Can’t Leave London : The Jazz Clubs

I am writing this In Memoriam to Jazz at The Oxford, my local jazz club in Kentish Town, London. It happened on a Monday (when nothing happens) upstairs at a local pub for 12 years and was like having Ronnie Scott’s just down the road, but much cheaper, more relaxed and more personal. It was run by George Crowley, an excellent saxophonist in his own right, often playing with the guests and of course when the guests couldn’t make it.

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Crocodile playing at The Oxford, Kentish Town

While it started off as often too full of student alumni, it only cost £5 and every so often someone of the calibre of Shabaka Hutchings would turn up. Great nights included someone transporting a full size Hammond organ up the stairs, big bands such as Crocodile outnumbering the audience and of course musicians of the quality of Jeff Williams, Laura Jurd, Martyn Speake and Kit Downes. I will be missing this…on occasional Fridays some of these musicians may appear at the Con Cellar Bar aka The Constitution on the canal in Camden.

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Blues Night at The Constitution

Meanwhile the amazing Cafe Oto in Dalston, now the UK home of Sun Ra, continues to plough its unique furrow through nearly any kind of modern music as inspired by Wire magazine. A staggering number of amazing concerts with the cream of British avant garde jazz as well as luminaries from many international genres.

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Sun Ra Arkestra at Cafe Oto (in Infra Red)

The sackcloth backdrop which looks like a temporary rebuilding memento is still there as is the relaxed and concentrated vibe which draws in performers as varied as The Necks, Annette Peacock, Jimi Tenor, Marc Ribot and The Thing. There is no stage, we are one. Just so you know – I’m a Member!

Across the road is one of London’s most famous and established jazz clubs, The Vortex.

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Carol Grimes at The Vortex with Giles Perring

While presenting an excellent cross section of soul and avant garde jazz, I have always found the room a little bit too concrete and dry after it moved from its original location, a funky, wooden and crazy place in Stoke Newington Church Street, which for a few years until 2004 was definitely the best jazz venue in London. Thank you Billy Jenkins for some great nights there. Also of note is the funky Servant Jazz Quarters round the corner. Meanwhile just south of the River, an important new improvised venue opened recently called iklectik, set in hidden arty gardens in Lambeth and I would recommend discovering the Horse Party. Just don’t tell the Archbishop.

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Bill Evans Band at The Jazz Cafe 9/8/16

This article is also inspired by a recent visit to the venerable Jazz Cafe, just off Camden High Street. After becoming one of the key venues for New British Jazz in the late 80s, the tiny L shaped wine bar in Stoke Newington Green expanded to a large venue in Camden and has recently been refurbished as a full on night club, featuring jazz. The main floor is open with a restaurant of sorts on the balcony and this works well for funkier outfits, such as Bill Evans who I saw there only this week. Seen some great gigs here such as the Paul Motion Trio (see above), Nils Petter Molvaer and Pharaoh Saunders.

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Alan Wilkinson fronting Ya Basta at Flim Flam, Ryans Bar

Talking of L shaped rooms the L in the Flim Flam venue at Ryans Bar, again in Stoke Newington Church Street, has been removed after refurbishment. This venue is run by Alan Wilkinson, a free sax improviser of long standing and on Wednesdays presents the best of improvised music with an eclectic lineup of the famous and crazy in nearly equal measures.

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Charles Hayward does his half hour snare drum roll

For more varied musical fare there is the Fiddlers Elbow just outside the Camden Market tourist trap area, presenting live music every night. The main pub room is kinda pentagonal, with a dance floor.

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Purdy at the 606 Club

A mention for a few others such as the 606 in Chelsea, allegedly a members supper club, but which presents British jazz and soul in an atmospheric candle-lit cellar. In Soho there is Pizza Express and of course the famous Ronnie Scott’s, both also a bit supper club these days. Ronnie’s does attract some outstanding acts, often American, due to being established over 50 years ago by a very funny and excellent saxophone player. Great nights here have included Art Pepper, Airto, Stacey Kent and of course Nina Simone. Also recommended in Central London is the celebrated 100 Club in Oxford Street, still surviving after many years. Vividly remember gurning at Slim Gaillard here for a couple of hours and grooving to the late Tommy Chase Quartet.

