HI EVERYONE! Since receiving the message from the Parakeet that we couldn’t continue after the end of February, we’ve been working hard to find a new home. We’re super excited to announce that The Bull and Gate has opened their beautiful upstairs room for our weekly Monday night jazz concerts starting in March! This means we’ll be saying goodbye to the gorgeous room at the Parakeet this Monday with James Allsopp, and then we’ll be starting at The Bull and Gate from March 3rd! We are really pleased with the line-up for March and we need your support now more than ever – so please come out and join us!

The Bull and Gate is located just opposite side of the road from Kentish Town Station and a proper 4 minute walk in total from the Parakeet.
This is the address:
389 Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 2TJ
We are looking forward to seeing you there this month.
Ashley and Kasper

3/3/2025 Billy Marrows’ La Grande Familia Sextet

https://wegottickets.com/event/651689
MIKE SOPER trumpet
TOM RIDOUT soprano/tenor saxophone/recorder
OLLI MARTIN trombone/bass trombone
BILLY MARROWS guitar
FLO MOORE electric bass
TOM POTTER drums

A dynamic, compact version of Billy Marrows’ critically acclaimed 12-piece chamber-jazz ensemble, the Grande Família Sextet features a powerful combination of three horns, guitar and an explosive rhythm section.

This gig is part of Grande Família’s spring 2025 tour, celebrating the release of their second album ‘The Penelope Album Live’, out on Discus Music on 28th March (https://discus-music.org/). The record captures their emotionally charged 2024 performance at Pizza Express Jazz Club in London, which sold out two months in advance and received a full standing ovation.

Grande Família was formed to record Billy’s debut album, ‘Penelope’, as a surprise for his mum during her struggle with pancreatic cancer. Released in her memory in early 2024, it has raised over £5,450 for World Child Cancer. This gig will also feature lots of new music, inspired by the likes of Weather Report, Gil Evans and Loose Tubes.

Billy Marrows is an award-winning guitarist and composer, receiving both the small and large ensemble categories of the Dankworth Prize for Jazz Composition. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Music, he also studied on the Metropole Orkest Arrangers Workshop with Vince Mendoza. The Grande Família Sextet features highly creative outstanding musicians who have worked with artists such as Mark Lockheart, Chelsea Carmichael, Ben van Gelder Corey Wong and Jordan Rakei.

Grande Família Sextet’s recent EP,’ Mount Tibidabo’ received ★★★★ Jazzwise, praising Marrows for playing “with such lyrical melodicism…you can’t help but be seduced into his charmed word”.

“A triumph…Marrows has created a spectacular new ensemble” Jazz Views

“An exhilaratingly original sound, at once intimate and expansive” ★★★★ Editor’s Choice, Jazzwise (Penelope album)

“Melodic and distinctive” ★★★★ All About Jazz

10/3/2025 Rachael Cohen

https://wegottickets.com/event/651843

Rachael Cohen – alto sax
Will Barry – piano
Jason Brown – Drums
Mirko Scarcia – Double Bass

Rachael Cohen, a London-based alto saxophonist and composer, is one of the brightest emerging stars of her generation. Her skills as a composer and improviser have gained her a great deal of attention in the UK and beyond. The Guardian notes:

“Cohen takes a softly devious approach reminiscent of Lee Konitz – but, as with the canny Cool School veteran, the quietness is deceptive and the subtlety is in the weighting of phrases and the hipness with which she plays off the rhythm section.”

17/3/2025 Devon Gates

https://wegottickets.com/event/651697

Devon Gates, bass/voice
Ananda Brandão, drums
Hoda Jahanpour, cello
Mali Sheard, saxophone
Emily Tran, piano
+special guests Alex Hitchcock (saxophone), Casey Whyte (violin), and more TBA

Returning to London for the first time since studying abroad at the Royal Academy of Music in 2023, American bassist-vocalist-composer Devon Gates reunites with friends from the UK jazz scene, sharing original compositions and improvisations from her wide-ranging blend of jazz, chamber, and soul influences. Conceptualized as a musical conversation amongst old and new friends on the bandstand and in the audience, Devon aims to create a night of storytelling, collective joy, and spontaneity – embracing the spirit of discovery, and the magic of getting folks in a room together and seeing what singular sparks may emerge from there…

Devon Gates is a bassist, vocalist, and composer from Atlanta, Georgia, now based in Brooklyn, NY. After studying anthropology and jazz performance at Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK) she has emerged in the contemporary jazz scene, working with esteemed artists including Terri Lyne Carrington, Vijay Iyer, Jen Shyu, and Nicole Mitchell, and performing at venues such as The Kennedy Center, SFJazz, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and the London Jazz Festival. Recently named one of 2024’s Up and Comers of the Year (The New York City Jazz Record), she also leads her own projects as a bandleader, collaborator, and composer, bringing her unique blend of jazz, chamber, and soul influences to New York, Japan, Italy, Mongolia, India, the UK, and more in recent years.

24/3/2025 Ashley Bonfante

wegottickets.com/event/652209/

Ashley Bonfante – alto saxophone
Mike Soper – trumpet
David Ferris – piano
Ed Le Feuvre – bass
Jay Davis – drums

Kentish Town Jazz’s very own Ashley Bonfante brings his fun new project to the Bull and Gate. This exciting group, full of wonderfully creative improvisers, will be exploring the music of Ornette Coleman, Booker Little, and Charlier Parker to name a few.

Ashley Bonfante has a highly individual sound as an improviser and composer. His work as a collaborator and band leader has led him to become an integral member of the thriving music scene in the UK and Europe. Ashley was also selected as one of seven curators to participate in the current Whirlpool series at the Vortex Jazz Club – chosen for their creative and imaginative approaches to music.

31/3/2025 Matt Holborn

https://wegottickets.com/event/651699

Matt Holborn-violin
Honey Boulton-guitar
Simon Read-bass
Joe Dessauer-drums

Join Matt Holborn’s quartet in their celebration of jazz violin pioneer Stuff Smith with selections from Smith’s repertoire and new music inspired by his legacy. A tribute to Smith’s lasting influence on jazz and the violin.

Quote about album:

“It’s almost possible to envisage these pieces as previously unknown Stuff Smith takes…” Anthony Barnett (Stuff Smiths Biographer, Jazz Violin Scholar)