London Jazz Diary

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!