The Jazz Café is a music venue in Parkway

Parkway

The term parkway has several distinct principal meanings and numerous synonyms around the world, for either a type of landscaped area or a type of road.Type of landscaped area:...

 in Camden Town

Camden Town

-Economy:In recent years, entertainment-related businesses and a Holiday Inn have moved into the area. A number of retail and food chain outlets have replaced independent shops driven out by high rents and redevelopment. Restaurants have thrived, with the variety of culinary traditions found in...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It opened in 1990, in the former premises of Barclays Bank, and has been run by Mean Fiddler Music Group

Mean Fiddler Music Group

Festival Republic is a UK music promoter. Among its interests, it runs the Reading and Leeds festivals and is contracted to manage the Glastonbury Festival.-History:...

 since 1992, now a subsidiary of the MAMA Group

MAMA Group

MAMA Group Limited is a live venue and artist management company which was founded in 2002 and is owned by the HMV Group. It is a parent company of a range of music and marketing businesses...

.

History

The original Jazz Café was founded by Jon Dabner in Newington Green, Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

 and many UK jazz musicians played there. These musicians moved to the Vortex Jazz Club

Vortex Jazz Club

The Vortex Jazz Club is a London venue that primarily features live contemporary jazz. The club's official website features book reviews and jazz CD reviews by critic Chris Parker....

 when the club moved.

It is now exclusively a music venue with a capacity of 350. One particularity of this venue is that there is a restaurant at the first floor from where shows may be viewed.

Performers

The Jazz Café has played host to many up-and-coming jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 bands such as Maceo Parker

Maceo Parker

Maceo Parker is an American funk and soul jazz saxophonist, best known for his work with James Brown in the 1960s, as well as Parliament-Funkadelic in the 1970s. Parker was a prominent soloist on many of Brown's hit recordings, and a key part of his band, playing alto, tenor and baritone saxophones...

 and Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine

Courtney Pine CBE is an English jazz musician. At school he studied the clarinet, although he is known primarily for his saxophone playing. Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also playing the flute, clarinet, bass Clarinet and keyboards...

 etc. Some very famous reggae bands come regularly to the cafe, including Lee Scratch Perry, The skatalites

The Skatalites

The Skatalites are a ska band from Jamaica. They played initially between 1963 and 1965, and recorded many of their best known songs in the period, including "Guns of Navarone". They also played on records by Prince Buster and backed many other Jamaican artists who recorded during that period...

, Max Romeo

Max Romeo

Max Romeo is a reggae and roots reggae recording artist who has achieved chart success in his home country, and in the UK. Romeo was responsible for launching an entirely new sub-genre of reggae, whose overtly suggestive lyrics caused an outcry but took a massive hold of the music scene regardless...

, Luciano

Luciano (singer)

Luciano is a Jamaican second generation roots reggae artist and poet....

, Marcia Griffiths

Marcia Griffiths

Marcia Llyneth Griffiths is a successful female singer, also called the "Queen of Reggae". One reviewer described her noting "she is known primarily for her strong, smooth-as-mousse love songs and captivating live performances".Griffiths started her career in 1964...

, etc.
A few drum and bass

Drum and bass

Drum and bass is a type of electronic music which emerged in the late 1980s. The genre is characterized by fast breakbeats , with heavy bass and sub-bass lines...

 bands are coming sometimes like The Bays

The Bays

The Bays are a group of English musicians that only play live improvised jazz and dance music. They have never rehearsed nor recorded in a studio as they do not release music commercially. This means they are also completely independent of record labels...

 or London Electricity

London Electricity

London Electricity can refer to:*The London Electricity Board, public utility company responsible for electricity in the London area prior to privatisation in 1990...

.

A few Hip hop bands play there like De la Soul

De La Soul

De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres...

, Blackalicious

Blackalicious

Blackalicious is an American hip hop duo from Sacramento, California made up of rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel . They are noted for Gift of Gab's often "tongue-twisting", multisyllabic, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel's "classic" beats...

, Lyrics Born

Lyrics Born

Lyrics Born , is a Japanese American rapper, record producer, songwriter, and voice over announcer. He is also one half of the group Latyrx with Lateef the Truthspeaker.-History:...

, etc.

External links

• The Official Mean Fiddler Website