Brew up a mug, grab a pastry and call in as often as you like. We look forward to meeting you!
Coffee culture, cafe society goes back centuries. We think of Pepys and his contemporaries coming together to wrangle over politics of the day – or those continental “Cafes des Artistes” where early 20th century poets, painters, musicians and philosophers would gather together to collaborate and share ideas …
Fast forward to the present day, where there has been a remarkable resurgence of coffee houses. The ‘coffee’ is often so much better than those milky frothy insipid brews I remember from my Kardomah student days – but sadly the ‘culture’ is rarely to be found. Today’s coffee houses are great (and well earned) meeting places for young mums with prams, the bedsitters who need a comfy warm space with wifi, the impromptu spaces for business meetings but …
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a space where musicians could meet informally and share music and ideas. A place where the coffee and cakes were superb, matched by the quality of the music and conversations surrounding it? A cafe where you could drop in regularly or infrequently and be guaranteed of some good coffee and stimulating company?
Recent activity
Hans Prya
January 7 2022
Contemporary jazz articles, reviews and gig listings are full of talk of fusions, crossovers and genre hopping explorations. They nearly always sound fascinating on paper so it’s a shame that the audible results can often be often a bit of a letdown. Too often it’s a tokenistic nod in the direction of something outside the standard jazz template before the band settles down into the usual jazzy conventions and noodlings.
So listening to Hans Prya’s My Note came as a welcome surprise …
Tina Davidson – some random thoughts
December 31st, 2021
Many visitors to the Cafe are telling us how much they have enjoyed listening to Tina Davidson’s Blue Curve of the Earth – subject of a recent Cafe Spotlight. So I thought it would be interesting to catch up with Tina to talk about her work. Fortunately for us, Tina is also a remarkable writer who is able to articulate her thoughts about music eloquently and poetically.
Soon Amore -Gently
September 21st, 2021
Recent years have seen a resurgence in choirs across the country – in part inspired by high profile TV reality series and competitions, the Gareth Malone projects etc. The quantity and quality of choral work across the UK is to be welcomed, not just for the music making but for the social benefits associated with bringing people together to make music. Sure, the quality might not necessarily be on a par with professional ensembles, but that’s hardly the point. By bringing people together to share in the joy of making music, the social benefits hardly need spelling out.
The New Music Café 