Music

What's on at The Vortex

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It’s the only venue of its kind in London. One where you may find musicians running the show, with the likes of Nigel Kennedy munching pizza and enjoying the music (but don’t let that put you off) where Christine Tobin may pour you a drink behind the bar, while you sit just feet away from an incredible, one-off collaboration between US sax heavyweight Tim Berne furiously improvising with UK piano and sax geniuses Django Bates and Evan Parker. Billy Jenkins will serenade you while you play chess too, if you’re lucky. All for little more than a tenner. Yet this is a typical night at The Vortex, a venue that’s breaking the rules of how jazz clubs are run and is forging a path for jazz itself.
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Surviving for 18 years on determined perseverance and narrowly avoiding a near-death closure when developers forced the sale of its original home, the Vortex has come through its relocation from Stoke Newington to a dedicated art space in Dalston for a rebirth into rude health. It’s done this by engaging with its audience and performers to provide a multi-layered platform for both live and recorded music that now extends beyond the confines of putting bums on seats. The result is possibly the capital’s most consistently exciting venue; the spiritual as well as geographic home to a new generation of groups who are set to make London the most forward-looking city for music in the world.

A performance by Pamelia Kurstin with Seb Rochford, Liam Noble and Ingrid Laubrock

With the biggest London Jazz Festival to date (192 gigs in 47 venues) about to kick off, The Vortex has truly settled into its new home in Gillett Square. The square opened at last year’s LJF. With a fanfare played by 200 saxophonists from Andy Sheppard’s Saxophone Massive it was a clarion call ushering in a new era for both The Vortex and Dalston’s arts scene. The current momentum is thanks to 27-year-old manager, Will Gresford, who’s been running the venue for two years. With an open-minded booking policy, Gresford has struck a balance between bringing in big-name international artists as well as actively encouraging little-known acts to perform.

However, this is just the starting point for a much more holistic approach to surviving and thriving in the choppy waters of today’s music scene. With the inaugural release on the newly established Vortex Babel label of the Portico Quartet’s debut album, ‘Knee-Deep In The North Sea’, they are also starting a student membership initiative, podcasting gigs at the club (with a view to releasing them) and wi-fi enabling The Vortex. Gresford is radically shifting the boundaries of how venues can develop their potential.

After 18 years in a decidedly hard-to-get-to location, the move to edgy, energetic Dalston has helped reinvigorate The Vortex’s creative remit. Despite being only a mile apart, Gresford tells Time Out that the two areas are in ‘completely different universes’. Will beams when he talks
about Dalston, but is realistic about its current state: ‘“On the way up” is a generous way of putting it; it’s got quite a long way to go. Having said that, it’s amazing what’s going on here. Within 500 yards of the Vortex we’ve got the Rio cinema, one of north London’s coolest independent cinemas. Then you’ve got the Arcola Theatre down the road, which is a wicked little space, and then you’ve got The Vortex. And that’s all in this tiny part of Hackney: three really vibing, independent, arts venues. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to all start working together in the future. There’s talk about there being a Dalston arts hub and doing more stuff together. It’s unusual to have such a strong arts presence somewhere like this.’

Like many involved with jazz, Gresford was drawn into the scene through its far-reaching network of musicians. Singing as a classical chorister from the age of six right through university, Gresford first worked as a production assistant for music broadcasting legend Paul Gambaccini, forming connections throughout the industry. He then got the call from his old school friend Dom Franks (previously booker at the Jazz Café and The Vortex’s interim manager) who said there was an opening to run the club. Two years on and the Vortex is the epicentre of the UK’s vibrant new jazz scene, one that is enjoying a creative renaissance for the first time since the late 1960s and early 1970s when its forbears such as Ian Carr, Mike Garrick, Kenny Wheeler, John Taylor and Evan Parker (and many others) were rewriting the rule book of British post-bop jazz. When you walk up the stairs to the venue’s main room, stunning black and white photographs chronicle these musicians, honouring their uncompromising creative spirit. This same spirit is also being felt by a new wave of bands, very much the musical progeny of Polar Bear, Acoustic Ladyland and the now decade-old F-ire Collective.

Emulating rock acts, both with singular group names and a heightened sense of style, they are attracting young audiences seeking alternatives to mainstream indie and rock, or an improvised answer to programmed electronica. Four bands leading the charge are Fraud, Led Bib, Empirical and the Vortex Babel label’s inaugural signings Portico Quartet. Gresford is effusive about the latter: ‘I love them and they, for me, represent a really exciting shift in the way jazz is working. They are not actually jazzers, but isn’t that great? They didn’t go to one of the [music] colleges – they were at SOAS and Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, doing art and ethnomusicology. And they have chosen to play music that is immediately accessible but it’s not pop or rock music; the fact that these cool young guys decided “we want to do jazz” and it’s happening says a lot.

‘I’m also impressed with the cool young bands and how they promote themselves; they are getting their shit together, posting their MySpace pages and hustling, and they are doing a pretty good job. They are making their records themselves and selling them at gigs. Portico are a bit special in that area; they’ve got Duncan who does the artwork and they produce beautiful CDs. They went busking around Europe and sold 2,000 out of the back of their car.

‘Another amazing band that I’m really happy to have had at The Vortex are Empirical,’ says Gresford. ‘They did their first London gig at The Vortex then they launched their record here too earlier this year. They are another example of a band that looks great; they are cool, young guys who can wear pink ties and pull it off. Looking good is crucial. I bore on about this a bit but I feel strongly that bands need to be doing the whole package.’

The future of this music is in the hands of the next generation and, recognising this, Gresford is introducing a student membership scheme, which will enable students to come into the venue for just £1: ‘These are the kind of people that we want to attract, the guys that are going to be our supporters in years to come; so let’s invest a bit of time and money in that. And going to gigs is such an important part of a jazz music student’s life.’

Last year the Royal Academy of Music held its end-of-year exams at The Vortex. It was a masterstroke, connecting the venue with the next generation of musicians and listeners, and the education establishment, yet Gresford programmed it as a night just like any other: ‘We had the examiners at the back and an audience; it was a Friday night in June. We said, “You have the club, it’s your night.” Rather than doing it in a classroom at the Academy; this is what you are going to be doing; this is what you are about. If, a year from now, this is what you are going to be doing and you want to make a living, you better shape up!’

The Vortex, 11 Gillett St, N16 (020 7254 4097/www.vortexjazz.co.uk).

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