Gypsy-Jazz in London Town.

[pippy]

The other evening the wife and I had the luxury of an evening out in 'Town', as our 7-y-o daughter was having a sleep-over at the house of one of her friends.

 

We had heard about this place near Clapham Junction where they had allegedly captured the mood of a Parisian Bistro from the fifties with gypsy-jazz played every night and decided to give it a go.

 

What can I say?! Absolutely fantastic place. It's a small restaurant (but will also serve drinks-only) and in one corner there is a small (8' x 6') stage where, on the night we went, two guitarists shared the platform with a double-bass player and they were all giving their best to get through the whole of Django's repertoire!

Just before they took a short break they were joined by a clarinetist who stayed for the rest of the evening, adding a great counterpoint to the string-section.

 

They also have special concerts with some well-known travelling G-J players from around the globe.

 

Here's a link to their website for anyone into this style of music and who can make it down;

 

http://quecumbar.co.uk/

 

For those souls brave enough to get up on stage they have a Jam-Night pretty much every Tuesday from what I can gather. The guys there the other day were more than happy to chat with the crowd and one guy let me try out his Gitane guitar for about five (or ten) mins during the break

 

Really friendly place, good food and the wine list is choice and very reasonably priced (for London!).

 

I'll definitely be going back.

 

P.

[Versatile]

Excellent post P. !!

 

The really nice thing about G-J is the high skill and low volume

 

IMO Gary Potter is one of the best exponents around today

 

He performed at the mainly Starbucks sponsored Jazz festival locally a year or so ago...

 

V