London Jazz Diary

Here’s another quick news update for our London jazz bands this summer, read on for a summary of our highlights over the last month or so…

First off, a quick name drop. We performed jazz recently at the London launch party of the new Jaguar car range, and were delighted when none other than Harry Redknapp popped down to lend his support, here he is pictured with the managing director of Jaguar UK, Geoff Cousins…

You can see our jazz musicians in the background, we performed as the full instrumental jazz quartet of saxophone, piano, double bass and drums, for this repeat client, and the show room was in Mayfair in central London. We loved the ice sculpture of the new Jaguar car too!

LISTEN to this jazz band right NOW! All of our London based jazz bands can be heard here:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=507

Another instrumental jazz group was hired by a top London legal firm to celebrate their purchase of a new headquarters in the heart of the City Of London. To match their budget and space requirements, this time the client opted for the City Jazz Duo, featuring guitar and sax, and we entertained the executives who had flown in from all around the world. As you can see from the picture we snapped below, the views from the terrace on the top floor were simply stunning, and we have been assured we will be invited back for more atmospheric jazz music in the future!

Talking of repeat clients, you need look no further than the good folk at AT & T for a prime example, who book us at least 2 times a year, whenever they need jazz for their London based corporate events. In fact they seem to book bigger jazz ensembles every time, which obviously receives no complaints from us! As can be seen above, we were playing our jazz outside in the garden at the Royal Horse Guards Hotel in central London, and thankfully the weather held out for the jazz, barbecue and drinks party. The choice of jazz musicians? The full City Jazz Quintet featuring the incredible Elizabeth on lead vocals, singing classic jazz standards as the sun set over this intimate setting.

Need more information or samples? Don’t forget to visit the main City Jazz site, where you can book a top London Jazz Band RIGHT NOW! Jazz Link: www.cityjazz.co.uk

So far the summer has been very kind to everyone here at City Jazz, our top London jazz bands have played at a whole range of fantastic events in London and beyond!

Special mention has to go to a couple of our favourite venues that we have visited again this year, namely Kensington Roof Gardens, and Corney and Barrow in Paternoster Square. As you can see from the pictures below, these venues are simply stunning! First off we played jazz for a Bar Mitzvah in Kensington, with the client opting for the City Jazz Trio, our most popular jazz combo for corporate functions in London. This group featured saxophone, guitar and bass, and was the ideal choice for atmospheric jazz music for this high end event in West London.

For more information and audio samples of our jazz trios and other london-based jazz instrumental groups, visit the City Jazz website here:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=507

As for our jazz gig at Paternoster Square, this was another top notch corporate event that required some uplifting jazz to get the party started in style. A jazz quartet was the order of the day, which featured the amazing female jazz vocals of Elizabeth, one of London’s finest jazz singers. Paternoster Square is a fantastic modern development right next to St Paul’s Cathedral, and the Corney and Barrow bar has stunning views, the perfect setting for jazz singer and accompanying band. This was a great night for a corporate summer party, and the DJ after us ensured dancing and drinking went on until the early hours!

For more information on our London-based jazz singers, visit the City Jazz link below:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=512

That’s it for now, expect more news over the summer, and don’t forget to visit our main website to book a London jazz band, our jazz bands are available to be booked, right now, just give us a call: www.cityjazzz.co.uk

Greetings, and hello to all of our City Jazz clients from the beginning of the year, through spring, and now as we launch full ahead into the summer. We’ve been completely maxed out as ever, serving London with a steady flow of fresh jazz music for birthdays, weddings and corporate dos.

A massive congratulations to all of our jazz wedding clients so far this year. There’s nothing like the sound of swinging London jazz band to get things going, and we’ve been all over the place, including Burhill Golf Club, Carvasso’s in Chiswick, The Mandarin Oriental and a number of private residencies.

We’ve also had a real mix of corporate and private functions and events, including retirement parties on the Thames, and for a member the RMT rail union (Bob Crowe is now our biggest fan!) in a pub in Euston. In addition, our London jazz musicians have played at many corporate conferences and award ceremonies, including venues such as The Dorchester, The Millenium Hotel, The Royal Garden Hotel Kensington, and the Winchester Club in Putney.

