Art Themen spent the first half of his career as an orthopaedic surgeon and the whole of it as a saxophonist, and he never chose between the two. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge, fell in with the university jazz band, and by 1974 had joined Stan Tracey’s group, touring the world with him for the next four decades. The 2023 Parliamentary Jazz Awards shortlisted him for Instrumentalist of the Year, and he now plays a tenor saxophone with a history of its own: it reputedly belonged first to Hank Mobley, then to Ronnie Scott, before it found its way to Art. Six decades on, and many Thursdays into his history with Googlies, he shows no sign of picking a side.