Jazz
There is lots of jazz in London. Before leaving the U.S., I easily found over a dozen places offering jazz, some of them every night. When we got to London, I found out about even more. Like many big cities in Europe, London features a lot of entertainment late at night—even shows starting at midnight. That’s too late for me. I did enjoy the three venues that I got to.
Vortex Jazz Club
On Sunday, September 29th, I took the underground (the subway) to an area called Dalston to attend a jam session at the Vortex. The Vortex is a small, nonprofit club devoted exclusively to jazz. It was fun to sit in and play a few tunes with the London jazz musicians.
Jam session at the Vortex Jazz Club
Pizza Express, Soho
A pizza restaurant probably isn't the first place you think of when looking for live jazz. Pizza Express has many restaurants throughout London, and three of them do present live jazz. Upon entering Pizza Express, Soho, it looks like an ordinary pizza restaurant, but if you go down the narrow, spiral staircase to the lower level you will encounter an elegant jazz club, complete with a well-lit stage, a grand piano, and a good sound system.
Trumpeter Hugh Pascall presented two sets of mostly original, straight-ahead modern jazz to a sold out audience—first rate jazz and great pizza too!
The Hugh Pascall Quintet at Pizza Express, Soho
606 Club
On Tuesday evening, October 8 we went to the 606 Club in Chelsea. Upon arrival, we headed downstairs to a brick-walled basement. Like the Pizza Express, this turned out to be a nice venue, with a grand piano, good sound system etc., but with a distinctly bohemian vibe.
Saxophonist Dan Reinstein led his quintet through two sets of hard-swinging jazz standards. The arrangements were exceptionally creative and delivered with consistent high energy. Bravo, Dan!
Burnin' down the basement with Dan Reinstein and his band
Something weird happened at the end of the night. They have a small foyer leading into the main room with hooks on the wall for hanging up your coats. I hung up my rain jacket there when we went in, but on the way out it was gone. Apparently someone had picked it up by mistake. We told the manager, although I didn't think there was anything he could do about it, but there was. This little club has a pretty sophisticated closed-circuit TV system, and he was able to locate the precise moment when the culprit made his mistake.
Even luckier, he recognized the guy just by the appearance of the back of his head (apparently he was a regular there). He had the guy's phone number from the reservation info. He called the guy and told him I would be contacting him to get my jacket back and give him his jacket.
The next day I did call him and we arranged to meet at the London Bridge Railway Station to make the switch. I walked 10 minutes over to the station and we got it done. He was very apologetic for his mistake, and I was glad to get my jacket back, as we had been having a lot of rain.
I had heard that Great Britain is one of the most heavily surveilled places in the world, and this time it worked to my advantage.
Ronnie Scott's: The one that got away
Say “jazz” to any Londoner and they will say “Ronnie Scott’s.” Ronnie Scott’s is the oldest and most famous jazz club in London. Well, half of their shows aren’t even jazz, and the ones that I wanted to see were all sold out. The moral of the story is: Get your tickets before you leave the U.S.
A very musical newsstand