (£18.00 concessions, £10 under 16) plus maximum 5% booking fee.

James Davison trumpet
Mark Crooks tenor saxophone
Leon Greening piano
Conor Chaplin bass
Matt Skelton drums

This will be a night of ‘cool jazz’ and a tribute to multi-poll winning drummer, Shelley Manne, one of the greats of the West Coast scene of the 1950s An extraordinary and selfless artist, Shelley (1920-1984) – band leader, Contemporary Jazz record label house musician, studio orchestra drummer for countless films and television and owner of ‘Shelley’s Manne Hole’ jazz club – has left an immense legacy of collaborations and recordings, which have enriched the lexicon of jazz percussion with virtuosic alacrity.

This project, masterminded by Matt Skelton, celebrates Shelley’s Quintet – Joe Gordon, trumpet; Richie Kamuca, tenor sax; Victor Felman, piano; Monty Budwig, bass and Shelley Manne, drums – and their particular contribution to the Manne canon, inspired by a clutch of golden performances, captured live at the Blackhawk Jazz club in San Francisco between September 22-24,1959.

Tonight’s ‘stellar’ line-up has been hand-picked for the way they connect with, and are inspired by their corresponding original artists. They will aim to express the band’s own originality and collective inspiration with the Manne Blackhawk quintet as their DNA framework.

Matt Skelton’s Blackhawk Quintet has taken the UK jazz club scene by storm and by the time they make their Progress appearance will have completed a lengthy tour of Scandinavia.

You can expect the fireworks to be flying tonight!

 ‘An evening of pure jazz joy. Thank you Matt for giving us the opportunity to hear and be part of this important and uplifting music. Jazz night’s don’t come any better than this. We are still smiling.’ – Watermill Jazz Club – Dorking

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