We love playing for shop launches, and were delighted to be invited to the Conran store in Chelsea to launch their summer season, despite most of the shop being out of the average jazz musician’s price range! Ikea is normally our first port of call! I have to say though, Conran had some simply beautiful things and sales seemed to be buoyed by our atmospheric jazz performances, in what is a stunning building in West London. They opted for the jazz trio featuring sax, guitar and double bass, and we have promised repeat bookings in the future after the success of this event.

You can here samples of our instrumental London Jazz Musicians here:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=507

Our final thanks go to our charitable events of the year so far, including a James Bond themed ball in London Bridge for Leukaemia Research, and the launch of a new Children’s centre in West London. We often provided a reduced rate for charity balls and functions in London, so if it’s jazz you’re after for your fundraiser, please do get in touch! The Casino Royale theme featured smooth yet sassy vocals from Elizabeth.

You can here samples of our London Jazz Singers here:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=512

That’s all for now, back to our busy schedule of jazz events over the summer. Thank again to all of our clients so far in 2010, here’s to a continued prosperous year of Jazz in London!

If you like what see and hear, please do get in touch!
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/

Here are some of the highlights from December, one of our busiest ever festive periods!

Wedding Jazz In Battersea

As is often the case, the trained musicians of City Jazz found themselves entertaining the punters at a wedding reception in central London, providing wedding jazz of the highest order! The client opted for the trio featuring sax, piano and bass, with a special request of “Can’t Smile By You” from Barry Manilow – an unusual one for the London jazz band, but performed within the best possible taste! The venue was this beautiful pub in Battersea (see above), the duchess, and we played during drinks / canapes, and during the wedding breakfast. This is a common choice for subtle and sophisticated jazz for a London wedding recepetion band.
If you’d like to hear the City jazz Trio feat. Piano, check it out HERE

Christmas Party Jazz in Central London

Another hectic period for your festive party jazz! Following on from the other jazz gigs mentioned on this blog, we started off at the White Hart in Barnes for a luxury fashion good company. A lovely Youngs  Brewery pub with a view of the river, we did a 20s jazz set with sax, stride piano and 20s jazz vocals from Emilia Martensson, a fabulous jazz singer on our books. The theme was jazz gangsters, and the party went very well, as the client put it

“Just to say how great you all were on Friday. Matched what we were after perfectly. Thank you so much!”

You can here more of our London-based vocal jazz HERE

Other Christmas party music provided by us included corporate party jazz out in Surrey at the stunning Addington Palace, more gigs at Canary Wharf playing jazz Christmas Carols, and office party jazz for Channels Design shop in Chelsea, BT at the BT Tower again, and AT&T at the Royal Automobile Club. Picture highlights below…

Very Special Wedding Jazz…

One final special mention must go the the wedding we did at Penhurst Palace out in Kent. As you can see the setting and venue were simply gorgeous, including an open fire in the middle of the first hall we played in (see above). This was a good example of how we can provide different jazz bands at different stages of your wedding. We started off with the City Jazz Trio featuring sax, piano and bass to accompany the initial wedding reception with drinks and canapes – mulled wine here aplenty! Then for the evening do in the marque we did a full jazz quintet featuring vocals, sax, bass, drums and piano.

A fantastic day had by all, and here’s wishing all of our clients a very jazzy Christmas for 2009!

To find out more general information on our top London Jazz Bands, please visit:
www.cityjazz.co.uk

Just a quick blog entry about one of our gigs towards the end of last week, again with Christmas shopping as a central theme. Having played in the West End the week before, it seemed only fair that we provided the East End of London with our top London Jazz Trio, the City Jazz Trio. We have built up a great relationship with Canary Wharf, having played at the shopping centre and other venues on many occasions, including arranging for 9 different solo sax players to be spread around the shopping centre for Valentine’s Day Jazz earlier this year!