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Blues Spiders at Ain’t Nothin But..

A good standby in town is the Ain’t Nothin But Blues Bar in Kingly Street, which does what it says on the tin 7 nights a week. Further East is the Village Underground, a cavernous venue under huge railway arches for Shoreditch hipsters who don’t like sitting down. Primarily a dance/pop venue it occasionally features jazz acts such as Snarky Puppy. The nearby Rich Mix in Bethnal Green has a more varied World music programme, but I am pleased to see James Blood Ulmer is appearing there soon, last seen at Cafe Oto.

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Alex Ward, Shabaka Hutchings, Steve Noble at Boat -Ting

Finally a big favourite is Boat-Ting, allegedly London’s hottest new music and poetry club, although after 14 years it’s not that new. Hosted by livewire Sybil Madrigal it regularly features NEW – with Britains best drummer, Steve Noble, powerhouse double bassist John Edwards and the virtuoso guitarist Alex Ward. Best of all this is a jazz club on a boat on the Thames, feel the waves like nowhere else..Bar-and-Co

So where else in the world could I stand 3 feet away from a world class musician on a regular basis? Answers on a postcard, maybe from New York.

Nearly all these places are dirty, cheap, relaxed, and half full some of the time.
You can find some more proper pics of some of these places at Z360 Live Music

Cafe Oto, Dalston

The Vortex, Dalston

Jazz Cafe, Camden

The iklektik, Lambeth

Flim Flam, Ryans Bar Stoke Newington

100 Club, 100 Oxford Street

Boat-Ting, Embankment The Thames

R.I.P. The Bull and Gate, Kentish Town. The Spitz, Spitalfields. The 12 Bar Club, Tin Pan Alley Denmark Street. The Red Rose, Finsbury Park. The Adelaide, Belsize Park. The Mean Fiddler, Harlesden. The original Marquee, Wardour Street Soho. The Moonlight aka Klooks Kleek, West Hampstead.

And don’t forget The Klinker wherever it is…

Update February 2019
Jazz is now back on upstairs at The Oxford, Kentish Town. George Crowley is no longer running the evening, but he was featured there recently and it was a great pleasure to see him destroying the “standard” he was requested to play.

In the Church of The Necks

The Necks, the Australian jazz trance trio played 4 nights at Cafe Oto November 13th to 16th 2015. Each night they played 2 continuous improvised 50 minute sets to a rapt, reverential and appreciative audience.

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The Necks at Cafe Oto © Douglas Cape z360.com

To give you some idea of the unique nature of their playing here are my interpretations for each set over the four nights:

Friday 1 – Walking by a river then nearly drowned in the waves
Friday 2 – Scratching around to find the power of Rachmaninov

Saturday 1 – Simple – Building – Hypnotic – Incantatory
Saturday 2 – Birds in an African village later viewed from a huge helicopter

Sunday 1 – The Temple becomes a huge production line that is washed away
Sunday 2 – Starts with a bang and becomes a rhythmic tourbillon

Monday 1 – Millions die when the thunder rolls in
Monday 2 – The old Steamer beaches and is torn to shreds by nanobots

The closest antecedent to their style is the classic 1969 Miles Davis album In A Silent Way which summons a similar ever unfolding rhythm which develops slowly and organically to a quasi religious moment of trumpet satori. However The Necks have taken this template (which was in fact assembled by Miles and Teo Macero from studio edits) and created a unique assemblage incorporating nearly every form of modern music using the simplest of acoustic instruments – piano, bass and drums, to create improvised symphonies. It all seems to start so simply with a repeated loop of percussive sound which slowly builds, but before long you can hear an organ in the repeating changes, there is a sheet of electronic chatter, someone is shouting in a storm, the drums are obviously on a loop, the piano is an automaton…none of which is true. You are actually hearing classical piano, elements of Gamelan, the airport music of Eno, the systems music of Reich and Glass, the trance of The Orb, the chaos of Punk, the ear worms of Pop and the repetitive beats of EDM all working to a new maxim.

