"What a brilliant club" - Forbes 2025
THE VERDICT
APPJAG Jazz Venue of the Year 2024
The Verdict is a multi award winning grass roots music venue, the only full time Jazz venue outside of London in the south of England, it has been named as one of the 10 top jazz clubs in Europe by The Guardian. Weekly hosting the best in jazz music with Top International acts, playing blues, swing, funk, Latin Jazz and fusion.
Byron Wallen Quintet : Remembering Andrew Hill
Friday January 24
Doors 7.30pm Show 8.30pm
Byron Wallen – Trumpet
Danny Piers – Piano
Kobe Heath Ngugi – Double bass
Sacha Harlan – Drums
Dominik Kosztolánszki – Saxophone
A leading light of the UK jazz world over several decades, trumpeter, composer and educator Byron Wallen has had an extraordinary career. His creative mind and constant quest for discovery have seen him work with musicians from around the world, including George Benson, Andrew Hill, Chaka Khan, Ingrid Laubrock, Hugh Masekela, Courtney Pine, Mulatu Astatke, Red Snapper, Lonnie Liston Smith, Style Council, Jack Dejohnette, Jean Toussaint, and King Sunny Ade.
These projects have taken him to countries such as Morocco, Nigeria, Indonesia, Syria, South Africa and Lithuania, often inspiring his own compositions. His original scores have been commissioned by a plethora of highly-regarded organisations, from the BBC, Southbank Centre, National Theatre and Science Museum to name just a few, while he’s also worked for Universal Pictures, Warner Bros and Game of Thrones. In 2003, Byron received the BBC’s ‘Innovation in Jazz’ award, and subsequently he’s been nominated for BBC Jazz, MOBO & Parliamentary Jazz Awards while winning the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists in 2017.
Currently a lecturer in jazz composition and history of jazz at London’s Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (where he also teaches jazz trumpet), Byron is also on the faculty at the Guildhall and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire as well as working with Julian Joseph Jazz Academy.
This performance is inspired by and dedicated to the brilliant jazz pianist, composer & Blue Note recording artist Andrew Hill. Byron was a member of Hill’s quintet in the last phase of his career, playing with him until his death in 2007.
This show will mark the debut of this new programme, and Byron has put together a quintet of the best and brightest of London’s up-and-coming players to join him on the stand: Dominik Kosztolánszki-sax & flute; Daniel Piers-piano; Kobe Heath Ngugi-bass & Sacha Harlan-drums.
“One of the most innovative, exciting and original trumpet players alive” Jazzwise;
“Wallen’s…performance…was an enthralling celebration”, Resident Advisor;
“Trumpeter Byron Wallen, a British Don Cherry for his nomadic world-musical assimilations…” Guardian
Mario Bakuna & Roberto Manzin : Tribute to Stan Getz & João Gilberto
Saturday January 25
Doors 7.30pm Show 8.30pm
Mario Bakuna - acoustic guitar and vocals
Roberto Manzin - saxophone
Mario Bakuna and Roberto Manzin invite the audience to celebrate two of the most important artists of all time: the American saxophonist Stan Getz and Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto in a tribute to the iconic album Getz/Gilberto. Getz/Gilberto was recorded in 1963 and is considered the album that popularised bossa nova worldwide and is one of the best-selling jazz records of all time, selling over one million copies. It was widely acclaimed by music critics, received the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, and also became the first non-American album to win Album of the Year, in 1965. In an evening full of harmonic richness, this virtuoso duo will transport the audience on an incredible journey through one of our most treasured musical pieces.
Mario Bakuna is a London-based Brazilian composer, singer and guitar player, with twenty years of professional experience. His study focuses on Afro-Brazilian music, Samba, Jazz and Bossa
Nova. Over the past few years, Mario has emerged as a leading figure and a reference in the Brazilian Jazz Music scene in England. Mario widely performs in Europe and beyond at distinguished venues and festivals alongside artists such as Jean Toussaint, Liam Noble, Ricardo dos Santos, Edmundo Carneiro, Cacau Queiroz, Alain Jean Marie, Dudu Penz, and Filó Machado. The concerts of his 2 albums 'Where Rio de Janeiro Meets Bahia' and 'Brazilian Landscapes' toured 18 European countries, Canada, Brazil, Madagascar, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, with great acclaim. (www.mariobakuna.com)
“Mario Bakuna, a sparkling guitarist, plays with palpable feeling – his virtuosic fluency on the fretboard is controlled and flourishes are perfectly placed. His voice has a texture like heavy cloth” – Songlines
“Mario Bakuna, a man who exudes music. (…) ‘vocals’ doesn’t begin to do him justice: his expressive range and the precision with which he was able to deploy it was truly the band’s fifth instrument. (…) And he did this while playing guitar with precision and finesse. (…) his solos were a further source of amazement, his technique somewhere between finger-picking style and classical. His solo introduction to a Baden Powell number made a hash of any attempt at a definition.” - The Whitman Review, Wakefield Jazz
Roberto Manzin was born in Rome, Italy, in a family of musicians. During the 1980s Manzin began playing in several music clubs in Milan, and during the 1990s was part of the Tony Scott Jazz Quintet (Scott being an American bebop clarinet player who performed with Charlie Parker and Billie Holiday). Manzin became a successful session player, contributing to eight albums in 1992 alone, with leading Italian artists as well as working extensively in TV where he played with, among others, James Brown, Zucchero Fornaciari and Manu Katché. In the late 1990s Manzin migrated to London, and over the years Manzin has performed and/or recorded with Martha Reeves and the Vandelas, Donna Summer, Dave Weckl, Jim Mullen, Harvie S, Pino Palladino, Trilok Gurtu, Kai Eckhardt, Dennis Rollins, Roberto Pla, Roland Perrin, Richard Bailey, Ernesto Simpson, Nicolas Meier, Jason Rebello, Ska Cubano, Manolín "El Médico de la salsa", Jesus Cutiño, Omar Puente, Alejandro Sanz, Rumer, Ismael Rivera Jr, Max Carletti, Carmel, Mario Biondi, Space UK, Dave Land, Adrian Reid; Maysa Leak, Francesco Lo Castro, Sid Gauld and Francesco Mendolia (from Incognito) and many others. Manzin continues to be a popular session player performing in music festivals and prestigious venues throughout Europe. (www.robertomanzin.com)
"...He (Manzin) has to be heard to be believed!" - Jon Newey, Jazzwise
"Sax-player Roberto Manzin's solos have something of the chromatic excitement of Brecker and the soulfulness of Sanborn." - Alison Bentley, LondonJazz
"An expressive player with an attractive sound, his improvisations reveal a skilful strategist, a melodist first and foremost, who gradually unfolds a solo and builds up to a compelling conclusion." - Charles Alexander, Jazzwise
"Woodwind virtuoso Roberto Manzin, one of the finest and most versatile saxophonists on the British scene" - Rainlore's World of Music
