Release Date

21 Apr, 1964

Total Episode/Season

93/4

Synopsis

Jazz 625 is a BBC jazz music programme, featuring concerts by British and American jazz musicians, which was first broadcast between April 1964 and August 1966. The programme was created by Terry Henebery, a clarinetist by training, who was recruited back to television in 1963 as one of the new producer intake for the opening of BBC2. The title of the show referred to the fact that BBC2 was broadcast on 625-lines UHF rather than the 405-lines VHF system then used by the other channels.

Original Title

Jazz 625

Photos

×

Specials

03 May, 2019

In May 2019, Jazz 625 returned to the BBC, starting with a 90-minute live show on BBC Four called Jazz 625 Live: For One Night Only. This show was shot in black and white, and mixed archive clips with new performances from the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Artists who appeared included Cleo Laine, Gregory Porter and Charlie Watts. In November 2020, BBC Four broadcast another one-off special called Jazz 625: The British Jazz Explosion featuring new artists from the London Jazz scene and presented by Moses Boyd and Jamz Supernova. Two more sessions have since been recorded.

Season 1 - 1964

21 Apr, 1964

This first season ran from 21 April to 26 December 1964.

Season 2 - 1965

02 Jan, 1965

Season 2 ran from 2 January to 29 December 1965.

Season 3 - 1966

05 Jan, 1966

The third and final original season ran from 5 January to 20 October 1966.

Restorations

01 Feb, 2008

In March 2009 BBC Four showed the 30-minute programme episode from 1964 featuring the quartet of pianist Dave Brubeck, introduced by Slim Gaillard, with footage restored and re-edited. Numbers included saxophonist Paul Desmond's "Take Five", the first jazz record to sell over one million copies.

Created By

Terry Henebery

Actors