25 Second Timelapse movie of The Necks

The three members of The Necks arrive without pretension. Chris Abrahams the pianist is the artist lost in his own romantic motorik world, barely looking away from the keys. Lloyd Swanton the bassist is the businessman, looking sharp centre stage and taking care of the sparse announcements. Tony Buck the drummer is the hippy muso playing polyrythmically with his ethnographic percussion set. They are all leaders.

The Necks at Cafe Oto

Ethnographic Percussion Set

On the fourth night The Necks were joined by the legendary British free saxophonist Evan Parker. Their first set was the worst of the residency with Parkers squalling circular sax dominating in a much too saxophonic kind of way. Maybe words were said, but the second set was a revelation with the piano archly echoing the long lines of the sax which became just part of the movement and flux. It was over before we knew.

The Necks at Cafe Oto

Evan Parker hiding at the back

Thank You and Good Night to The Necks…

The Necks at Cafe Oto

All photographs and video taken on an iPhone 6

Marc Ribot Trio at Cafe Oto

The Marc Ribot Trio dropped into a packed Cafe Oto with Henry Grimes on acoustic bass as the NY history man of 60s free jazz, and on drums the muscular Chad Taylor from Chicago. Just visible in the corner on his chair was a middle aged workman in a dirty T shirt, his body folded over his guitar. Marc played 2 seamless symphonic sets, with nary a word, just a few applause breaks, especially for the septuagenarian Henry. The music was free jazz but encompassed show tunes, cartoon breaks, marching songs, pop riffs, angular funk and metal shredding runs. It was a capsule history of 20th century American popular music, of which more later…

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Marc Ribot plays a Gibson ES-125TDC circa 1962. This is a semi acoustic thin bodied dual pickup electric guitar (famously played by George Thorogood) which he used for every guitar style known to man. He accomplished this with a unique but simple setup of one pedal and one guitar mic, allowing full usage of the electro-acoustic qualities of the guitar. For the the riffing and the metal runs the guitar mic was pushed aside, but for most of the set the guitar mic was just a few inches from his guitar allowing a unique blend of sounds, and then suddenly a lever was flicked and we were back in the prairie with a steely acoustic country guitar whispering to us. Most remarkably he leant over his guitar, his chin appearing to rest on the body, the guitar mic a fraction away as screeds of notes poured out in concentrated flurries – completely hunched over but his arms flying up and down the guitar. At one point you could hear his gritted breath through the guitar mic, no doubt intentionally.

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During the first set we went a from classic click-clack drumbeat into what sounded to me like Gabor Szabo’sThe Beat Goes On, well it was funky and Latin anyway! Marc’s cover versions often have a very remote relationship to the original and in no time the music had metamorphosed into angular 80s Bill Frisell style jazz funk, finishing with a chomping Stevie Ray Vaughan blues flourish. A lyrical show tune began the second set echoing the smooth classic jazz of Wes Montgomery and we sped through a catalogue of American styles rapidly coming apart at the seams, at one point sustained riffing drawing applause. As the music splintered, only lightened by bass and drum solos, we heard snatches of the American songbook being deconstructed, reaching its lyrical apogee with a version of Bob Dylan’s Lay Down Your Weary Tune. Yes he sang a song both appropriate and somehow elegiac, Marc’s tremulous voice following not the vocal but the guitar line:

Lay down your weary tune, lay down

Lay down the song you strum

And rest yourself  ’neath the strength of strings

No voice can hope to hum

It felt like a Requiem for America…

 

Update 14 May 2019
Marc played a solo acoustic gig at Cafe Oto
Magnificent and quieter tonight –

But better photos:

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Everyone loved it
Thank You