Coincidence allowed singer Debs Hancock to engineer a coup for Abergavenny this week involving a landmark anniversary of Dylan Thomas’s famous play for voices, Under Milk Wood.

In 1965, one of the most famous UK jazz albums was made by pianist-composer Stan Tracey and his quartet.

The Under Milk Wood suite is included in an official poll of the 100 most influential jazz albums ever.

Debs, a teacher by profession who is also an active jazz singer, was reading about the Dylan Thomas anniversary – it’s 70 years since Under Milk Wood the play was broadcast on January 28 1954 – and then, with no sense that there was a connection, she was looking at the list of all-time popular jazz albums.

Knowing of Stan Tracey’s son, Clark, a top British jazz drummer and bandleader, she phoned him and asked if he could come to Abergavenny and perform his father’s work to mark the Dylan Thomas anniversary.

He agreed and brought a quartet here for a gig on Sunday night at the Melville Theatre that included two members of the quartet his father was leading before his death in 2013.

It would have been three had not one of them had to drop out and be substituted

Not only that, but Clark’s son, Ben, came along to read from Under Milk Wood between the band’s items. And, as a special ‘extra’, the Tracey quartet and Ben performed another Stan Tracey work based on Dylan Thomas’s A Chil’d Christmas in Wales.

The event attracted a full house to the Melville and there was a queue for tickets.

“Lots of things came together,” said Debs. “It was so exciting. If you don’t ask, nothing will happen. I also discovered that Stan Tracey had been a guest on BBC’s Desert Island Discs; the programme is still available on catch-up.

“It turned out to be a fantastic evening. Ben Tracey’s readings from Thomas’s texts were fabulous. It couldn’t have turned out more momentous. It was yet another landmark event for the wonderful Black Mountain Jazz club.”

For Clark Tracey, it was yet another example of the affection in which his father’s work is held. Stan was admired by many American jazz musicians during his years as house pianist at Ronnie Scott’s club in London. As a bandleader and composer, he was one of Europe’s greatest.

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