Zoe Rahman. Photo: Ilze Kitshoff

I AM always pleased when a venue offering jazz as part of its programming comes along, even if, as in this case, it’s a bit of a trek along the Northern line.

World Heart Beat is a new complex within the Embassy Gardens development, close to Nine Elms tube station. It is a combination of performance space and recording studio, as well as functioning as a musical education centre, mostly aimed at young people.

Scheduled gigs include folk, classical and world music, but there is a strong jazz showing in the concert hall, with several names familiar to this column, including pianist Zoe Rahman’s quintet (Jan 21), saxophonist Tony Kofi playing Thelonious Monk (Jan 28), virtuoso bassist Jasper Høiby’s compelling Planet B (March 4) and young but very much in-demand trombonist James Wade Sired (March 9). I haven’t caught the latter yet, but he has played with trumpeter Byron Wallen, vocalist Cleveland Watkiss and drummer Clark Tracey, which is recommendation enough.

There is an open day at the site on Jan 28, where visitors can find out about learning music opportunities, and try out various instruments. Details of all events at https://worldheartbeat.org/whats-on/.

The Jazz re:freshed outfit – a label and live production team, which helped like the fuse on the latest jazz explosion – has been around for a good while, but it recently put down new roots in east London. Formally based at the Mau Mau bar in Portobello Road, it now has a regular Thursday night slot at Ninety One Living Room in Brick Lane. It offers excellent value (tickets around £7), good sound, a friendly crowd and always a selection of rising stars on stage.

Let me point you at pianist Deschanel Gordon, winner of the BBC Young Jazz Musician title in 2020, who has come on in leaps and bounds since that prize. When I saw him last year, he was definitely combining some Ahmad Jamal lyricism sprinkled with a nice dose of Herbie Hancock funk and he is well on his way to finding his own voice. He is at Jazz re:freshed on Jan 26. Full listings on https://www.jazzrefreshed.com/events/

Deschanel can also be seen in three very different setting at Ronnie Scott’s in Soho. On Jan 25 he is part of the all-star line-up that forms the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, with Rosie Turton on trombone, Mark Kavuma on trumpet, Nathaniel Facey on alto and Cherise Burnett on vocal and flute duty, all under the direction of Peter Edwards. The ensemble will be celebrating the music of the recently departed Creed Taylor’s CTI label. Think Red Clay-era Freddie Hubbard, Deodato and Bob James.

Deschanel is also part of Kavuma’s high-energy collective, the Banger Factory, which plays the club on Feb 22. The pianist is back for an altogether more freeform session as part of an expanded Village of the Sun, with Binker and Moses on sax and drums and producer Simon Ratcliffe of Basement Jaxx fame manipulating the Sonics on March 4. A trio of very different gigs, perhaps, but all mouth-watering prospects. Tickets: https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/schedulemonthly

Another important crucible for the young jazz movement that began in the latter years of the last decade was a converted gearbox workshop in Stoke Newington called Total Refreshment Centre, where I enjoyed the likes of Binker and Moses, with free improv Maestro Evan Parker, wild boys Ill Considered and spiritual saxman Nat Birchall.
These days, TRC is a recording studio that also promotes shows at other venues across London and offers listening playback sessions to classic jazz albums on its amazing Quad system. To acknowledge its continuing role in the new music, Blue Note Records is releasing Transmissions from Total Refreshment Centre on Feb 27. The record celebrates the community that has built up around the venue and studio and features Byron Wallen, fabulous drummer Jake Long (of Maisha), and Soccer96, which is two-thirds of the Comet is Coming (minus Shabaka).

The result is eclectic and freewheeling, spiralling beyond jazz and into hip-hop ,dub funk. See https://bluenote.lnk.to/TotalRefreshmentCentre for a taster.

Just in case you think this column is only concerned with young bucks, there’s a couple of more experienced jazz hands you should investigate. First up, January means singer Ian Shaw’s annual residency at Pizza Express in Soho, where he invites a different friend/collaborator to join him each night. Except when he does a solo slot.

This year it runs from Jan 22-30 and guests include Mari Wilson (Jan 22), Natalie Williams (Jan 24), Georgina Jackson and Barry Green (lunchtime, Jan 28) and Claire Martin (Jan 29). I’ll certainly be there for the evening show on Jan 28, when Shaw will debut new material from his forthcoming album, written with and produced by his long-term consigliere, pianist Jamie Safir. Full listing and tickets: https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/ian-shaw-and-friends

Two other stalwarts of London’s jazz scene, Jason Rebello (piano) and Tim Garland (tenor) have a new duet album called Life to Life (Whirlwind Records). As you might expect from this pairing, the tunes sometimes feature knotty themes and complex time signatures, but more often than not it is an affectionate conversation that moves the heart as much as the head. Rebello has a gorgeous tone and touch, anticipating or responding to Garland’s every move (the equally adroit sax player was a bastion of the late Chick Corea’s band and also plays bass clarinet and soprano sax here). You can hear this exquisite album performed live in the appropriately intimate setting of St. Martin in the Fields on Jan 21. Book on https://www.stmartin-in-the-fields.org

Another dynamic duo is appearing at Hampstead Jazz Club on Jan 28. Guest Graeme Blevins, who has played with everyone from Kylie Minogue to Kyle Eastwood and, recently at Camden’s Jazz Café, Kurt Elling, is on alto sax, locking horns with the HJC resident tenor titan, Leo Richardson (Van Morrison, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Orchestra, etc, etc). They’ll be taking their musical cues from the Cannonball Adderley album Quintet in Chicago, which featured John Coltrane. I’d say these two top-tier brass players are guaranteed to raise the roof, if HJC wasn’t in a basement.

Tickets: https://hampsteadjazzclub.com/whats-on/graeme-blevins-leo-richardson-quartet/