London Jazz Festival 2023 - Day 2

Up and out. 

St Pancras Station behind the British Library:

A quick cab ride to the north end of Marylebone High Street, and then a gentle wander in the crisp winter morning.

One of my favourite bookshops:

Amanda does like a good display of Christmas-themed thrillers:

The rear of the shop:

Out and more gentle strolling before stopping at the Paul bakery. We'd been here before and had enjoyed our visit.

Unfortunately, the smile on your author's face belies the fact that both the menu and the service had changed for the worse - a fact confirmed by the fact that my order was forgotten about and I had to go and remind them 15 minutes later.  A nearby couple were similarly inconvenienced as their order was also unacceptably tardy and forced them to leave without eating as they had "places to go".  It's unlikely that we'll be rushing back, but at least that gives us an excuse to check out other places in the area.

More walking and we ended up on Picadilly, where Fortnum and Mason was decked out to make it look like a large Advent calendar:

To Trafalgar Square, where the "fourth plinth" once again piqued our interest:

More walking, north up Charing Cross Road.  When we got to the junction with Cranbourne Street we took a detour off the main drag to pop into a branch of Pret A Manger for some more light refreshments...   ...and promptly and completely unexpectedly bumped into sister-in-law T, down for the day and shortly to have lunch at The Ivy with friends.  Since no-one would otherwise believe the coincidence, T took this as proof:

More walking, back to our hotel.  My travelling companion grabbed this shot of yours truly (circled):

The hotel foyer:

A rest, a freshen up and a change of clothes and we were ready to venture out to our second gig.

First, a visit to Nenno pizzeria:

A gentle stroll up Caledonian Road and then across to York Way, and on to Kings Place, where we took our seats.

We were there for a much-anticipated gig by American jazz drummer, pianist, composer and all-round musical wunderkind Tyshawn Sorey and his trio (Aaron Diehl on piano and Matt Brewer on bass).

The band took to the stage.  Tyshawn introduced his fellow musicians and explained that they don't talk between numbers and then listed the tunes they were going to play.  The three band members then looked at each other, checking that each was ready, and Tyshawn started to count off, "One and, two and...".

At this very moment I (and everyone else in the hall) became aware of footsteps coming from the back, behind and to my right.  If a squad of jack-booted Nazi stormtroopers had marched down the aisle and appeared at my elbow to arrest me I don’t think they could have been more disruptive to the proceedings - but this disturbance was caused by just two people - someone I shall refer to henceforth as The Girl (a more accurate description would be “The Sour-faced, Entitled, Poodle-haired Millennial Girl”) together with her boyfriend, who henceforth will be referred to as Gormless - arriving late to take their seats in the centre of the front row.  

Tyshawn paused, waited for them to sit down and then, with infinite grace, said "We'll take that again" and restarted the count…

As seen here:

Tyshawn played one of the smallest and most stripped-down drum kits I have seen being played anywhere other than by street buskers – snare and bass drums, hi-hat and ride cymbals only.

From the opening number (the standard “Autumn Leaves”, based on the French song "Les Feuilles Mortes" written in 1945 by Joseph Kosma) to the encore (the Harold Mabern tune “In What Direction Are You Headed?”), the band played a fantastic set of intriguing and complex music taken largely from their two most recent albums, Mesmerism and Continuing. 

And then it was all over and the guys said farewell:

 

“But wait”, I hear you ask, “what of The Girl and Gormless?  After their unforgivably rude entrance, did they really allow the rest of the concert to proceed in peace and harmony?”.  Did they b*ll*cks.

Around 20 minutes before the end of the concert, The Girl held her phone up, pointing it towards the band at around her head height.  It was clear that she was not taking photos or a video, because her screen was almost completely white (thereby increasing the visual disturbance to anyone behind her - fortunately we largely had people between her and our peripheral vision).  

After a few minutes of trying to avoid being distracted I worked out that she was scratching at the screen with her stupidly long talon fingernails and seemed to be using the touch screen for... sketching...  Goodness knows what this distraction was like for those immediately behind her or, indeed, for anyone with her in their direct line of sight.

At the end of the gig, Tyshawn – in a move more usually seen at rock concerts and MOST unusually for a jazz concert – threw his drumsticks off the stage towards the front row.  Words cannot describe my grim satisfaction when The Girl reached up to catch them, only for a couple sitting immediately to her right to grab both of them before she could.  

