artS Little GIG’s torn around the country nervous about their future
The jazz cafe CAMDEN DONUE is expanding and opening a location in East London, Ronnie Scott’s renovated, and iconic in New York Blue club clubwhich has spread to Japan, Brazil, Italy and China, will open its first location in London next year. And while financial pressures remain, a host of other, smaller venues are bringing in enthusiastic new visitors.
“I’ve been doing this for 50 years next year and, to be honest, I’ve seen some ‘resurgegences’,” said Steve Rubie, owner of 606 club in Chelsea. But, he added, there is something different today. “Young audiences are less afraid of jazz. It’s all music to them.”
That open-mindedness and freedom had power in London’s famously jonzally jazzy jazz scene in the last decade, as young musicians learned their craft in Tomorrow at the Warriors And the city’s music schools also cut their teeth in clubs, from late nights at Ronnie Scott’s to Jazz Parties with the same audience as Steam.
The artists include the collectible Esdras, who won the Gercury Prize and played Wembery Arena, and that type of club, “the owner of the Jazz branch of the EFG Lonon Jazz festival, which is back in its 33rd year. A strand of concerts of the festival celebrating the Jazz Club seeks to “honor the spaces that work in the sun and progress in London.
At Ronnie Scott’s, the most famous of these London venues, straight-ahead jazz in the afternoon can appeal to a more traditional audience than a late-show and broken-down drive-through. But in Toulouse Lautrec In Kennington, genre classics find new fans. “Young people want to learn more about the history behind the music,” said the manager of Nolan Regent, noting the popularity of their “the music of iconic figures from the jazz history of jazz. “I like that they listen to the old styles of jazz.”
And as Jazz audiences grew, so did the city’s clubs. The Jazz Cafe is in a neighboring building, and in May planning permission was granted to transform an art Deco theater in Stratford into a new outpost. Ronnie Scott has completely renovated the above space into a new smaller venue, which will open in February; Its green room doubles as a member’s bar, where performers and audience members can mingle after a gig, complete with a piano for impromptu jams.
The Blue Note will come to fight in the garden in 2026, overcoming the fear from the police and local time to end it with an “Uptick in Crime” in the area – instead of fans. But the latter license was granted in May, and the space, in the basement of the Lane Hotel in St Martin, is now being renovated to open up both performance spaces and a kitchen.
While prominent clubs have arrived or expanded, grassroots music venues in the UK are “facing a crisis of rising costs and closures”, according to The cross-party culture of government, the Media and Sport Committee; Research on Music Venue Reliance (MVT) found that almost half of the grass areas were running at a loss last year.
Many are still struggling to recover from the period of closure necessitated by Covid, and Londa’s Jazz Clubs are no exception. Vortex in Dallston turned Crowdfunding In 2020 that will remain developed and, like many places, relies on volunteers. Kansas Smitty’s at Broadway Market was closed during the pandemic and has not reopened. The small basement space is a dynamic setting for the lively House Band – and the opposite of the social spin. But for clarinetist and saxophonist Gicomo Smith, who founded the place in 2015, the decision not to open was not really financial. “There is only one career – and for me, I want to play,” he said. “I don’t think musicians should start jazz clubs, just like I don’t think chefs should start restaurants. Because they have a business that works.”
The Cross-Party Committee proposes the introduction of a ticket levy at the level of arena live music events – if voluntary, and managed by an organization such as an organization such as MVT, or run by the government, such as exists in France Since the 1980s – To feed the money back to areas related to art that are important to the development of the artistic musician and their ability to make a living, and where “there is an electricity … between the musicians and the listeners”, says Smith. In smaller venues, Rubie adds, “A member of an audience is as important as a member of the band. It’s a joint effort.”
In an era of polarization, there is a renewed value in the intimate, dark rooms where veteran Jazz disciples replace young masters in the name of the music they love. So what can people do to support local clubs? “Visit them often!” Rubie said, adding that it also helps to show support on social media sites. The Regent said he’s seen a lot of people go to gigs on their own. “Bring a friend,” he suggested. “Music should bring people together.”