As Habs students recently discovered, one of Europe’s leading jazz venues can be found in the basement of a Soho pizza restaurant.
This tiny room has played host to generations of renowned artists from across the world. With the audience crammed in, peering around columns and waiters, musical sparks will often fly as artists perform on stage. But the venue makes a great place to teach, too.
This year, we decamped from our sunny Elstree base to make more jazz music history at the iconic venue. We welcomed five young music ambassadors to join our teaching team – Immy, Mali, Aaron, Kielan and Arun. Our guest teachers came from a variety of renowned music colleges, ranging from the Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama, to the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.
As eminent writers, instrumentalists and bandleaders within their respective college, each ambassador brought their own sound and character. It perfectly captured the approach we take with our students, encouraging openness, personality and grit. Immy, Mali, Aaron, Kielan and Arun had all this in spades.
At its best, jazz is provocative, virtuosic and wildly charismatic. After all, it’s very much an underground music scene. So where better for Habs students to learn and play, than a legendary venue hidden beneath a pizza place?