We left, taking a short cut behind Kings Cross and through St Pancras.  Around half way, like the little boy I still am, I stopped to watch around 20 construction workers about to hoist an enormous window unit a couple of hundred feet into the air to install in a new build:

While we were watching, we saw, walking by, the couple who had managed to grab the drumsticks.  I blurted out, "I'm SO glad YOU got those sticks", which drew slightly blank looks, until I continued, "because if the woman next to you had got them I'd have probably exploded".  The penny dropped instantly.  "OMG!!! Wasn't she awful?” they cried, “we had to keep holding our hands up to avoid the light - we'd have said something, but being in the front row we didn't want to disturb the band.  Yes, as soon as he threw them we thought “we're 'avin' both of them!"" And we all laughed - and carried on with our evening...

We walked back to the hotel, capturing these shots along our walk and in the entrance and foyer:

A good night's sleep and then an uneventful return to Leicester on the 12.02.

London Jazz Festival 2023 - Day 1

From 10-19 November, the 2023 London Jazz Festival hosted over 400 shows featuring 2000 artists from around the globe performing in more than 60 venues across the capital - and we were booked in to see just two of those performances: bassist Ron Carter at Cadogan Hall in the heart of Chelsea and, the following day, drummer / pianist / composer Tyshawn Sorey at Kings Place, just a few hundred yards from St Pancras.

Our initial plan - to travel down on each of the two successive days was vetoed fairly quickly - this would have involved getting home at ~02.00 from the first gig and then leaving the house to return to London some 14 hours later for the second - with a similarly late return home.  We might have managed that 20 years ago, but today - not so much...

Hotels were investigated and it was quickly determined that the Festival - and presumably pre-Christmas shopping - had inflated normally acceptable rates into the "ouch" category.  After some further thought we decided that, instead of biting the bullet and paying out an exorbitant amount for two nights in a mid-level hotel, we would use all the British Airways Avios points we had been collecting assiduously for the last few years and spend a somewhat less exorbitant amount on two nights in a fancier hotel.  

Bookings were made, bags were packed and we were off.

A straightforward run to St Pancras, arriving at 14.30.  A five minute walk to our lodgings for the next two nights:

This will do nicely:

After settling in, across the road for a hot drink and a snack, and then back to the hotel to change and prepare for our evening out.

A 15-minute walk in very light drizzle to the Warren Street branch of Honest Burgers.

For my dining companion, an Honest Burger (beef burger, smoked bacon, cheddar, lettuce and pickles, hold the red onion relish).

For me - something I had been looking forward to trying - a Warren Street Burger - supposedly inspired by the West End’s Korean shops, restaurants and karaoke bars - and consisting of a beef burger with bulgogi BBQ bacon, American cheese, gochujang burger sauce, kimchi, nigella seeds and lettuce.  

I have to say that this went immediately to the top of my list of recently experienced burgers (so much so that after our visit we acquired both gochujang sauce and kimchi, so I could try to recreate it at home). 

Out, and a short walk to Warren Street tube station, from where we travelled to Sloane Square.  A stroll around the Square, checking out local eateries for future visits, and then to Cadogan Hall:

Coats checked, drinks consumed and we found our seats and took the obligatory selfie.

The view from our seats.

It was at this point that the entire evening could so very easily have headed south. In the last ten minutes before the concert was due to start, immediately across the aisle from me, and uncomfortably within my peripheral vision, I noticed a woman setting up an A3 drawing / sketching board, complete with two battery-powered lamps on flexible stalks, on her lap.

As the house lights came down and the compere started the introductory remarks I crossed the aisle and said "You're NOT planning to have those lights on during the performance ARE you?". " Err - I can do without them". "Please do".

We were here to see 86-year-old bassist Ron Carter.  In the mid 1960s, Carter was a member of the second great Miles Davis Quintet and this alone would have been sufficient reason to make the effort to see him.  However, on top of that, in a career spanning 60-odd years, Carter has accumulated 2200+ recordings to his name, as either leader or sideman and is without peer.

Maestro:

On drums: Payton Crossley:

On tenor sax, Jimmy Green:

On piano, Canadian Renee Rosnes:

A fantastic concert. The setlist:

• 595
• Mr. Bow Tie
• Flamenco Sketches
• Seven Steps to Heaven
• Joshua
• My Funny Valentine
• You Are My Sunshine
• You and the Night and the Music

Out, and a brisk walk to the Underground, which took us back to St Pancras.

The Christmas 2023 'tree', created in collaboration with Hatchards, was this 12m  tall wonder, featuring a winding staircase and 270 shelves adorned with 3800+ hand-painted books, including "A Christmas Carol" and "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe".

At the bottom of tree are eight nooks where visitors, like this old geezer, can immerse themselves in the magic of Christmas, both figuratively and literally. Each nook is equipped with speakers through which one can hear five-minute excerpts from audiobooks based on the works of Charles Dickens, Beatrix Potter, Zadie Smith, and more.

Back to the hotel for a good night's sleep.