Monday evenings are jazz nights at the Snowdrop.
It’s a bit of a secret gem despite my best poster efforts. Terry Seabrook, the excellent jazz pianist, hosts it, with guest musicians each week. They’re top jazzers: tonight it’s Mark Bassey, trombone maestro, with Tristan Banks on drums. Terry’s on organ, his left hand a walking bassline. They swing hard from the start, punching out the tune of Cherokee, then chasing each other’s solos over the form. It’s riveting: a powerhouse trio, three top musicians, playing the Great American Songbook.
A young boy and his grandmother, absorbed, are at the next table, and a young woman on her partner’s lap cradles her pregnant belly. Mr Thompson joins us, quietly: John’s recording the gig on his Tascam and filming with his other hand. The one not holding his Harvey’s. Paul, Lewes’s famous IDM, comes in, attracted by the live sound; he dumps his gear and swings into his moves. And he’s a good dancer: it’s great to see jazz being danced to. He comes into his own on the band’s funky The Chicken, and the young couple smooch to Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.
The Snowdrop would be my local, if it wasn’t at the opposite end of town. But I don’t mind walking so far to see music of this quality. You jazzin’?