THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME PRESENTS: LEON FOSTER-THOMAS QUARTET
TSOJTC is delighted to present the Leon Foster-Thomas Quartet. LFT is winner of the World Steelband Music Festival’s Soloist and Duet competitions in 2002 and 2004, critics laud him as “the next big thing on his instrument”, “…an enthralling improvisor…” All About Jazz; “…masterful with impeccable musicianship” – When Steel Talks. Tonight he performs for the first time at the Vortex with his London quartet as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival.
London Jazz Orchestra
Vocalist Brigitte Beraha joins the London Jazz Orchestra and director Scott Stroman for two sizzling sets of modern big band music as part of the 2022 EFG London Jazz Festival.
Time: 3 - 5.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £10 / Students & UC beneficiaries £8
Small Print (Norma Winstone / Nikki Iles / Mark Lockheart)
Named after the incredible British super-group ‘The Printmakers’ and featuring many of its core members.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £17.50 / Vortex members £14 / Students & UC beneficiaries £10
A Standard Afternoon
Come down for a drink downstairs with performances from a rotating group of London-based singers and instrumentalists. Arrive early if you’d also like to join in for when the sets…
Vortex Jam Session with Helena Kay [Late Night]
Join us for a special series of Late Night Jam sessions which will briefly replace our regular Sunday sessions, hosted by four of London’s finest: drummer Jas Kayser, pianist Rick Simpson and tenor saxophonists Helena Kay and Riley Stone-Lonergan.
Time: 11 - 1AM
Standard £5 / Free entry for Vortex members & participating musicians
Calum Gourlay Big Band w/ special guest Olivia Murphy
A special performance from the Calum Gourlay Big Band – featuring performances to celebrating the life and career of Charles Mingus in his centennial year and music from rising star, saxophonist and composer Olivia Murphy.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
SOLD-OUT
Marshall / Rochford / Batchelor
The paths of three musical giants converge for one night only, in what promises to be a show of London’s finest Jazz and groove improvisation.
Time: 8 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Book Launch: Laurie Evans “Derry Boys”
Long-time night manager at the Vortex Laurie Evans celebrates the release of their new book ‘Derry Boys’ – join us to hear from the author, grab copies of the new book and listen to special performances from two members of the Undertones.
Time: 6.30 - 8.45PM
Free Entry
NOBLE / SANDERS / SMITH TRIO
“A trio of masters here, with every note and sequence a new discovery” – Chris Searle Morning Star
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
[DOWNSTAIRS] Azalea Arts Stand Up Comedy Night
Special performances hosted by Richard Brice. Gary Sansome Barbara Fernandez Daphna Baram Stephen Catling HEADLINING: SAM RHODES
Time: 7 - 10PM
FREE + DONATION
The Music of Miles
An evening of music celebrating the first great Miles Davis quintet, focussing on their Prestige recordings
Vortex discussion 121 – How important is nationality?
How tolerant should we be to, say, Russian musicians who want to play. It’s certainly the case that in Poland Russians, irrespective of their beliefs and the quality of their…
Time: 4.30 - 5.30PM
Free online. Zoom link below
Vortex Jam Session with Rick Simpson
A weekly session on Sunday evenings, hosted by four of London’s finest: drummer Jas Kayser, pianist Rick Simpson and tenor saxophonists Helena Kay and Riley Stone-Lonergan, each one hosting one session on rotation.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £5 / Free entry for Vortex members & participating musicians
Tony Kofi/Alina Bzhezhinska’s Poems from the other side (featuring Vimala Rowe)
Tony Kofi and Alina Bzhezhinska bring you poems from the other side, drawing inspiration to play some original music and classic jazz composers on poems from some of the greatest poets.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £20 / Vortex members £16 / Students & UC beneficiaries £12
Seafarers
Scottish songwriter, composer, and saxophonist Matthew Herd writes for and performs with Seafarers, a band that unites some of the most prominent voices in folk and improvised music (Lauren Kinsella, Tom McCredie, Tom Taylor & Dave Hamblett)
Time: 8.45 - 11.30PM
Standard £15 / Vortex members £12 / Students & UC beneficiaries £8
Maria-Christina Harper | Josephine Davies | Evan Jenkins
Award winning Electric Jazz harpist and composer Maria-Christina Harper (Katie Melua, Ala.ni) is joined by winner of the 2019 Parliamentary jazz awards saxophonist Josephine Davies and Eric Clapton’s collaborator, drummer Evan Jenkins to produce a dynamic project
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Michelangelo Scandroglio/ In the Eyes of the Whale
Bassist Michelangelo Scandroglio, barely twenty years old, is already considered one of the most interesting promises of Italian jazz. Tonight, he presents music from his first album in a quintet format feat. Alex Hitchcock (tenor sax), Paolo Petrecca (trumpet), Fergus Mccreadie (piano) and Mattia Galeotti (drums)
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
The Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra plays the music of Ed Puddick “Crazy Days”
Final date of the Upper Austrian Jazz Orchestra UK tour, playing the music of British composer Ed Puddick.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Midweek Downstairs Jam
Welcoming and relaxed, come for a drink, sit back and enjoy the music, or bring your horns, sticks and strings to join in during the second set.
