Allen Ginsberg, the beat poet, wrote: “Jazz gives us a way of expressing the spontaneous motions of the heart. It’s like a fountain of instantaneous inspiration that’s available to everybody.” […]

  Whirlpool Series at the Vortex 2025/26 (October 2025)   The Vortex is happy to announce the curators in the forthcoming year’s cohort for its Whirlpool series.  The curators for […]

Amazingly for a venue that puts on over 300 concerts a year, The Vortex survives with just a small team of highly committed paid staff.  This week we finally say […]

Oliver Weindling writes: Whenever Tony Bianco played at the Vortex, you could always be guaranteed something extra would come from him. Never overpowering but always enhancing. We  particularly felt it […]

We feel proud of how so much of the UK jazz scene has benefited from the openness of the club, such as when we think about, for example, the London […]

The football season is upon us. It’s a sport which, in its structure, has many similarities to jazz. Not least, there are two halves each of 45 minutes: not much […]

We are delighted to draw your attention to the Vortex’s programme of gigs for November’s EFG London Jazz Festival. Our own “festival” is a self-contained series, celebrating our approach to […]

These newsletters have interesting concepts that they cover.. Be it AI, the relation to quantum physics, needs and wants of musicians of audiences. If  you’ve hit this by chance do […]

We are enormously proud of our strong links to the community of London jazz musicians. They so often come to help us out when necessary. This week is a great […]

The death of drummer Louis Moholo-Moholo has hit us hard at the Vortex. Originally from South Africa, he came as a member of the Blue Notes to London in 1965 […]

Dill sadly died on the same day as Louis. He’s remembered for his involvement with bands such as Paraphenalia and Nucleus, on bass. In fact he was known latterly as […]

Earlier this year, the Vortex received further international recognition when it was named one of the 45 best jazz venues by Downbeat magazine in the world outside the USA—a prestigious […]

In Tuesday’s edition of the Metro newspaper there’s a map of London Grassroots music, including bands, styles, label and venues, based around the tube map. The Vortex is one of […]

We’re excited that Whirlpool has been invited to perform at Inntoene (www.inntoene.com) for a 3 day residency in 18-21 July. Sam Eastmond Rebecka Edlund Kasper Rietkerk Ashley Bonfante Julian Woods […]

We are lucky that the Vortex has so many musicians continue to come back and play the club, even when they can also play bigger venues. Clearly smitten by our […]

The Vortex is proud to have been chosen by Downbeat magazine, possibly the most prestigious jazz magazine, as ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREAT JAZZ VENUES 2025. Outside the USA, there […]