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[title]A beatboxer spits into the mic while a tenor saxophone warbles between breaths. A young MC mouths bars from his phone and a singer clambers on stage, the beat switching to a syncopated swing as she hurls her deep vocals over a bluesy keyboard riff. Some of the crowd shout and wave their hands in the air, while others listen intently. Oh, and it’s Monday night.
It’s been exactly one year since Orii (meaning ‘soul’ in Yoruba) held its first open jam. Taking place at the red-lit Colour Factory in Hackney Wick, it sees musicians of all skillsets play impromptu, the sounds of jazz, soul, hip hop and R&B warping into one. Some people are here to swap out with the house band and perform. Others are on first dates. Others are here to big up their pals, or simply to soak up the vibe.
‘Musicians wanted a space to reconnect and play together after lockdown,’ says founder and multi-instrumentalist Fred Bwelle, aka Neue Grafik. The night started off small, with a group of friends playing together. Since then, the weekly sessions have grown substantially, mostly by word of mouth. Even Thundercat made a surprise appearance last year. ‘It was insane,’ Bwelle says. ‘He let a lot of people get up and play with him.’
Each jam starts with Orii’s house band, with the main MC, Germane Marvel, driving the flow when members of the public join in. ‘Last week, two Brazilian musicians showed up and we did a big bossa nova track,’ says Bwelle. ‘Each jam has its own personality, and the crowd [also] changes what happens on stage. That’s why I’m really proud to have a diverse audience, with a lot of people from the LGBT and the black community.’
Tara Lily, a jazz singer and pianist from south London, has been posting TikToks of the jams – including her cover of Miles Davis’s ‘Blue in Green’, with a hip hop makeover and new lyrics. ‘People really have a chance to get up and play at Orii, so it has a lot of mad energy,’ Lily says. ‘I like being able to perform with people like myself who are young, broke and adventurous, and can push the boundaries.’
The talent coming to these sessions is eye-watering. ‘Max McKenzie is a little rapper that I saw coming with his pen and writing his own lyrics, one hour before Orii,’ Bwelle says. ‘Now, he’s freestyling constantly for three or four hours.’ Bwelle also nods to singer Muva of Earth and drummer Benjamin Appiah, among many, many others.
It’s exciting, but should we really be surprised? In the last five years, London has experienced a jazz renaissance, with stars like Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Ezra Collective (often nurtured by programmes like Tomorrow’s Warriors and venues like Total Refreshment Centre), liberating the genre from its chin-stroking tradition and making it their own. This feels like the next chapter.
‘Generally, this is a scene that has evolved from lack of opportunity – it’s not Ronnie Scott’s,’ says Lily, who grew up in a council flat in Peckham, surrounded by rap culture. ‘That’s what we’re hearing that’s blowing our minds: people are merging sounds together. It’s fresh, it’s adventurous and it’s spontaneous. For me, that’s what jazz is all about.’
Orii isn’t the only weekday jam in town; the scene is thriving. Bwelle said he took inspiration from Steam Down Weekly at Matchstick Piehouse in Deptford, set up by multi-instrumentalist Ahnansé in 2017. In Hackney, there’s Patterns at NT’s Loft, the women and queer-focused Popola Jam at The Jago, Ariwo’s Afro Cuban electronica jams at Grow plus a hell of a lot more. So, if you’re bored of your usual Deliveroo curry and ‘Gogglebox’ re-runs during the week, get on down to a jam session.
Orii Community is at Colour Factory each Mon. £7 on the door.