Alan Branscombe was an English jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 pianist, vibraphonist

Vibraphone

The vibraphone, sometimes called the vibraharp or simply the vibes, is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family....

, and alto saxophonist.

Branscombe's father and grandfather were also professional musicians. He played drums with Victor Feldman

Victor Feldman

Victor Stanley Feldman was a British jazz musician, best known as a pianist.-Early history:...

 in a talent show

Talent show

A talent show is an event where participants perform their talent or talents of acting, singing, dancing, acrobatics, drumming, martial arts, playing an instrument, and other activities to showcase a unique form of talent, sometimes for a reward, trophy or prize...

 as a child. He began on alto sax at age six, and played in the army with Jeff Clyne

Jeff Clyne

Jeffrey Ovid 'Jeff' Clyne was a British jazz bassist .-Biography:...

 in 1954-56. He toured and recorded with Vic Ash

Vic Ash

Victor "Vic" Ash , is an English jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Ash began playing professionally in 1951 when, together with Tubby Hayes, he joined the band of Kenny Baker, with whom he played until 1953...

 in 1958, recorded with Tony Kinsey

Tony Kinsey

Cyril Anthony 'Tony' Kinsey is an English jazz drummer and composer.Kinsey held jobs on trans-Atlantic ships while young, studying while at port with Bill West in New York City and with local musician Tommy Webster in Birmingham. He had a close association with Ronnie Ball early in his life; the...

 in 1959, and toured Japan with Stanley Black

Stanley Black

Stanley Black OBE was an English Bandleader, Composer, conductor, arranger and pianist. He wrote and arranged many film scores and recorded prolifically for the Decca label...

 in 1960. He worked with John Dankworth

John Dankworth

Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE , known in his early career as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist and clarinetist...

 as pianist and vibraphonist intermittently between 1960 and 1972, including in the 1963 film The Savant. He joined Harry South

Harry South

Harry South was an English jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, who later moved into work for film and television....

's band at Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott

Ronnie Scott was an English jazz tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner.-Life and career:Ronnie Scott was born in Aldgate, east London, into a family of Russian Jewish descent on his father's side, and Portuguese antecedents on his mother's. Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of...

's club in the mid-1960s, and played as a sideman with Tubby Hayes

Tubby Hayes

Edward Brian "Tubby" Hayes was an English jazz multi-instrumentalist, best known for his tenor saxophone playing in groups with fellow sax player Ronnie Scott and with trumpeter Jimmy Deuchar. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest British jazz instrumentalists.- Early life :Hayes was born...

 (1964), Stan Tracey

Stan Tracey

Stanley William Tracey CBE is a British jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.-Early career:...

 (1966-68), Paul Gonsalves

Paul Gonsalves

Paul Gonsalves, was an American jazz tenor saxophonist best known for his association with Duke Ellington. At the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival, Gonsalves played a 27-chorus solo in the middle of Ellington's "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue"...

 (1969), Ben Webster

Ben Webster

Benjamin Francis Webster , a.k.a. "The Brute" or "Frog," was an influential American jazz tenor saxophonist. Webster, born in Kansas City, Missouri, was considered one of the three most important "swing tenors" along with Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young...

 (1965, 1970), and Albert Nicholas

Albert Nicholas

Albert Nicholas was an American jazz reed player.Nicholas's primary instrument was the clarinet, which he studied with Lorenzo Tio in his hometown of New Orleans. Late in the 1910s he played with Buddy Petit, King Oliver, and Manuel Perez...

 (1973). He toured in Europe with Stan Getz

Stan Getz

Stanley Getz was an American jazz saxophone player. Getz was known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, his prime influence being the wispy, mellow timbre of his idol, Lester Young. Coming to prominence in the late 1940s with Woody Herman's big band, Getz is described by critic Scott...

 in 1970, and played with the Lamb-Premru group around 1971. He also recorded as a leader with Kinsey and Tony Coe

Tony Coe

Anthony George Coe is a composer and jazz musician who plays clarinet, bass clarinet, and tenor saxophone.Coe began his performing career playing with Humphrey Lyttelton's band from 1957 to 1962...

 as sidemen on the album The Day I Met the Blues (EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

, 1977).