London Jazz Diary

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