This time around we were positioned in one of the main busy thoroughfares in Cabot Place East, and we pulled quite a crowd as well as entertaining the punters passing by – this was clearly helped by the prospect of free chocolate fondue nearby as well! Chocolate and jazz, who could want more this Christmas! The idea behind the event was to celebrate the introduction of the winter season for the shoppers. The client opted for the City Jazz Trio featuring sax, guitar and double bass, (listen to this jazz here), one of our most popular London Jazz Bands, as you can see from  previous blog posts. We played a mixture of traditional and contemporary jazz standards, including tunes from Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter. We had many compliments from passers by, including one family with young children who decided to dance away for a good 20 minutes!

Don’t forget if you are interested in booking a London Jazz Band for your launch event, private party or corporate function, you can find out more on our website here: http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/

Just a quick blog entry to confirm that despite a good schedule of jazz work in the diary, we still have plenty of availability left if you need to book a London jazz band this Christmas party season. As we tend to get a lot of last minute enquiries too, I thought I’d do a quick blog post with my top tips for the party season…

City Jazz

Background / Instrumental Jazz
Recommended: The City Jazz Trio
Our London jazz band offerings include a full range of ensemble sizes, but recently the trio has been the most popular choice. The trio always features the saxophone and double bass, and then you have the choice of either jazz piano or jazz guitar to complete the line-up. The piano is the sophisticated dinner jazz options, ideal for cocktails  and black tie events and that classic Hollywood Christmas jazz experience. The guitar is an equally popular option here, and is often the choice for young and hip companies in the West End and hip East of London: the guitar has a great breezy and bluesy feel, perfect for letting your hair down at the end of a long year. On a practical note, the guitar is often easier to fit into tight spaces, and if space is really tight or if the budget isn’t quite there for the trio, don’t forget we can also do a recession-busting jazz duo for your party in London or beyond! Quartets featuring drums are also an option if you want the full whammy.

You can hear samples of the City Jazz Trio featuring both piano and guitar, plus the other options on the main city jazz website, here:

http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=507

Vocal Jazz For Christmas In London
There is nothing quite like the impact of a smart and sophisticated jazz singer at your company or family Christmas party, and we have a broad range of offerings. If you are looking to hire a London jazz singer or London jazz band, for Christmas, here are my top tips for the yuletide season:
Male Vocals: City Jazz Featuring Brendan
Brendan is a top choice and very popular for London jazz gigs, not only because he has a wonderful singing voice, but also as he plays the piano too, a la Jamie Cullum, and so can offer incredible value. This really is the Buy One Get One Free option! Brendan sings classic jazz standards you will know and love from the likes of Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack era, and is available in a duo with sax, right up to a full quartet featuring piano/voice, sax, bass and drums.
Female Vocals: City Jazz Featuring Elizabeth
Classy, sassy, sexy jazz vocals all come naturally to Elizabeth, one of our most popular London-based jazz singers. As well as years of jazz singing experience, she is also an experienced actress, and so her stage presence is second to none, and will add all of the Christmas sparkle your corporate Christmas party would need. The most popular choice would be the quartet of sax, bass, piano and Elizabeth herself, though other options are available to suit the style, size and budget of your Christmas party.
Full On Party Band: City Funk
So perhaps you really need to pack some punch and make sure your guests or employees are seeing the year out in style, with dancing guaranteed? Look no further that City Funk, our soul and funk band offering, working within London and beyond. Think Northern Soul, Motown, Funk, Acid Jazz and Disco music from acts such as Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson Five as well as more contemporary and up to date groups like Jamiroquai, The Brand New Heavies and Beyonce. Guaranteed to get the dancing going, this is certainly not background jazz music, and is available in many different sizes, our top tip would be a minimum of a six piece band here.

To hear samples of all of the above vocal groups, please visit this link on our main website, City Jazz:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=512

So that’s it my one stop guide to hiring a London jazz band or singer for your Christmas party, please get in touch for more information and a quote, and may all your jazz Christmases be white, perhaps with a touch of the blues from us!

