Brick Lane Jazz Festival

Jazz is meant to be a free flowing experience. Brick Lane Jazz festival on the other hand, was anything but. As I walked slowly behind fellow attendees, packed so tightly I'm pretty sure I could accurately guess the last time the person in front of me washed, my British patience for queuing was tested.

The lack of logistics and execution made the £70 ticket price feel steep. One pass gave you access to 5 venues surrounding Truman Brewery, including JuJu’s, Werkhouse, and 93 Feet East. Each had its own charm, 93 Feet East with its flower embellished garden felt like a proper summer party at times, and Ninety One Living room did evoke the warm feeling of sitting on someone's sofa. Although the intimate nature of the performances was a redeeming factor if you actually got in, most venues couldn’t cope with the crowds. With only one or two gigs on at a time, people spilled out into the streets and punters were repeatedly told they couldn’t get in.

The music itself nearly made up for the kerfuffle, two highlights being Emma Rawics and Kay Young. Emma, a tenor saxophonist influenced by art, 90s pioneers like Joe Henderson, and latin jazz, felt comfortably familiar, but with a genre-crossing twist. She was accompanied with rolling drums, keys and chest vibrating bass, but it was the addition of rock and roll style guitar I found particularly interesting. If the head bopping from the rest of the crowd was anything to go by, I wasn’t alone.

The energy of upcoming rapper Kay Young nearly blew the roof off 93 Feet East. Performing a song from her new EP ‘We Rich’ she reminisced about the simpler days of pocket money, ‘me and my bro got £1 for the day, don’t talk to me we rich’, over Tom Misch style riffs and catchy trumpet. Her playful lyrics and infectious excitement made it near impossible not to smile, and at one point she had the whole crowd stepping left to right in unison. She was clearly very grateful for the opportunity, and I was grateful to the festival for giving it to her.

Whilst the festival’s focus on emerging talent felt refreshing, and bookings felt diverse across ethnicity, gender and style, some heavyweights would make the ticket price feel more justified. Big names in the London Jazz scene such as Yussef Dayes, Ezra Collective, and KOKOROKO would have been an exciting addition to the programme. One of the more established names on the lineup, Lex Amor, was playing Village Underground for an extra price. This felt, quite frankly, cheeky.

All in all, this festival has promise. In its second year of running, it gave an important platform to a multi-faceted array of emerging jazz talent. Unfortunately it was a very disorganized, queue-ridden and expensive platform.