Tomorrow’s Warriors has announced that the charity’s co-founder and artistic director Dr Gary Crosby OBE will be celebrating his 70th birthday and over 50 years in jazz with a series of events throughout 2025, starting with the Gary Crosby’s Great Big 70th Birthday Jam on February 2 at Camden’s Jazz Café.
At the event, the bassist, bandleader and music educator Crosby will be recreating one of his Sunday afternoon Jazz Café jam sessions that he started in 1991. As part of Crosby’s mission to increase diversity and representation in the UK jazz scene, those Jazz Café sessions ignited careers such as his own ensembles Nu Troop and Jazz Jamaica, as well as Denys Baptiste, Nathaniel Facey, Byron Wallen, Soweto Kinch, Jason Yarde, Shane Forbes, Zara McFarlane and ESKA, among others.
Through Tomorrow’s Warriors, Crosby has also provided a development platform for the likes of 2023 Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective, as well as Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, Cassie Kinoshi, Binker Golding, Shabaka Hutchings and Sons Of Kemet, Camilla George, Cherise, Theon Cross, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Shirley Tetteh and more.
The one-off Jazz Café event will see a mix of Warriors alumni, emerging artists, and current members of the Tomorrow’s Warriors Young Artist Development programme perform together.
“Whilst he might hate us for saying it, it's hard to overstate the impact that Gary Crosby has made on the UK jazz scene, not only as a hugely respected musician and bandleader, but perhaps most significantly through his incredible ability to recognise talent and inspire generation after generation of young jazz musicians to achieve their potential through Tomorrow’s Warriors,” said Janine Irons OBE, co-founder and CEO of?Tomorrow’s Warriors. “With a career lasting over half a century, he still can’t bear the title ‘Godfather Of UK Jazz’ and that tells you the kind of person he is. For Gary it’s never about glory or credit, he truly loves what he does and it’s what he does best. The Jazz Café event is a great way to kick off his 70th year celebrations, to say not just ‘Happy Birthday Gary’, but a very big thank you too for your profound dedication! Without Gary, none of this would have been possible.”
Crosby commented: “I can’t quite believe I have reached this milestone, what a journey it’s been. It feels like only yesterday when I started the Jazz Café sessions with the aim to create a platform for young jazz musicians not just to perform, but also to build new connections with other musicians. I grew up in West London on a council estate and through the support of my family, I saw how the power of education and music could help me extend my horizons, enable me to look at the world differently and see how it can be a positive force for good and bring about change. By reaching young people at a pivotal moment in their artistic journeys, it’s been wonderful to see so much excellence coming through Tomorrow’s Warriors these past 34 years. It will be like old times and I look forward to seeing my Tomorrow’s Warriors community and my contemporaries from the scene come through to celebrate with me at our spiritual home The Jazz Cafe.”