As part of our schedule for this week, we were invited to play some atmospheric jazz in a well-known department store in London’s famous West End, a private champagne reception to launch the new range of  fashion and gifts for the Christmas season. Pictured above, the client opted for the Jazz Trio featuring guitar, which took some planning as we had to navigate around a busy Oxford St and up to the 2nd floor, overlooking a very festive atrium.

To listen to samples of London’s finest jazz trio, along with our other London jazz bands, visit this link: http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=507

As you can see we got into the spirit of things, pulled a couple of mannequins, and even tried out some leopard print gear, but it wasn’t really the right look for the jazz band me thinks…

This was a repeat booking for us, and the client was delighted, especially as she convinced us to do a little extra at the end for the punters, which included the royal household apparently. It probably is way too early, but Oxford St was looking all Christmassy and twinkly as you’d expect. The real magic came from our London jazz band trickery of course!

Interested in booking one of our London-based jazz ensembles?
Visit www.cityjazz.co.uk for more info!

A great mix of jazz gigs this week…

Firstly we performed at an event to celebrate the end of a big admin project at UCL University, in the heart of Central London. A Jazz Trio featuring guitar, sax and bass was the order of the day, and much champagne was quaffed by the large university team.  A quote from the client

“Many thanks for the fantastic music!  A number of people commented how much they enjoyed it. I also really appreciated that you arrived early and made suggestions about the best times to play and take breaks based on what was going on at the reception.  That was a huge help to me.”

We were then asked at short notice to perform at an event at the BT Tower, again in central London. This turned into 3 events in the end as we got asked back by popular demand, and we were playing for a corporate do with family members invited too (hence children running around!) The ensemble was the City Jazz Trio featuring sax, piano and double bass, performing 3 sets spread across the night. Needless to say the views from the top of the tower were unbelievable, especially considering we had one whole floor of the tower as our changing room! The highlight was play jazz at the top of London, being there for the bonfire night celebrations, and we could see all of the major displays across London, whilst still managing to play the right notes just about…

Finally we were asked to play at a grand Indian birthday celebration, a 50th birthday no less, at the Cumberland Hotel near Marble Arch in London. Again the jazz trio featuring piano was used, and we performed a couple of requests, including “summer time” which was the birthday boy’s favourite: turns out he was a sax player himself. Birthday jazz always goes down well, and we play at many events at the big hotels in West London. Also present were some fantastic Indian dancers, though I’m not sure we’ll be donning the bikinis and feathers for our next gig!

For more general information about City Jazz, please visit www.cityjazz.co.uk

Amongst our recent gigs, it was our pleasure to play at a classic car auction at Battersea Evolution, a large warehouse style venue in Battersea Park, London. Following a couple of conversations on the phone, we decided that a sassy female jazz singer would be the best option for this event, which was to encourage rich people to spend a LOT of money on some truly beautiful cars.  The top London jazz singer chosen for this high end sales event was the incredible Elizabeth, hired in the City Jazz Trio (sax, piano and vocals). Having had many positive comments and card requests from the punters, the client decided to surprise us with complimentary champagne in our dressing room after the performance: a lovely touch, though please note we do not encourage drink driving!

To hear Elizabeth in action visit our website here:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=512

We just had a fantastic week playing at the launch of a range of products from Gaggenau, maker of high end kitchenware. Like the most amazingly posh stuff you’ve ever seen! This was a big undertaking for the guys at City Jazz, the client hired the City Jazz Trio featuring sax, guitar and bass for a total of 5 nights in a row, at relatively short notice. The jazz trio is a very common choice for hiring a jazz band for a corporate event in London, and the guitar adds a great fresh and funky feel to the atmoshpere, ideal for breaking the ice. The venue was One Marylebone, the converted church opposite Great Portland St tube station in London, which presented a challenge as the acoustic was very vibrant. We accompanied both the “meet and greet” and main dinner sections of this event, which were in different rooms, but extensive planning ensured we achieved these sets of jazz with minimum fuss.

If you want hear this group and other instrumental jazz groups, see here:
http://www.cityjazz.co.uk/default.asp?contentID=507