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Shirley Smart trio

Trailblazing cellist Shirley Smart is recognized as one of the UKs most versatile and creative string players.

Her acclaimed album ‘Long Story Short’ showcases the vast array of her musical influences, drawing on her unique background living in Jerusalem for 10 years and working with the overlapping worlds of jazz, Arabic, Turkish and North African music, and with artists such as Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital and Yasmin Levy.

It features two of the UK’s leading lights in world-influenced jazz – John Crawford on piano, and Demi Garcia Sabat on percussion, as well as guest artists Nikki Iles on accordion, Orphy Robinson MBE on vibraphone and Nicolas Meier on guitar.

Smart has established herself firmly on both the jazz and world music scenes since moving back to London, working with artists including Neil Cowley, Mulatu Astatke, Robert Mitchell, Misha Mullov-Abaddo Maciek Pysz and Alice Zawadzki. She is also founder member of Issie Barratt’s Interchange Dectet, whose  debut album ‘Donna’s Secret’ has just been released, and has appeared at numerous festivals in the UK and abroad.

She is a keen educator, and teaches Jazz and Improvisation for the RCMJD and City University, and gives frequent workshops for organisations such as the National Youth Jazz Collective, Jazzlines, and Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

‘As a cellist-composer she morphs seamlessly from Stephane Grappelli like swing and Bird-like bebop…a charming kaleidoscope and jazzy showcase of her global folk music-inspired compositions’ Jazzwise

Instructions for audience members – please read

Welcome back to the Vortex. Please note that we’ve implemented the following changes to our systems to make the club as Covid-safe as we can:

  • Please buy tickets in advance as there will be no door sales. There will be twenty tickets only onsale for each gig.
  • If you want to sit together as a household/bubble we would ask that one person books all the tickets for the group. If you book separately you may be seated separately.
  • We ask you not to attend gigs if you have or think you may have any Covid-19 symptoms.
  • We will ask you on entry to provide contact details for NHS Test and Trace. If possible please bring your own pen to write down the details.
  • There will be no standing at gigs. Everyone who books a ticket will be allocated a seat, but we cannot guarantee that you will have a table.
  • Orders for drinks and snacks will be taken at tables. We are sorry but for the time being no hot drinks will be available.
  • We ask that everyone wears a mask when moving around inside the building.
  • We are cashless – we accept contactless payments only.
  • We ask everyone to observe social distancing at all times. One metre social distancing will operate in the club space, with mitigations as detailed in the risk assessment which is available on the website.
  • Automatic hand sanitiser stations are provided at various places within the building and we encourage regular use of hand sanitiser.
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