Dear audience, happy New Year and welcome back. As usual we have taken a break for January, and are ready to return to our temporary home (the Assembly House, just 100m away from our regular venue in Kentish Town) with some truly great gigs for February.

As always, the night is run voluntarily and relies entirely on ticket sales to pay the artists — please tell your friends and continue your kind support of the night. It is really special to be able to see this calibre of jazz in a small, listening room for a great price.

All being well we will be back at our regular venue in April. Keep an eye out for news. Without further ado, see the listings and ticket links below. At time of writing some lineups are still to be finalised, including our astonishing first gig (13th February) when the world class vibraphonist and composer Jim Hart is in town and has kindly agreed to open our 2023 programme.

13th Feb — Jim Hart SOLD OUT!!!! No tickets available on the door.

https://www.wegottickets.com/event/571333

The world-class vibraphonist and composer Jim Hart is in London briefly and we’ve managed to grab him for a very special gig. Jim will be bringing an all-star band of London-based colleagues and we can’t wait. Don’t miss the chance to hear the vibraphone played in an intimate listening room by one of the true masters!

Jim Hart is one of the most in-demand musicians on the European jazz and alternative music scene, as a soloist and sideman on drums and vibraphone. His background in both jazz and classical music – combined with his interest in the traditional music of Latin America and West Africa and its part in contemporary improvised music – has helped to define his creative personality, melding a distinctive and strong sense of harmony, melody and rhythm.

As a bandleader, he has recorded six albums of his own music which have enjoyed radio airplay and have been critically acclaimed worldwide. Hart leads Cloudmakers Trio and Cloudmakers Five and his eminence across Europe includes a pivotal role in the Marius Neset Quintet (vibes, marimba and percussion), Daniel Erdmann’s Revolution (vibes) and Vula Viel’s exploration of the rhythmic systems of Ghanaian traditional music (drums).

Downbeat magazine has listed him in both readers’ and critics’ polls – in the ‘vibraphone’ and ‘rising star’ categories – over the last five years; and Cloudmakers Trio’s studio album ‘Abstract Forces’ made their 2014 ‘album of the year’ list. He has been the recipient of multiple British jazz awards, the Worshipful Company of Musicians bronze medal and was nominated for ‘musician of the year’ in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards.

“One of the UK’s most creative new jazz artists.”
– The Guardian

“Outstanding”
– Financial Times

“One of the brightest stars on the UK and European Jazz scene.”
– John Surman

“Hart has developed an impressively individual voice.”
– Jazzwise Magazine

20th Feb — Artie Zaitz

https://www.wegottickets.com/event/571335

Extraordinary guitarist Artie Zaitz brings a swinging band to our temporary home at the Assembly House (just 100m from our normal venue in Kentish Town).

Line-up TBC

27th Feb — Vittorio Mura

https://www.wegottickets.com/event/571337

The stunning New York based saxophonist Vittorio Mura is in town with two of London’s finest, Will Sach (bass) and Will Cleasby (drums).

A graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the City College of New York, Vittorio Mura has studied with some of the world’s finest musicians, including Jason Rigby, Steve Wilson, Nasheet Waits, Jean Toussaint and Mike Williams.

Currently based in New York City, Mura is known for his lyrical playing with an emphasis on interplay, improvisation and risk-taking; whilst being deeply inspired by the lineage of the tenor saxophone.

He has performed at various venues in NYC, including Minton’s Playhouse, and extensively throughout the UK and Europe, including the Vortex Jazz club, Ronnie Scott’s, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Cheltenham, Manchester, Glasgow and Trondheim jazz festivals.

As a sideman, he has featured on records by the David Ferris Septet (Alphabets, 2018), Tom Syson Group (Green, 2017), and the Birmingham Jazz Orchestra (Rough Boundaries, 2016).
His latest recorded output is with the collaborative international quartet Quiet People, who released their eponymous debut album in June 2020.

Currently Vittorio is working on a follow-up Quiet People album, as well as a debut with his newly formed quartet.

“…without [a] doubt one of the finest musicians to be riding the crest of the new wave of improvisers coming out of Birmingham. Definitely one to watch….” – Percy Pursglove