Doors 7:45 PM, Music 8:30 PM – 2 set(s) of music
About
Queer Jazz exists to platform, nurture and celebrate the emerging queer jazz scene. Programmed by Tina Edwards and Arowah, they have put together an exciting monthly programme of innovative LGBTQI+ artists at The Vortex Jazz Club, supported by Arts Council England.
Tickets are flexibly priced – please select the pricing tier that reflects your situation. We want as many people as possible to access the gigs so if you’re able to, please consider paying for the highest ticket band, otherwise cheaper tickets will be limited and available on first-come first-serve basis
Queer Jazz exists to platform, nurture and celebrate the emerging queer jazz scene. Programmed by Tina Edwards and Arowah, they have put together an exciting monthly programme of innovative LGBTQI+ artists at The Vortex Jazz Club, supported by Arts Council England.
Tickets are flexibly priced – please select the pricing tier that reflects your situation. We want as many people as possible to access the gigs so if you’re able to, please consider paying for the highest ticket band, otherwise cheaper tickets will be limited and available on first-come first-serve basis
Xhosa Cole
Winner of the 2018 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the year, Xhosa Cole is an embodiment of the success of numerous community arts programmes in Birmingham including the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra, Jazzlines Ensemble and Birmingham Music Service. Having grown up in Handsworth and first played the Tenor at Andy Hamilton’s Ladywood Community Music School, he’s now among a long legacy of Birmingham Saxophonists including Soweto Kinch and Shabaka Hutchings. Xhosa has performed twice at the BBC Proms, Composed music for the Ripieno Players, a Birmingham Based String Orchestra, recorded saxophone for Mahalia’s debut album ‘Love and Compromise’, completed a 22 date UK tour, all along side his studies as a scholar at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Xhosa Also received the Parliamentary Jazz Award for ‘Best Newcomer’ in 2019 and Jazz FM ‘Breakthrough act of the year’.
Xhosa’s earliest memories of the arts are with ACE Youth Dance group. However, since playing in Holyhead School’s Jazz band with Ray Prince and Sid Peacock he decided to pursue music and joined the Jazzlines Ensemble, Birmingham Schools Symphony Orchestra, Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra among others. Xhosa attended courses with the National Youth Jazz Collective and National Youth Wind Orchestra. He is now finishing his degree in Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London alongside a wide spectrum of work writing and performing across the UK. in 2019 Xhosa received the Parliamentary Jazz award for ‘Best Newcomer”.
The Repeat Beat Poet
Peter deGraft-Johnson (The Repeat Beat Poet) is a British-born Ghanaian writer, artist, and DJ. His blending of Hip Hop culture, spoken word poetry, and Pan-African politics has captivated audiences across the UK, Europe, and Ghana to sold out rooms including London’s iconic Ronnie Scotts and The Jazz Café, and with Grammy award-winning jazz musicians like Thundercat and Blue Lab Beats.
His debut pamphlet, A Testament To Life & Death was released in 2022 with second and third editions in 2023 & 2024, and has been sold and taught across 4 continents. Peter’s work has been featured by Amnesty International, BBC Radio, the UN at the COP 26 summit in Glasgow, and anthologised by Penguin. Peter was an inaugural writer-in-residence at the Library Of Africa & The African Diaspora in Accra, Ghana, in 2023 he was invited to be a member of the Recording Academy, and was a BBC 6Music poet in residence. A mainstay of the UK festival circuit, he has performed at We Out Here, Cheltenham, Wilderness, Tramlines, Byline Festival, and consecutive years at Love Supreme.
In 2021 he founded the Loose Egusi Afro Disco, delighting dancefloors from Berlin to Bulgaria with live shows, and reaching African music lovers worldwide through his The Boat Pod radio show, alongside promoting new music on the NYC/London based Soho Radio with the show Imaginary Millions. Peter also hosted the British Podcast Award nominated ‘Lunar Poetry Podcast’, and supports strike funds by raising money with ‘Poetry On The Picket Line’
John Cooper Clarke – ‘A phenomenal writer and enthralling performer’
Salena Godden – “Exciting, energetic and revolutionary…one the UK’s most prophetic and passionate new voices.”
You can sign up to hear more about Queer Jazz events HERE