foday, in Sav Remzi's circle one phoned up last night, asked: 'What time of new bohemians, jazz is does the show start?' I said: 'What dme can not ,ust the word, it is the you get here?'." chapter and verse. For his In the Nineties, jazz is everywhere - in generation there are no other restaurants, shops and adverts. Add the atten- islands to escape to. tion generated by the London radio station "Whenever I say the word Jazz FM (currently reaching just under 'jazz', everybody's eyes seem to 800,000 listeners weekly), plus the burgeoning light up,'l says 26-year-old jazz clttb scene in the capital - further evi- Remzi, whose jazz club; Red denced by the opening ofthe ultra-modern Eye, opened in south London last Jazz Caf6 in Camden, London's largest jazz month. "It's the base of all music club - and the new jazzershave a ready sub- today - that's why it's so popular. culture to absorb themselves in. And with It's also a music that is warm, sexy, Ronnie Scott's now booked up weeks in erotic, and heardelt." advance andJazz FM beaming out loud as the Remzi is not alone in this belie{, only 24 hour-a-day jazz starion this side of for although jazz wlll always be an New York, it is London, many say, that has acquired taste, demanding a very open leapfrogged Paris as Europe's jazz capital. pair ofears, out ofits arcaneness jumps Yet it has taken more than one cry ofreviva| a dynamic and dangerous music; jazz forBritishjazzto carve out and strengthen this living as the diverse, transcendent niche. First picked up by Tlte Face in the early "sound of surprise". Eighties, jazz t:egan to re-assert itself as a a radical pop force such dance club DJs as This may be period for cultural through u F if you are fifteen, but to Remzi, acid house Paul Murphy in London and Colin Curtis in zo not only lacks weight, but it gives him a Manchester, and via the new accessibility l @ profound sens e of ddjd ou.Many of his friends afforded by the more user-friendly, sharp- o can remember wearing flares and dungarees stited jazz of such American players as U F the first time round. And rock seems a Wynton and Branford Marsalis. Still smarting G if f o creatively spent force, heavy metal pro- from the excesses of the Sixties avant-garde O foundly Seventies, and classical music too and the ponderous fusion of the Seventies, po-faced and square, jazz is the answer. Eighties jazz saw a rapprocbemezt with the past o E In many ways Remzi is the quintessenrial and a return to the classic bop form. As US o UO modern lazz fan: young, stylish, switched-on saxophonist David Murray explained: "The E and, as an entrepreneur, as much motivated music's just got to start to swing again." E by the spirirual qualities of the music as by Not that jazz hasn't always had a foothold = its commercial possibilities. Ten years ago he in Britain - the 100 Club in Oxford Street, @ would have been as enthusiastic abortjazz as one ofthe country's longest-standing venues, I E he was about Demis Roussos, and his exper- first opened its doors in 1947. But not since o o ience of jazz clubs night ts limited to a one-off the Absolute Beginner beatniks of Colin o with Ronnie Scott and his."jokes"... "Some- Maclnnes's Soho got the message in the late = (C(ool For A new generation of players and clubbers have discarded their trainers to rediscover the style and sass ol iazz. Philip Watson repods on the real rhythm of the Nineties Fifties has there been such acute attention. ciations of the music cannot be ignored. whole elusive concept of hip. "Music and life The arrival of Courtney Pine clinched it. "The way you look in front of an audience are about style," says Miles Davis, the undis- A dynamic combination of musical and street affects the way they receive you. If certain puted crown prince of hip, in his recent credibility, Pine spearheaded the great British guys can't see that then they're shutting their autobiography, and many of the music's icons Jazz Revival by being, like his contemporaries eyes to something that is common sense," says have born witness ro rheir union. in the US, everything a new audience could 26-year-old saxophonist Williarnson, who Ever since the Cotton CIub reviews in wish for: black, weil-dressed, precociously creditsJean-Paul Gaultier on the sleeve ofhis Harlem in the Twenties and Thirties ,lazzhas talented and, most importantly, young. debut album Waltz For Grace, and who has held up an impeccably cool mirror to the When his debut LP on Island, Journey To made an arrangement with Emporio Armani world. And the cool world has slinked