 | A major contributor to this article appears to have a close connection with its subject.(May 2017) |
Kansas Smitty's House Band is a London-based group that specialises in original jazz music. The band run their own bar and HQ on Broadway Market in the London Borough of Hackney.
Kansas Smitty’s House Band was formed in 2013 by Jack Abraham and Giacomo Smith. The band are a 7-piece group who describe themselves as ‘a group of jazz-addicted twenty-somethings who run their own bar’ [1]
The current line up is:
Pete Horsfall- trumpet
Giacomo Smith- alto sax
Alec Harper- tenor sax
Joe Webb- piano
David Archer- guitar
Ferg Ireland- bass
Will Cleasby- drums
Past members:
Reuben James- piano
Ruben Fox- tenor sax
Adrian Cox- clarinet
Pedro Segundo- drums
Theon Cross- tuba
The band has collaborated extensively with Lewis Durham of Kitty, Daisy & Lewis. In 2018 the band has planned collaborations with Curtis Stigers, Lewis Durham, and Shingai Shoniwa.
The band has performed at venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, Wilderness Festival, Jazz Café, Vortex Jazz Club, Shoreditch Town Hall, Rough Trade and the Vaults Festival. They have also hosted their own Mardi Gras events in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and have produced their own events at The Peckham Liberal Club and the Dalston Pond.
The band has appeared on BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6, including twice on BBC Radio 2’s Friday Night is Music Night.
In 2015, Kansas Smitty’s House Band realised they needed a home for their music, and so, set up Kansas Smitty’s on Hackney’s Broadway Market. This intimate basement bar is a rehearsal space for the band as well as a live music venue. A musical community has been built around the bar which offers musicians such as Reuben James (pianist on Sam Smith’s world tour), Howe Gelb, Louis Cole, Bruno Major, Howard Alden and Joe Stilgoe. Kansas Smitty’s has received positive reviews in a number of publications, including the Evening Standard, [2] Design My Night and the Hackney Gazette [3]
The band has been awarded four stars in articles in The Times [4] and been reviewed in the Evening Standard. [5]
Their debut album was included in the Daily Telegraph's 50 Best Jazz Albums of 2015 [6] and was included in The Arts Desk review of the best new vinyl in 2015. [7]
Their music has been played on Jamie Cullum's and Clare Teal's BBC Radio 2 shows and was broadcast live from Cheltenham Jazz Festival on Cerys Matthews' BBC Radio 6 Music show earlier this year.
Food critic, journalist, and author, Jay Rayner, is a supporter of the band and wrote the liner notes on their most recent album, Kansas Smitty's Live. He performed with the band at their London Jazz Festival performance at Shoreditch Town Hall in 2016.
| Year | Catalogue Number | Title | Format | Playtime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | KS001 | ‘The Band’s Been Drinking/Kansas Smitty’s’ | 7" 45rpm vinyl | 7mins |
| 2015 | KS002 | Kansas Smitty's | 12" 33rpm vinyl, CD, digital | 38 mins |
| 2016 | KS003 | Kansas Smitty's Live | CD, digital | 39 mins |
| 2017 (projected November) | KS004 | Movin' On | In production | |
| 2018 | KS005 | Broadway 2018 | CD, digital | 37 mins |
Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area.
Jamie Cullum is an English jazz-pop singer, songwriter and radio presenter. Although primarily a vocalist and pianist, he also accompanies himself on other instruments, including guitar and drums. He has recorded nine studio albums, three compilation albums, one live album and twenty-four singles. Since April 2010, he has presented a weekly Tuesday evening jazz show on BBC Radio 2.
Sir John Phillip William Dankworth, CBE, also known as Johnny Dankworth, was an English jazz composer, saxophonist, clarinettist and writer of film scores. With his wife, jazz singer Dame Cleo Laine, he was a music educator and also her music director.
Soweto Kinch is a British jazz saxophonist and rapper.
Gwyneth Herbert is a British singer-songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. Initially known for her interpretation of jazz and swing standards, she is now established as a writer of original compositions, including musical theatre. She has been described as "an exquisite wordsmith" with "a voice that can effortlessly render any emotion with commanding ease" and her songs as being "impressively crafted and engrossing vignette[s] of life's more difficult moments".
