Vortex Jazz Club
Encyclopedia
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
venue that primarily features live contemporary jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. The club's official website features book reviews and jazz CD reviews by critic Chris Parker.
The Vortex started as a jazz club in 1987 and was located in Stoke Newington Church Street
Stoke Newington Church Street
Stoke Newington Church Street is a road in north London of the borough of Hackney. The road links Green Lanes in the west to Stoke Newington High Street , in the east...
. However following the acquisition of that building by property developers, the club relocated in 2005 to the Dalston Culture House in Gillett Street, N16, where it is at the heart of the newly-created Gillett Square, one of mayor Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
's 100 public spaces for London. The Square opened on 10 November 2006 with a performance by Andy Sheppard
Andy Sheppard
Andy Sheppard is a British jazz saxophonist and composer. He has been awarded several prizes at the British Jazz Awards, and has worked with some notable figures in contemporary jazz, including Gil Evans, Carla Bley, George Russell and Steve Swallow.-Biography:Sheppard was born in Warminster,...
's Saxophone Massive, composed of 200 saxophonists. The street in front of the club was renamed Bailey Place in December 2007, after guitarist Derek Bailey.
Many notable jazz musicians have played at the Vortex, including Last Amendment
Last Amendment
Last Amendment is the working title of a series of collaborations by ex-members of the anarchist punk band Crass and others...
, F-IRE Collective
F-IRE Collective
F-IRE Collective is a creative music community founded by Barak Schmool in London, United Kingdom. Additionally, the Collective also has a record label....
, Derek Bailey, Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
, Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, John Etheridge
John Etheridge
John Michael Glyn Etheridge is a British jazz/fusion guitarist associated with the Canterbury Scene....
, Tim Berne
Tim Berne
Tim Berne is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.Described by critic Thom Jurek as commanding "considerable power as a composer and ... frighteningly deft ability as a soloist," Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s...
, and Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
. The first release on the club's own record label is by the Portico Quartet
Portico Quartet
Portico Quartet are a 4-piece modern jazz group from London and Southampton. Their sound is made distinctive by the use of the Hang, a 21st Century percussion instrument used on all their tracks. The group is composed of Jack Wyllie , Duncan Bellamy , Milo Fitzpatrick , and Keir Vine...
. The Jazz Club also hosts a Vocals@Vortex Open Mic Session which is run by Romy Summers and the house band The Bob Stuckey Trio. This gives aspiring vocalists and musicians the opportunity to perform in a well-respected venue. Many artists have been discovered through their talent by this successful evening. Most notably, Danijel Farrugia, a young Jazz pianist from North London, made his debut performance at Vocals@Vortex before performing elsewhere in the capital on the Jazz scene.
The club was started by ex-taxi driver David Mossman in the late eighties, and through his open-minded booking policy it became perhaps the only venue which consistently was able to put on contemporary jazz nightly, justifying the epithet "London's listening jazz club". The new venue in Dalston continues this approach and attitude.
The club was nominated as a venue of the year by the Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group in 2006 and 2007.
In 2007, the club set up a record label, Vortex Records, in order to release the debut album by london buskers Portico Quartet. The album went on to be nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize.
The original club developed such an affinity with its locality that local residents established the Occupied Vortex Social Centre at the club's original site for two months in early 2007 in protest at the proposed demolition of the building for the construction of a Starbucks
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an international coffee and coffeehouse chain based in Seattle, Washington. Starbucks is the largest coffeehouse company in the world, with 17,009 stores in 55 countries, including over 11,000 in the United States, over 1,000 in Canada, over 700 in the United Kingdom, and...
and upmarket apartments. The original building is now a Nandos.