Kennington's Toulouse Lautrec Jazz Club is a gem of a venue in London and well worth visiting and supporting. An independently owned and run Jazz Club, it has an atmosphere deliberately evocative of New York meets Parisian Jazz clubs. Just five minutes walk from Elephant and Castle, it's situated on the second floor with a piano bar also below, plus an affordable French restaurant with a delicious fixed price menu too.

A true Jazz scene veteran barely into his thirties, tonight's gig by guitar prodigy Artie Zaitz's quartet of grooving, swinging musicians was fascinating to me, as it was billed as a Jazz Blues evening. Indeed, I wanted to hear some pure Jazz as well as experience the intersectionality of the Blues, and his quartet duly delivered on all scores. A modest, cool, Jazz Blues man, Zaitz plays on a 1960 Gibson ES330 and the rich retro bluesy tonality was there in his excellent guitar grooves.

Complemented by accomplished, low key, top flight jazzmen, the excellent tenor saxophonist Alex Garnett was Zaitz’s co MC and front man, while Lorenzo Morabito played with perfect understatedness on double bass, as well as drummer Jack Thomas who played with deliberate underplay. Their composite Jazz sound was spellbinding. Indeed, the impressed audience were silent and enrapt, that amongst others, included multi-award winning Blues singer/songwriter Connor Selby's Essex school contemporaries as well as some lovely ladies on a wedding party!

Overall the set did melt Jazz with Blues, but to me it was more of a Jazz element than Blues, influenced by Garnett’s composition, commentary and sax playing. However for me I would like to have heard more of Artie's guitar work rather than Alex dominating. Although, with its Blue Note Miles Davis inspired sound, do check out Ziatz’s 2024 album, 'Regulator', which not only showcases his individual Blues meets Jazz style, but also offers much more, including a Hammond vibe.

Tonight, this very talented quartet's set included 'Cedar Tree', 'Lockdown Blues', and 'Camel Bump'. I also enjoyed the original 'A Cunning Stunt' and Garnett’s 'Starmaker', before their encore of Milt Jackson & Wes Montgomery's 'S.K.J.', which was fun. Indeed, with their sophisticated sound, this was a most enjoyable show.

Review, Photos & Video: Denise Lester