A Night At Ronnie Scotts’ Jazz Bar
Jazz Verse Jukebox is an incredible event filled with live music, up and coming artists within the world of jazz. Singers and inspirational lyrically talented poets from all over the country come and show case their talent and skill in a close intimate setting. This event is held at the world-renowned Ronnie Scotts jazz club (upstairs) where the likes of jazz great Chaka Khan herself has performed. This night is hosted by BBC radio 2 presenter Jumoké Fashola. A stylish and larger than life character dressed in her head wrap and velvet coat welcomes you in with a smile that lights up the room and begins the evening by serenading you. Her voice is not the most melodic nor is it by any means the worst, but the passion, love and joy that comes from her appreciation for the art of jazz is reflected in the way she sings with this smooth tone. She opens the night with her ever faithful live band playing Miss Celie’s Blues (Quincy Jones), pure musical ecstasy. Cue the musical instrumental and you lose yourself until Ms Fashola’s smooth voice brings you back. The night has finally begun bringing out an army of real talent. Tonight’s line up consists of poets and spoken word performers BREIS (Brother Reaching Every Inner Soul), Katrina Naomi and Phil Lucas and the musical performers are singer songwriter Ayo-Dele and finally Guillermo Rozenthuler. All of these artists bring their own powerful way to perform with meaning. Ayo-Dele of african decent sings a song she wrote by the name of Titilayo, which is comprised of the african version of names of people in her family and it is simply beautiful with a simple acoustic guitar playing. As she sings her voice and its beauty only matched by that of the song, all you are able to do is sit in silence, listen to and appreciate what you are hearing and sit and think about how simple names could be made into such a song and expressed in such a way to show love and appreciation. Her musical style is fusion of jazz with a traditional african roots. The next artists that perform are the poets Katrina Naomi and Phil Lucas. Katrina performs a poem about her stepfather giving an inside look into her childhood and her inner thoughts. Phil Lucas takes a more comical approach to his poems as he writes about his own humiliation and short comings throughout his life which he captures perfectly in his poem Snapshot of Living my life as if in a 1970s sitcom. As the evening draws to a close before the last act performs the option is given for those in the audience to sing a song or to perform poetry. This is part of the night is extremely entertaining as you can be presently surprised or just surprised. No matter what you hear it is all in good fun and is great to see someone let loose and share with you what they love. The last performance is by BREIS who has an MC feel and style to his work encourages audience participation and interaction. He performs a powerful poem called Identity, in which he talks about being yourself and not allowing yourself to be limited or caged by others but rising to your full potential and be the best version of yourself that you possibly can. The night comes to an end with Jamoké gracing the stage one last time, thanking all those who performed and bringing us full circle with her ending the night with two more songs to end on a high note and leaving you wanting more. On thinking back on the night it was great to be able to experience such and event. Though I myself am more of a musical person, I was able to appreciate and indulge in the world of poetry as essentially it is someone allowing you into their world and sharing their own private thoughts with you but written in such a way that it can resonate with things that are in your own life and experiences.
By Malachi Hamilton