JAZZ VENUES

 

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London County Council changed the licensing laws so that alcoholic drinks could be served until 3 a.m. if food was also sold. This triggered a boom in London s jazz world.

 

The 606 Club

The 606 Club is a venue that has a reputation for being somewhere that upcoming British-based talent plays.

Location: 90 Lots Road, SW10 0QD (red, orange)

Website: www.606club.co.uk

 

The Bull s Head

During the 1970s those jazz musicians who left the business but who continued to occasionally perform at The Bull's Head pub, Barnes, included the pianist, arranger, and former big band leader Tommy Watt (1925-2006).

Location: 373 Lonsdale Road, SW13 9PY

Website: www.thebullsheadbarnes.com

 

Club Eleven

The New Jazz had been developed by the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. The Tito Burns Sextet¹ included John Dankworth, the bassist Joe Mudele (1920-2014), and Ronnie Scott. Both Dankworth and Scott had served in Geraldo s Navy and thus had spent time in New York City s jazz clubs. In 1948 the trio, together with the saxophonist Johnny Rogers (1926-2016),² the trumpeter Hank Shaw (n Henry Shalofsky) (1926-2006), and six other musicians set up Club Eleven in order to rent a Soho basement. There, they held Britain s first bebop sessions. The Johnny Dankworth Seven emerged from the Club two years later.

¹. In 1958 Tito Burns (n Nathan Bernstein) (1921-2010) became Cliff Richard s manager.

². Rogers had come across bebop through playing the Fullado Club, which was frequented by American servicemen. In 1948 the eleven rented a basement in Windmill Street. Following the Club s demise, he opted to become a signalman on the Esk Valley railway line in Yorkshire.

Location: Mac s Academy, 41 Great Windmill Street, W1D 7LU (purple, turquoise)

 

Cook s Ferry Inn

Cook s Ferry Inn in East London was a jazz venue.

The pub s jazz club was started by Harry Randall, who was the brother of the jazz musician Freddy Randall

Location: 414 Angel Road, Edmonton, N18 3AB

 

The Ealing Blues Club

Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies of Blues Incorporated wanted to distance themselves from the Central London jazz scene. Art Wood, who sang with the group, knew about a trad jazz club under the ABC Tea Rooms in Ealing. He told Korner and Davies. The pair opened a club in the space. The space could hold about 100 people,

Davies died of leukaemia at the age of 32.

Blues split: one (Rolling Stones, Yardbirds) became pop. The other was purist and Chicago-oriented (Fleetwood Mac, Led Zeppelin) led to stadium rock.

Location: 42a The Broadway, Ealing, W5 2NP

 

The Fleet Street Jazz Club

The Fleet Street Jazz Club met on Friday lunchtimes in Fetter Lane. It was convened by Ray Whittam. People who performed there included Kenny Ball, Acker Bilk, Gerard Hoffnung, and Roger Melly.

 

The Fullado Club

The New Jazz had been developed by the likes of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Knowledge of the style spread out from the Fullado Club, which was frequented by American servicemen.

The saxophonist Don Rendell (1926-2015) described The Fullado Club, Soho as the fountainhead of the modern movement, where jazz was played non-stop from 3 p.m. until midnight .

 

Ham Yard

In the late 1940s the most prominent Revivalists included Humphrey Lyttleton, Graeme Bell, and Cy Laurie (1926-2002). The last established his Jazz Club in a market barrow storage space in Ham Yard.

Location: Ham Yard, W1D 7DT (purple, orange)

 

The Highgate Pubs

A number of pubs put on jazz in Highgate. These included: The Gatehouse, The Red Lion, and The Sun. The musicians who used perform in them included Alan Barnes, Andr Beeson, Campbell Burnap, the pianist Ian Christie, Wally Fawkes, Doug Murray (d.2010), and Colin Smith.

 

The Marquee Club

Harold Pendleton set up the magazine Jazz News to promote jazz. Brian Jones used it to advertise for fellow musicians to form a band. When he phoned up to place it, he did not have a band name. He was asked for one and looked around him. His eyes came to rest upon Muddy Waters s Rolling Stone album, so he opted for that. The band played its first gig at The Marquee.

Location: 165 Oxford Street, W1D 2JW (orange, turquoise)

 

The Roundhouse

Talk Loud & Saying Something was a jazz club that was held in The Roundhouse.

Location: 100 Chalk Farm Road, NW1 8EH (blue, brown)

 

Ronnie Scott s

The tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott worked in dance bands. In 1958 the Musicians Union became more relaxed about its ban on American jazz musicians working in Britain; they could perform if a British musician was allowed to work in the United States. The following year Scott and his fellow saxophonist Peter King opened Britain s first six-nights-a-week jazz club in the basement of No. 39 Gerrard Street. The venue could seat 90 people and had no drinks licence.

The gangland boss Albert Dine walked into the original Ronnie Scott s. He liked jazz and told Scott that he would not have any trouble. He gave the saxophonist a bottle of champagne, stating, Open it when you make a profit. The bottle has never been opened.

Mr King gave up playing so that he could act as the club s business manager; a large part of his job was arranging reciprocal performances across the Atlantic; Scott continued to perform with his own quartet. For most of the 1960s the pianist Stan Tracey led the house band. In 1964 the club moved to premises in Frith Street.

Scott, who had a somewhat sardonic manner, often acted as the club s master of ceremonies. He was infamous for his appalling jokes, many of which he received requests for. Examples of his humour are His mother was a titled lady - she was Southern Area Light Heavyweight Champion and, if the Club was not full, Let s join hands and try to make contact with the living.

Location: 47 Frith Street, W1D 4HT (pink, yellow)

Website: www.ronniescotts.co.uk

 

Studio 51

Studio 51 was a Trad jazz venue; all-nighters were held there. Ken Collyer made his reputation there.

The venue embraced r n b and rock. The Rolling Stones had a residency there. After watching the band perform there John Lennon and Paul McCartney offered Andrew Loog Oldham I Want You To Be Your Man.

Location: Studio 51, 10-11 Great Newport Street, WC2H 7JA (blue, grey)

 

Vortex Jazz Club

Location: 11 Gillett Square, N16 8AZ

Website: www.vortexjazz.co.uk

David Backhouse 2024