"It's rare in London to see people just shut the f*ck up during a jazz gig and listen"
Festoon lights twinkling the rumble of trains overhead and the soothing sounds of jazz - this is the setting for one of our favourite jazz gigs in London - Hidden Jazz Club.
We are big fans of Hidden Jazz Club and have written about it before. It’s a live music event run by musicians. They host jazz gigs at a handful of cool venues across London, venues you would not necessarily associate with a Jazz gig. One of its regular venues is under the Peckham railway arches at Peckham Springs bar. It’s a super intimate and really magical venue to enjoy the sounds of jazz from some seriously talented musicians.
We popped down to their gig last week and bumped into a friend of ours, Rishi, enjoying his first Hidden Jazz Club gig. Being a musician and a jazz fan we asked Rishi what he thought of the gig.
Hidden Jazz Club at Peckham Springs in Peckham. Image: SouthEast15
“It was really refreshing to see such high-quality jazz played by such modest musicians - with no high-brow nonsense. I would choose a gig like this over Ronnie Scott’s any day. There was such an intense synergy between the musicians, all of which had such individual voices and complemented each other throughout. The melodic structures of well-known jazz-ballads were stripped down and reinvented, it all felt wonderfully spontaneous and fresh.
The drummer blew my mind, a fantastic modern twist on be-bop, funk, soul and swing. The double bassist was a great improviser. As a musician, she felt more internal - which provided such an exciting duality to the band.
I’m not that much of a fan of the more soppy ballads, but there was a beautiful rendition of ‘The Nearness of You’, it was also great to hear the story behind the composition, told by Theo, the host and pianist.
Theo was a great presenter and musician. He is incredibly friendly - it was lovely to see him approach and chat with audience member in-between the sets.
Peckham Springs - what a sick venue. During the gig, trains would pass through glass windows from the station above - quite a magical setting.
It felt like the audience was filled with music lovers, rare in London to see people just shut the f*ck up during a jazz gig and listen!
One of the most inclusive jazz gigs I’ve seen in the city. “
- Rishi Pelham
Check out Hidden Jazz Club’s next gig at Peckham Springs here and the other venues they are playing at in Shoreditch, Hammersmith and Waterloo. Tickets are £18 for 2 hours of fantastic live music.
4-5 Dovedale Trading Estate, London SE15 4QN