Sharon Delores Clarke is an English actress and singer. She is a three-time Olivier Award winner, and is best known to television audiences for her role as Lola Griffin in the medical drama Holby City, and as Grace O'Brien in Doctor Who. Clarke has also played lead roles in many West End musicals, and originated the roles of the Killer Queen in We Will Rock You and Oda Mae Brown in Ghost the Musical.
Gwilym Simcock is a Welsh pianist and composer working in both jazz and classical music. He was chosen as one of the 1000 Most Influential People in London by the Evening Standard. He was featured on the front cover of the August 2007 issue of the UK's Jazzwise magazine.
Iain Ballamy is a British composer and saxophonist. He is considered one of the greatest 25 jazz saxophonists of all time and was featured as one of the world's all-time greats in "100 Jazz Legends". BBC Music Magazine. December 2011. The Guardian described him as "one of the world's distinctive saxophone voices". One of his closest musical collaborators is Django Bates.
Leona Louise Lewis is a British singer, songwriter, actress, and model. Born and raised in Islington, Inner London, she later attended the BRIT School for Performing Arts and Technology in Croydon. Lewis achieved national recognition when she won the third series of the television talent show The X Factor in 2006, winning a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music. Her winner's single, a cover of Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This", peaked at number one for four weeks on the UK Singles Chart and broke a world record by reaching 50,000 digital downloads within 30 minutes. In February 2007, Lewis signed a five-album contract in the United States with Clive Davis's record label, J Records.
Sav Remzi is a creative entrepreneur, record producer and impresario. He is responsible for a number of imprints over the past three decades, including the music label Nuphonic Records, the Blue Note ClubShoreditch, Xfm's London Xpress radio shows, Tirk Records, the Lovebox Festival, and the discovery of various hit artists including New Young Pony Club and Fujiya & Miyagi.
Trevor Watkis is a British jazz pianist, composer and arranger.
Denys Baptiste is an English jazz musician. A graduate of Tomorrow's Warriors, Baptiste plays tenor and soprano saxophone in addition to composing.
YolanDa Faye Brown is a British saxophonist, composer, and broadcaster. Her musical sound is a fusion of reggae, jazz and soul. In 2022 she was appointed chair of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
The Fitzrovia Radio Hour are a group of British comedy writer/performers, formed in 2008 and consisting of Jon Edgley Bond, Alix Dunmore, Alex Ratcliffe, Phil Mulryne, Tom Mallaburn and Martin Pengelly.
Gary Williams is a British jazz singer, writer, and broadcaster whose performances include concerts, cabaret shows, and theatre. Williams has recorded ten solo albums and written Cabaret Secrets, a book on stagecraft.
Richard Pite is a British professional musician and jazz historian specialising in the jazz of the early 20th Century. He is founder of two music companies - PartyJazz and The Jazz Repertory Company and is also the Director of Music for Boisdale which presents jazz and other live music on a nightly basis at its four London venues. For many years he specialised in 1920s music and the drum techniques and visual tricks of the era's jazz drummers and over the last 12 years has worked together with musical partner Pete Long, to preserve jazz history through live performance. Together they have recreated historic moments from jazz in association with The National Jazz Archive. For the 100th Anniversary of Gene Krupa's birth in 2009, Pite staged the only UK concert celebrating the life and work of the artist who was one of the most important and flamboyant drummers in jazz history.
Martha D Lewis is a British Performing and Recording artist regularly performing in the Contemporary Jazz and World Music scene in the UK and Europe. She is also a Presenter, Broadcaster, Composer, Multi-Instrumentalist and Educator. Lewis' work combines Mediterranean and other world musical influences with Jazz and electronica. Lewis is Patron of the Leukaemia Cancer Society UK.
Nubya Nyasha Garcia is an English jazz musician, saxophonist, composer and bandleader.
Grand Union Orchestra, also known as The Grand Union, is a multicultural world jazz ensemble based in London. It has been performing, touring and recording large-scale shows for over 30 years and is well known for its educational work.
Solomon's Knot is a baroque and early music vocal & instrumental ensemble, based in the United Kingdom.
| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
