All That Jazz!

There was a small church, St. Giles Church, two blocks down the road from where we lived in London. It was a quaint church and we were trying the guess when it was built. On the web we discovered that it was built in 1827, burned down in a fire and built again. That makes it close to 200 years old. I never knew that it had a basement. Wonder what it was used for in the original church. It is now called The Crypt and is used to hold live Jazz events every Friday.

We had the most exciting evening of live jazz music, last Friday at The Crypt. The band was led by Tristan Mailliot on the drums. The announcement said he surrounded himself with some of the most creative and talented younger players in UK.

On that evening they played music from the classic funk and jazz era of the mid seventies to early 80s, composed by Herbie Hancock, Weather Report and the Brecker Brothers. So it said on the website of The Crypt. I have no clue about Jazz music. I read that it had its origins in American, a mix of American and Afro-American music. The beat of the drums is an important element of the music.

The older musician was Mark Ridout with the guitar. The bass player was announced as Flo Moore on the website, but he was probably Dave Pegg. Sorry, I could not catch the name when he was introduced. It is likely that Flo Moore, a young bass player, was expected to play but had some other engagement.

The two younger musicians were Tom Ridout, son of Mark and Matt Carter on the keyboard. Tom Ridout played the saxophone and was the BBC young jazz musician finalist. Mark and Tom were from a truly musical family with the mother and sister also playing the trumpet and saxes.

Listen to the saxes by Tom Ridout. It sure requires powerful lungs to be able to blow the Saxes. He also played the clarinet at the jazz performance.

While we were listening to all that Jazz, there was a lady by our side quietly sketching away! We watched in amazement as the sketch slowly turned into the live jazz band! After the show we asked permission from the lady to take a photo of the sketch. We introduced ourselves and imagine our surprise when we figured out that she was a well know live sketch artist. She introduced herself as Hamley Jenkins and asked me to follow her on Instagram. Here is the beautiful sketch she made of the artists.

People who love jazz, do share this post. And follow me too on Instagram too!!