Ari Hoenig Trio (2nd Show)
Ari Hoenig is a ground-breaking drummer, composer and educator who has become one of the most significant and influential voices in the jazz and drumming world over the last two decades.
Time: 9 - 10.30PM
Standard £20 / Vortex members £16 / Students & UC beneficiaries £15
Ari Hoenig Trio (1st Show)
Ari Hoenig is a ground-breaking drummer, composer and educator who has become one of the most significant and influential voices in the jazz and drumming world over the last two decades.
Time: 7 - 8.30PM
Only standing tickets left
Standard £20 / Vortex members £16 / Students & UC beneficiaries £15
Mark Kavuma Quartet
Kavuma’s Quartet (Mark Kavuma – trumpet; Noah Stoneman – piano; Caius Williams – bass; Jack Thomas – drums) has developed and nourished a truly unique and unmistakable sound with their stylish spin on the jazz genre soaked in soul and engrossing grooves.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
SOLD-OUT
CHRISTINE TOBIN ‘Outside The Box’ with LIAM NOBLE & PHIL ROBSON
Multi-award-winning vocalist Christine Tobin sings with two of the U.K.’s leading jazz musicians; pianist Liam Noble & guitarist Phil Robson who are both long-term musical collaborators. The repertoire of ‘Outside The Box’ will include songs from Christine’s highly acclaimed albums alongside a selection of new originals from all three performers and more.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £15 / Vortex members £12 / Students & UC beneficiaries £7.50
Smyth / Edwards / Sanders
One of Ireland’s improvising masters joins the incomparable pairing of John Edwards and Mark Sanders after a seven-year hiatus.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Liam Noble / Geoff Simkins Duo
“This is the first time Geoff and I have played duo: we talked about it a lot. He’s a master of song form improvisation, and I’m excited about trying to keep up! We are also recording the gig for future release, so please come down and have your rapturous applause captured for posterity! ” Liam Noble
Time: 7.45 - 10PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Midweek Downstairs Jam
Welcoming and relaxed, come for a drink, sit back and enjoy the music, or bring your horns, sticks and strings to join in during the second set.
Vortex discussion 119 – crossing the generations (contd)
Jazz seems to be a music where there is a great deal of integration across the generations. Why is this awareness and respect? Is this correct? And if so, why?…
Time: 4.30 - 5.30PM
Free via Zoom
Vortex Jam Session with Rick Simpson
A weekly session on Sunday evenings, hosted by four of London’s finest: drummer Jas Kayser, pianist Rick Simpson and tenor saxophonists Helena Kay and Riley Stone-Lonergan, each one hosting one session on rotation.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £5 / Free entry for Vortex members & participating musicians
Celebrating Jazz Giants of the Last 30 Years
Emerging out of the popular Vortex downstairs jams, this new sextet presents a selection of lesser-known, more recent jazz standards
Mopomoso Live / October
Another wonderful Mopomoso Sunday afternoon feat. NUNC (David Leahy & Paloma Carrasco Lopez), Henry McPherson, Petra Haller, Paul Jolly & Charlotte Keeffe
Time: 2 - 5PM
Standard £12 / Vortex members & concession £8
Christoph Irniger Trio & Ben van Gelder
The Christoph Irniger Trio celebrates melody without once degenerating into the trivial. They are tone poems which demonstrate that accessible melodies and complex tonal worlds need not be mutually exclusive and can in fact make sense of each other.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Early bird tickets £15 / Standard £17 / Members £12.50 / Students & UC beneficiaries £10
A Standard Afternoon
Come down for a drink downstairs with performances from a rotating group of London-based singers and instrumentalists. Arrive early if you’d also like to join in for when the sets…
Josephine Davies’ Enso Ensemble
Award winning saxophonist and composer Josephine Davies brings her 17 piece jazz orchestra to the Vortex for the second time. Tonight’s concert will feature her new suite ‘Ascension’, a series of 8 pieces representing the 8 parts of the Celtic Wheel of the Year, bringing a much needed celebration of nature, connection, and renewal to our fragmented times.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £15 / Vortex members £12 / Students & UC beneficiaries £7.50
Alex Bonney Quartet
Alex Bonney’s quartet plays original compositions with plenty of room for group improvisation.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
For You/Not For You – Johnny Hunter, Rachel Musson, Laura Cole & Olie Brice
A new composition by Johnny Hunter which is constructed to get the most amount of music from the least amount of information. Written specifically to use the outstanding improvising skills of these musicians