Tbe Urge Witbin, was released in 1986, Pine to "campaign" its clothes. He sees his clothes back Kerouac, Lenny Bruce was just 22 and playing such venues as The as a reflection of the quality of his music - and the Beat Fridge in Brixton - clubs that hadn't l.rosted somerhing that locuses more attention on ir, jazz before. The album went on to sales of not less. "I don't want people talking 70,000 - unheard of in a market where moving while I'm playing; I want to 5,000 records is still considered miraculous. be taken seriously." Rob Partridge, former head ofpress at Isiand, Stressing it was Pine's refers to the record as "a landmark; the British "world-class talent" that jazz world's equivalent of Tbrillef'. first attracted him, Part- And in the media wake, many other young ridge is also the first to British musicians surfaced - Andy Sheppard, admit that Pine's sartorial Steve Williamson, Tommy Smith, Jason sense was a marketing bonus. Rebello, Cleveland Watkiss. Collectively they "Yes, it probably did help that present an impeccably stylish, highly market- he wasn't 65, balding and an able lace of jazz, wirh Pine seeming as com- habitual wearer of buggy, fortable on Top of tbe Pops, Wogan, or ads for woolly jumpers and sandals. Wedgwood dinner plates, as recording music Courtney looked very sharp. But for AIan Parker's Angel Heart and the BBC's thar's thc tradition; to deny jrzz its The Cbain, and appearing on stage in front of style is to deny it an awful lot." 1,500 people at London's Sadler's Wells. 7n fact lazz is not just sharp, it Yet whatever the resentful cries from the stings; it shines and cuts through like old guard, and the bitter mistrust of lazz's new a razor. Tbe metaphor for style, jazz marketing hype, the style and lifestyle asso* lives as an urban shorthand for the Tuning up: Duke Ellington (top righil takes live with his orchestra. lmpulse record sleeves lright), alongwith those ol Blue Note and Prestige, set new standards in design and typography. Loiidan:$orn pianist fulian /oseph is a graduate of rhe prestigious Berklee Scbool in,'Bosfan, Matsncltusetx. Strongfjt influenced fu tbe denselj, harmonic stlles of Herhie 't$$:;t*a*rotk and McCojt T3truer, f oseph batiitnbilthed a siyificaru.r repuration on hirb siies of rbe Atlawtic plrying witb Courtnejt Pine arud Sterte Williamsz?t ltx their ddbur LPs, and rouring tbe Ut with the Branford Marsalis Qgartet. /osepb is set to grab some oJ'rhe uell-earned limelight bimself this March uith the release oil east\\,est of his first album as leader. /a/ ,,y' -i' uf"t'& These joints are jumpin' IAZZCAFE 5 Parkway, Camden Town, NWl (071-284 43581. London's largest and newest jazz venue, Jon Dabner's 500-capacity Gamden Gaf6 was formerly a branch of Barclays Bank. Birmingham At a cost ol !400,000, it has been designed by architect Tchaik Ghassay, who was THE CANNONBALL Adderley Streel l02l-772 14031. Brum's responsible for the interiors of both the Groucho Club and Zanzibar. Features include a bar premier lazz session. From avant-garde to straight ahead. Live sets by the entrance, table seating near the main stage, an upstairs restaurant and a roof upstairs on Friday and Saturday, and iam sessions on llVednesday in terrace. The venture is a determined attempt to present a healthy mixture of iazz styles in this lively public house. something other than a sweaty, smoky club environment. The venue's musical policy reflects Dabner's intentions: big Brighton American names OUR THING Beachcomber Club, 214 Kings Road Arches (0273 alongside the best of 2O28O71. Every Fridan from 10pm to 2am, 300 dancers let ofl to new British talent. Blue Notes, organ grooves and the Latin jazz selection ol Dls Russ C AF Dewberry and Baz Fe Jazz, Z Bristol THE ALBERT INN 1 West Street, Bedminster (0272 6619681. Live and direct, every Sunday. Enthu- siastic, smoky pub ambiance that attracts both modern-day iazzbos and old school bohos. 0n Tuesdays, hop on a train and savour the intimate live vibe of The Loft in Sawclose, Bath. THE COOKER Floating Dock (0272 2933011. Step across the gangplank and slip into the hold o{ The Thekla. Moored Gaf6 society: Caf6 (abovel is a long waylrom the smoky in Bristol's Floating Dock, this booming Friday session has basement club stereotype, (Below), the late and greatJohn Coltrane. live sets and funky free-style iazz courtesy oI DJs Tin Tin and Dr lam. Arrive early. Edinburgh PTATFORM l Galedonian Hotel, Princes Street (031-225 24331, Sink into the armchairs for a cooking straight ahead IAZZ CAFE 56 Newington Green, N16 (071-359 49361.