Dates: Friday 8 August
Time: 7pm - 11pm
Place: The Gig Space, Level 5
Access: There is step-free access via a lift
Experience the future of UK jazz at NYJO's monthly residency at Peckham Levels.
Each month, a different ensemble of NYJO Emerging Professionals will work with Ahnansé (Steam Down) to create a one-off 45-minute set of original music, followed by an open jam session.
Expect bold, original music, boundary-pushing improvisation from London’s top emerging jazz talent.
With collaboration, community, and creative expression at its heart, this residency will create a space where jazz lovers of all backgrounds are welcome.
This month, they will be celebrating the music of Township Jazz, paying tribute to icon Abdullah Ibrahim, led by Pete Letanka.
Abdullah Ibrahim (formerly known as Dollar Brand) is one of South Africa’s most important jazz musicians, embodying the deep spiritual and political essence of township jazz. Born in 1934 in Cape Town, he grew up surrounded by the rich musical traditions of the city's diverse communities—African choral music, Malay and Indian influences, gospel, and American jazz.
Township jazz, which evolved in South Africa under apartheid, became a unique and powerful genre blending traditional African rhythms, gospel harmonies, and the big-band energy of swing and bebop. It was both acelebration of cultural resilience and a protest against oppression, reflecting the struggles and hopes of Black South Africans. Ibrahim’s early recordings with The Jazz Epistles—a pioneering group that included Hugh Masekela—captured the joyous yet defiant energy of this music.
About NYJO:
Also known as the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, NYJO is an organisation dedicated to making jazz and creative music-making more accessible to early-career musicians, young people, and audiences across the country. Throughout our activity, we seek to create a meeting ground between the established and the experimental – the past, present, and future – to build bespoke programmes which cater to lifelong and new jazz fans.