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Thumbscrew – Tomas Fujiwara, Michael Formanek & Mary Halvorson (2nd Show)
Celebrating ten years of work, the all-star collective trio Thumbscrew celebrates by adding new instrumental hues to their already well-established sound on Multicolored Midnight, the group’s seventh album
Time: 9 - 10.30PM
Standard £25 / Vortex members £20 / Students & UC beneficiaries £12
Thumbscrew – Tomas Fujiwara, Michael Formanek & Mary Halvorson (1st Show)
Celebrating ten years of work, the all-star collective trio Thumbscrew celebrates by adding new instrumental hues to their already well-established sound on Multicolored Midnight, the group’s seventh album
Time: 7 - 8.30PM
Standard £25 / Vortex members £20 / Students & UC beneficiaries £12
Vortex discussion 117 – ‘A Touch of Evil’
We hear a lot, especially now, about jazz musicians who have done things which are morally reprehensible despite fantastic music. Often these are to do with attitudes to women. As…
Time: 4.30 - 5.30PM
Free via Zoom
Vortex Jam Session with Rick Simpson
A weekly session on Sunday evenings, hosted by four of London’s finest: drummer Jas Kayser, pianist Rick Simpson and tenor saxophonists Helena Kay and Riley Stone-Lonergan, each one hosting one session on rotation.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £5 / Free entry for Vortex members & participating musicians
JULIAN SIEGEL QUARTET (2nd Show)
With the Julian Siegel Quartet, the BBC Jazz Award winning saxophonist and composer Julian Siegel can be heard alongside some of this generation’s most distinctive voices, creating an in-demand Quartet on the UK and European Jazz scene.
Time: 9 - 10.30PM
Standard £20 / Members £18 / Students & UC beneficiaries £15
JULIAN SIEGEL QUARTET (1st Show)
With the Julian Siegel Quartet, the BBC Jazz Award winning saxophonist and composer Julian Siegel can be heard alongside some of this generation’s most distinctive voices, creating an in-demand Quartet on the UK and European Jazz scene.
Time: 7 - 8.30PM
ONLY STANDING TICKETS LEFT
Standard £20 / Members £18 / Students & UC beneficiaries £15
Dugong – Let the Good be Good
Active since 2011, Dugong are a unique proposition on the European jazz scene.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £15 / Vortex members £12 / Students & UC beneficiaries £7.50
Tara Minton Trio w/ special guest Emma Rawicz
Tara Minton is an Australian born harpist, vocalist and composer. Tonight’s performance will feature contemporary works and arrangements from Tara and special guest Emma Rawicz’s past recordings, as well as new compositions.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Sam Leak: The Craft of Sound
Sam Leak’s trio, featuring bassist Simon Read and drummer Will Glaser, perform contemporary jazz with a gospel-tinged, and folk-inspired, freedom and abandon, invoking the joy and emotion typified by Paul Bley and Keith Jarrett’s 1960s trios.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Maria Rehakova: TOPOĽANA
Combining jazz tradition with songs Maria grew up singing in her childhood Slovak folklore group, TOPOĽANA is a jazz folk fusion sextet packed with some of the freshest young talent on the London jazz scene.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £6.25 / Students & UC beneficiaries £5
Vortex discussion 117 – “Being creative”
How is one creative? Is it taught, or come through playing or self-discovery? Creativity is a crucial element of good jazz, so let’s think why. These online discussions have been…
Time: 4.30 - 5.30PM
Free via Zoom
Vortex Jam Session with Riley Stone-Lonergan
A weekly session on Sunday evenings, hosted by four of London’s finest: drummer Jas Kayser, pianist Rick Simpson and tenor saxophonists Helena Kay and Riley Stone-Lonergan, each one hosting one session on rotation.
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £5 / Free entry for Vortex members & participating musicians
London Jazz Orchestra
The London Jazz Orchestra open their new season of monthly Second Sunday gigs by celebrating pianist John Taylor’s 80th birthday.
Time: 3 - 5.30PM
Standard £12.50 / Vortex members £10 / Students & UC beneficiaries £8
Mark Lockheart Dreamers (Vinyl/LP Release Night)
Dreamers is the new project from British saxophonist and composer Mark Lockheart featuring Elliot Galvin (Dinosaur, Elliot Galvin Trio), Tom Herbert (Polar Bear, The Invisible) and Dave Smith (Robert Plant).
Time: 7.45 - 10.30PM
Standard £15 / Vortex members £12 / Students & UC beneficiaries £8
A Standard Afternoon
Come down for a drink downstairs with performances from a rotating group of London-based singers and instrumentalists. Arrive early if you’d also like to join in for when the sets…