Leadenhall Jazz Festival reflections

Just back from an exceptionally long, and pleasant, weekend in Brighton (no Rob, not at Pride) and just enough time to post about last Thursday night’s jazz at Leadenhall Market.

The musical highlight of my evening was Steve Gregory and Raul D`Oliveira playing some great tunes although I really have to add that Cattle Market also put together a great set. Having the stage in the middle of the market outside The Lamb really made for a great focal point and the acoustics were good to so perhaps a tip of the hat to the PA people should be in order.

As you can see from the photo, left, there was a big crowd present while the setting in Leadenhall Market created a great atmosphere and there was also plenty of food and drink on offer as many of the restaurants had set stalls up to accomodate those who wanted to eat but didn’t want to go inside and miss any of the music.

My particular shout goes out to S&M who served us up with a great sausage and mash with honey mustard gravy which I’ve been dreaming about since, the only downside being having to hurriedly supply a reasonable explanation each time I mentioned where I went for dinner.

As with all of these thing there are drawbacks and to get into the private party outside Cheese you first had to make it past door security checking to see if your name was on the list [wink].

Hats off to all of the organisers for a great evening and I’m hoping there will be more events there soon.  Kepp your eye on the Leadenhall Market website and, in particular, the social club page which offers events, discounts and prizes for members and a free trial membership. If you do want to give it a test drive you can pick up a card from the Market or fill in your details online.

Sax in the City tonight!

I’m looking forward to this evening. A lot. In case you weren’t aware Leadenhall Market have been holding “Sax in the City“, which is an overflowing bounty of lunchtime jazz, and this evening is the pinnacle of the event, namely the big evening bash.

Now some of you may still be lingering under the philistine misapprehension that jazz is inpenetrable music best played in darkened bars but It starts at 6pm and features a number of great acts with unassuming legend Steve Gregory in the lineup.

To quote from his bio:
Best known as the session musician who played the famous saxophone solo on George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”. Steve has also played on many other hits such as Queen‘s “One year of love”, Alison Moyet‘s “That ole devil called love”, Van Morrison‘s “Hymns to the silence” and Chris Rea’s “Fool if you think it’s over”. If you enjoy Eastenders re-runs you might even see Steve backing Letitia Dean in the Vic!

There are other bands too with “Cattle Market”, winners of the 2009 Cheltenham Jazz Festival, featuring prominently and “Client Number 9″ on last and DJ Mark JB in between times.

Even if the idea of the music doesn’t immediately float your boat you should do yourself a favour and come along to enjoy the atmosphere as the bars will be open, they’ll be food a plenty and magicians will be wandering through the crowd plus it’ll be a chance to see one of music’s real characters.

You’ll need to go here if you want to see the programme for the evening and register to turn up.

Spitalfields Market Music Festival

What is it with the hay fever this year? Most years I get a few sniffles, though nothing a quick trip to Boots couldn’t sort out, but over the weekend heading out of doors with anything less than a deep-sea-divers suit on caused my face to explode in a liquidy, tissue-destroying mess. As a result I didn’t exactly enjoy the weekend sunshine but now that I’ve found some more anti-hayfever drugs I’m all up for the remainder of the Spitalfields Market Music Festival, which comes to a close on Friday.

Probably the most accessible part of the festival for City folk is that all of this week there are free lunchtime gigs outdoors at the market between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. In addition to that there are evening concerts and for those who don’t fancy sitting down after a day behind a desk there are musical walking tours to be had as well.

If you, like me, work “the other end” of the City then going more than 400 yards at lunchtime can seem like a strange idea but I’d seriously recommend it, particularly if you haven’t been to Spitalfields Market before.

Spitalfields Market “Summer 09″ Music Festival
http://www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk

Hup Holland Hup!

Tonight and tomorrow gives us City-folk the chance to err a little westward and head to Trafalgar Square. “And why would I want to leave my cosy City to mingle with tourists in the West End?” I hear you cry. Well, my well-read friend, our dear Dutch neighbours are putting on a bash called “Holland House 2009″ and tonight you can party Dutch-style with “Dutch Therapy” with Ferry Corsten at SeOne with the doors opening at 9.45pm tonight and tomorrow sees a host of live bands, events and other cultural stuff going on at Trafalgar Square, where I’ll be scoffing poffertjes and broodjes for sure.

For the unintiated the Dutch are a European neighbour with a reputation for having a laid-back approach to some things which in England would be at least frowned upon if not considered downright illegal and with whom we’ve managed to have a few fairly inconclusive wars through the centuries but in such a friendly way as not to leave any bad feeling about it, which I think says more about them than it does us (I’m thinking France and Germany here). They have also contributed a disproportionately large and influential number of decent footballers to the Premiership through the years so if England bomb in the next World Cup I’ll be throwing my support behind the ‘Oranje’, if for no better reason than they have some seriously decent parties.

I am so there!

Holland House 2009
http://www.holland.com/uk/hollandhouse2009/

Ferry Corsten
http://www.ferrycorsten.com/

Hup Holland Hup
http://dwotd.web-log.nl/dutch_word_of_the_day/2008/06/438-hup-holland.html