"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.
Pete Roth Trio Feat. Bill Bruford
Friday February 21
Doors 7.30pm Show 8.30pm
The Pete Roth Trio features leader Pete on guitar, Mike Pratt on bass, and the incomparable Bruford on drums.
The band creates jazz for a new generation of music enthusiasts, exploring beyond traditional jazz conventions. A jazz standard might reveal its essence only in the final moments of performance. Roth’s original compositions, such as “Dancing with Grace,” the Trio’s collaborative works like “Trio in Five” and “Looking Forward to Looking Back,” or their reinterpretation of masterworks like Anton Dvorak’s “Largo from Symphony #9,” offer just a few gateways into the creative world of the Pete Roth Trio—a world that will likely reshape your perspective on what the guitar trio format can achieve.
Germany-born Pete found inspiration as a youngster in the raw emotion of blues and the electrifying energy of rock. However, his musical horizons expanded when he ventured to England to study jazz. There, he delved into the rich complexities of the genre, drawing influence from luminaries such as Joe Pass, John Scofield, and Julian Lage. Equipped with a passion for innovation, he embarked on a solo career, culminating in the recording of two albums under the banner of MGP Records. His artistic journey continues to evolve with this exciting new endeavour.
Stadium-filling prog-rock hero Bill, idolised for his work with King Crimson, Yes and, briefly, Genesis, has long been fascinated by and involved in jazz. He followed his own jazz-fusion outfit Bruford (which included Allan Holdsworth) with the hugely successful Bill Bruford’s Earthworks that involved, at various times, collaborations with heroes of the genre such as Django Bates, Iain Ballamy, Tim Garland and Gwilym Simcock. Having retired from making music in 2009, he recently returned to the stage, and has played a series of low-key dates in the South East with this newly-formed group.
Bassist Mike performed fortnightly at Ronnie Scott’s for several years in the ensemble Shorter Than Miles. He plays and writes for the jazz fusion project KGQ with Kieron Garrett featuring Dave O’Higgins and Duncan Eagles on saxophone, with two albums on 33 Jazz Records. He has performed with Acantha Lang and Liane Carroll, and at the Cape Town Jazz Festival, the Jazz Cafe and The Royal Albert Hall.
The Rools
Saturday February 22
Doors 7.30pm Show 8.30pm
Ed Ashby – Sousaphone
Robbie Robson – Trumpet
Pat Levett – Drums
Rob Updegraf – Guitar.
“Since discovering the glorious music of the American band Khruangbin during the lockdowns of 2020, their music has inspired and soothed my soul. I thought it would be fun to play some of their music with a ‘pocket band’, different instrumentation, and introduce some original music, inspired by them.”
Ed Ashby is a tuba and sousaphone player based in London. He performs in a range of fields, specialising in jazz and pop, and has played with a wide variety of ensembles, ranging from the Hackney Colliery Band to the Philharmonia Orchestra Brass Ensemble. Ed has performed with artists as diverse as Rag N Bone Man, Eliza Doolittle, Eric Idle and Mulatu Astatke, and has toured the UK and Europe extensively as well as travelling further afield for tours to India, South Africa and the USA. In 2019 and 2021 Ed was a member of the band for the sell-out run of A Midsummer Night's Dream at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and most recently in 2024 was one of five musicians in the band for the modern adaptation The Taming of the Shrew. Ed has performed at the Brits in the O2 Arena, Glastonbury Festival, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Barbican, Love Supreme Festival, and WOMAD Festival, as well as at the Royal Festival Hall and the Houses of Parliament.
Robbie Robson has won prizes for Outstanding Musicianship and Composition. He was a national finalist in the Young Jazz Musician of the Year and the runner up in the Perrier Young Jazz Musician. He plays regularly with Hans Koller, the Gareth Lockrane Septet, Alcyona Mick Quintet, The Calum Gourlay Big Band and the London Jazz Orchestra. He has also worked with Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Lane, Phil Woods, Mike Gibbs, Evan Parker, Jamie Cullum, and the James Taylor Quartet. He has recently recorded albums with both Bill Frisell and Steve Swallow.
Pat Levett started out learning piano and flute from an early age and went on to be a chorister at Peterborough Cathedral for three years. During his teens he switched his attention to the drums and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music in 2000. Since then he has performed and recorded with many different projects and artists including:
The James Taylor Quartet, Tim Minchin, Tom Jones, The Ronnie Scotts All Stars, Paloma Faith, Billy Buckley, Joe Stilgoe, The Ronnie Scotts Blues Explosion, The James Hunter Six, Liane Carroll, Jon Cleary, Zigaboo Modeliste (The Meters), The Nigel Price trio, The Fortress Brass Band (for the England Rugby and Cricket team), Tom Hickox, The Engine, Jon Allen, The Filthy Six, Elliot Randall (Steely Dan), Earl Thomas, Paul Jones (Manfred Mann), Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake), The Big Shake Up, Anthony Strong, Dizraeli, Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show), Gareth Lockrane Big Band, Elaine Delmar, Tim Lapthorn Trio, Paddy Milner and the Big Sounds, 24 Pesos, The Puppini Sisters, and Bernard Purdie (Aretha Franklin, BB King, Miles Davis, James Brown, Steely Dan) amongst others. He has featured on music for T.V shows including HBO's Curb Your Enthusiam. He has toured extensively over America, Russia, Asia and Europe, playing many well respected venues and festivals and has made T.V and radio appearances.
Rob Updegraff studied Jazz and Classical Guitar and Composition at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Fluent in many genres including pop, rock jazz, country, blues, soul, ambient and African music, he is one of the U.K.’s busiest guitarists.
Some of the artists performed /recorded with include:
Gregory Porter, Jamie Cullum, Laura Mvula, Zigaboo Modeliste (The Meters), Beth Rowley,
Julia Biel, Andrew Roachford , Eska , Jeb loy Nichols, Joshua Hedley, Earl Thomas , Ags Connolly, Gwyneth Herbert, Tom Baxter, The Ronnie Scott's All Stars, Sara Mitra, Eliane, Natalie Williams, Miki Imai, Frances Rufelle, Odyssey, Acantha Lang, Rie Fu, Chartwell Ditiro, Mosi Conde, Nostalgia 77 amongst many others......
Rob has also played with some of Britain's top Jazz musicians including Stan Sulzmann, Jean Toussaint, Ivo Neame, Kit Downes amongst others.
