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[title]Belvedere Road is home to the Southbank Centre. My parents took me there as a kid – I’m from Catford, and I don’t think I’d ever seen so much culture in one place before. There was skateboarding, concerts, buskers and a food market. It felt like a creative, spiritual home.
Then, when I was 16, I’d rehearse at the Southbank Centre with [jazz education programme] Tomorrow’s Warriors. I was at the beginning of my musical career and I wasn’t sure where I fitted in. I was into jazz and grime and art, but I didn’t have many representations of people who had put all those things together. That’s why going to a place like the South Bank was great, because I could rub shoulders with a bit of everyone.
I saw my musical heroes like Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock there. My favourite memory was meeting Roy Haynes, one of the founding drummers of jazz. I sneaked backstage to get some secrets from him; he just told me to enjoy life. It was beautiful and affirming. If I could go back, I’d tell my younger self that I was on the right path. Putting yourself in front of where you want to be is never a bad thing.
Moses Boyd is part of Tour de Moon, touring the UK until Jun 16. Tickets here.
Read more from this series:
Chef Vivek Singh on finding a home for his first restaurant in Westminster.
‘Hamilton’ star Giles Terera on the pizza that changed his fate.