Nigel Price Organ Trio at Ronnie Scott’s

17 September 2026. With Ross Stanley and Joel Barford

Text courtesy of by Sebastian Scotne at UK Jazz News

When a band gets to the point of being as well-toured and as well-travelled as the Nigel Price Organ Trio, the quality, clarity and strength of the music all show the benefit. As one regular fan at a sold-out Ronnie Scott’s last night said to me: “I don’t think I’ve ever heard them as strong as this.”

The value of Nigel Price’s unbelievable work-rate, and his superhuman efforts to maintain touring circuits have a musical purpose. For his own band, it produces a unit where the trust, the sixth sense, the listening are all at a level which can only be achieved by having played and toured to the extent that they have. It was once the norm, but it is becoming rarer. Are there other bands performing in the UK which get to this level? I can think of the Scott Hamilton Quartet… and the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars…are there more?

The melodic clarity, the way this music is so easy to follow is irresistible. The professionalism, the command, the ease with the music are all omni-present. And yet there are also moments when the guitarist will suddenly appear genuinely surprised by what his two colleagues are doing. A smile breaks out; it says it all, and gives a palpable sense of how much Nigel Price values and respects the musicians around him.

He makes absolutely sure that they have their moments in the limelight, such as drummer Joel Barford‘s dominant role in “Chonky”. I also particularly enjoyed the way they built the set to a mightily powerful close, with Ross Stanley’s solo Hammond organ feature. The tune was Ray Charles’s “You Don’t Know Me”, a tribute to the much-missed Joey De Francesco. It was as if he had been keeping the full timbral variety of the instrument under wraps, finally to reveal it in all it’s splendiferous wall-shaking glory.

Also to be enjoyed about that moment was the stagecraft that led to it: the arrival of the final number was casually made to look like chance, spur-of-the moment (“Have we still got time for another quick one?”), but it was clearly timed precisely to fit the allocated slot in Ronnie Scott’s three-house evening to the minute.

The words between the numbers also spoke volumes about how these musicians – and Nigel Price in particular – value and respect the giants who have gone before them. Wes Montgomery, Shirley Scott, George Benson, B.B.King (as well as Ray Charles and Joey De Francesco) were all named. I wondered if Martin Taylor might have had a shout-out as the inspirer of Nigel Price’s beautifully worked intro to “Make Someone Happy”

Nigel Price reflected that being back at Ronnie’s gave him a fulfilling sense of coming home. Maybe there is only one unexplained mystery of this trio: why they haven’t performed more outside the UK. Audiences all over Europe should hear this music.

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