The Spitz: Live Music and Gallery

THE SPITZ


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SPITZ EVENTS

photos: Gideon Mendel

THE SPITZ JAZZ COLLECTIVE + SHRI
+ JOHN CRAMPTON + aladin

Spitz ‘Turning the Key’
@ Corsica Studios
Wednesday 8 October, 7:30pm: Turning the Key will mark the anniversary of the closure of the Spitz venue - and new beginnings.

Main Room

8.00pm - John Crampton - "powerful attacking style ... John Crampton takes no prisoners!" - Blues in London
www.myspace.com/johncramptonmusic

8.40pm - Shri - "Shri continues to apply his classical music training to the realm of heartfelt songs and emotive instrumentals." - DJ, 16 Sep 2005
www.shri.co.uk

9.30pm - The Spitz Jazz Collective: Miles Danso, bass; Brian Edwards, sax, Quentin Collins, trumpet; Hannes Riepler, guitar; Dan Crosby, drums; PLUS special guests Jay Phelps, Michael Mwenso, Shri and more - " ... sharp, soulful hard bop ... lick the blues like there's no tomorrow." - The Guardian

With special contributions throughout the night from aladin, Spitz 'genie in residence' and cult magician - "virtuoso magic and visual poetry" - Time Out
aladinmagic.com

Second Room

7.45pm start for continuous screenings of 'A Great Night in the Spitz' a 60 minute documentary of the last days at the Spitz - exactly one year ago.

Spitz @ Corsica Studios
Units 4/5 Elephant Road, SE17 1LB > Google map
Station: Elephant & Castle > Transport for London journey planner
Doors: 7:30pm - not a late evening

Tickets: £10, available at www.wegottickets.com

Also on 8 October 2008:

A Great Night In The Spitz

a film documentary
52min | UK | 2008 | Dir: Gea Russell & Ken Kamanayo

The Spitz music venue opened in 1996. Over 11 years The Spitz hosted more than 3000 concerts featuring the best in cutting edge music. It was forced to close in 2007 due to re-development of Old Spitalfields Market. This is a music documentary of the last ever event held at the Spitz on 27th September 2007; a concert over two floors featuring some of the best of London's contemporary music scene... A Great Night In The Spitz.

A Great Night In The Spitz was inspired by Art Kane's 1958 photo A Great Day In Harlem which featured the top jazz musicians of 1950s New York. A Great Night In The Spitz was shot entirely over the last 48 hours of The Spitz's existence and portrays some of London's top musicians with a special focus on the elite of London's Black jazz musicians.

Director Jane Glitre said: 'So much of The Spitz was about to become an invisible, silent memory. I felt it was essential to try and encapsulate some of that spirit by documenting the last night in 109, Commercial Street.'

Based around an open live concert, key members of the UK's music community dropped by to pay their last respects and to celebrate 11 years of great music.

Featured artists include: The Spitz Jazz Collective, Soweto Kinch, Gwyneth Herbert, Seb Rochford and Terry Edwards.

'MOJO magazine is distraught at the thought of the Spitz closing its doors for good and all. It has served a world of vibrant, genuinely alternative music virtually single-handed.' MOJO

See a slideshow of the last night at The Spitz on YouTube » www.youtube.com/gideonmendel

SPITZ EVENTS

PARKBENCH

And in San Francisco on 8 October 2008 at Café Classique, Half Moon Bay, Parkbench will play to celebrate the first commercial release on Spitz Records, PARKBENCH: "VERSUS BLACKOUT", released on June 30th.

"Darkly sophisticated slabs of sax-seared lonesomeness ... this is the first commercial release from Spitz Records, a label whose advent can only mean great things for London's leftfield acts." - TIME OUT > read review

Treasured by many and missed by even more since its epic closing night bash on 27th Sept 2007 featuring the likes of Beth Orton, Terry Edwards, Seb Rochford and Gwyneth Herbert, the SPITZ has been working away to ensure that the many years of graft, grind and damn fine times do not go to waste. Now, to add to their regular gigs in other East London venues under the 'Spitz presents' moniker, comes the first in a series of releases by artists related to the legendary venue.

PARKBENCH is basic, original, earnest song-craft informed by an unflinching devotion to the spirituality of every day events; universal, human emotions; moods and moments burning bright or smouldering quietly; words liike white-hot cinders stoked by the tension and drama of real life situations; and the unique and creative force of a trapped, self-reflective, curious and longing soul.

Expressed honestly, without agenda or pretence, PARKBENCH heralds a return to the simple and beautiful classic songwriter criteria – compositions of inspired subject matter and creative survival techniques (how to get by life using the power of your own imagination to transform negative energy and draw good things from bad; and how to conjure up psychological imagery that is ultimately more functional and satisfying in describing 'the truth' than style pieces about individual love sickness or ready-made, borrowed genre thematics. The PARKBENCH modus operandi is in a sense a way of life, yet it is rendered with moderation and humility, an approach perhaps similar to the line infamously engraved upon Charles Bukowski's tombstone in Rancho Palos Verdes: "Don't Try."

"An outfit blending pastoral strumming and jazzy urbanity with the timelessly stylish blues gloom of Michael J Sheehy." - TIME OUT

Buy PARKBENCH: "VERSUS BLACKOUT" from: