Introduced by Steve Race (and later Humphrey Lyttelton), Jazz 625 was presented on the new BBC2 channel (the title of the show referred to the fact that BBC2 was broadcast on 625-lines UHF).
Each episode of the programme featured a particular facet of jazz, drawing on such talents as Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington (pictured below on the show), the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Errol Garner, the Woody Herman Band and the Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley Sextet.
British jazz was represented by the Tubby Hayes Quintet, Chris Barber’s Jazz Band, the Humphrey Lyttelton Fifteen and others.
In November 1964, Jazz 625 broadcast ‘In Memoriam – Charlie Parker’, a musical tribute to the great saxophonist.
A ten-part series of re-edited editions of original Jazz 625 programmes were shown during the summer of 1991.
