Commencing on November 17th and nestling within the London Jazz Festival like a pearl in an oyster, is BopFest. Sited in Ladbroke Grove, this boutique festival-in-a-festival celebrates, as the name suggests, the glories of unadulterated bebop — once the difficult avant-garde of jazz, now the strong and swinging mainstream of the music. BopFest’s venue is the Elgin, a handsome high-ceilinged Victorian boozer near Portobello Road. The attractively intimate music room at the back of the pub boasts a fine Yamaha grand piano and can accommodate eighty pleasure-seekers. The Elgin had strong associations with punk rock and, indeed, was Joe Strummer’s local. Jazz lovers need not take fright, though. Punk was just one phase of the pub’s long musical legacy; before that it was a hangout for Mods. And now it looks set to be memorably linked with high quality jazz.
While the LJF pursues a largely European and modernist agenda, BopFest aims to balance the equation by putting the emphasis on straight-ahead playing and exciting British jazz at its purest and most enjoyably accessible. It’s the brainchild of the pleasingly rhyming duo of Allison Neale and Nat Steele. Both are working professional musicians, rather than suits, which bodes extremely well for BopFest, and for our ears.
Steele is a vibraphonist and drummer. He’s cited by Clark Tracey as one of the “best vibes players this country has ever produced,” while Dave Gelly called him “a remarkable young vibraphonist in the Milt Jackson tradition.” Steele’s love of popular jazz is revealed in his influences — the likes of Jackson, and Cal Tjader. His quartet are among the night owls who regularly play the Late Late show at Ronnie Scott’s, offering a syncopated and sizzling lullaby for the nocturnal hipsters of the capital.
read more: http://news360.com/digestarticle/AvyHPtQ3uE-lyIjCyqkhcw
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