Sunday Jazz

‘Sunday Jazz’ is a group of paintings inspired by sketches made at a local jazz night, hosted by Good Evening Arts at The Royal Albert on New Cross Road, every Sunday evening from 8pm, just down the road from The Bohemians. 

The inspiration is drawn from a consideration of rituals and the universal benefit of connections made to improvised music. At Sunday Jazz, people sit and stand respectfully in a circle surrounding the week’s musicians, a set up which means that you are responding not only to the band but to the other people who are there. There is a buzz of excitement, people gather, some dress up. For those who lean in, there can be a sense of meditation that is enabled by listening from a restful position in a crowd of engaged, open minded, individuals. Some people will be deadly still, closed eyes, whilst others may feel for movement, bobbing a head or tapping a foot, feeling for the rhythm and where it might deviate next. Musicians return to watch other bands in an act of community.

It is a ritual to end the week, requiring a dedication to leave the house for something that starts at 8pm on a Sunday. The reward is sense of grounding (and cold pint) in the midst of an ever on-the-move, ephemeral and faithless cityscape.

Three full sketchbooks with observational sketches have been used in reference for paintings in bright oil sticks and paint, made to more jazz.