Gig Preview: Music Spoken Here presents Tomorrow’s New Quartet
The Marr’s Bar, 12 Pierpoint Street, Worcester WR1 1TA
Thursday 28th May, 7:30pm doors for 8pm start
Back in May 2022, a new promoter on the Worcester live music scene launched a progressive program of contemporary jazz, funk and fusion gigs at The Marr’s Bar, just round the corner from Foregate Street station. Music Spoken Here, named after an album by the British guitarist and jazz-fusion pioneer John McLaughlin, will be celebrating four years with their 73rd gig at the venue on Thursday 28th May, featuring Tomorrow’s New Quartet.
While the program unmistakably centres around jazz, Evesham-based instigator Dave Fuller uses the ‘jazz club’ label sparingly, as the project aims to challenge several stereotypes, prejudices and misunderstandings associated with the genre.
“People often say to me after their first visit ‘I don’t really like jazz, but that was really cool!’. When you dig a bit deeper, they are usually referring to something quite specific that they once heard and didn’t like, so they stopped listening to anything else with the same label. It’s a bit like saying you don’t like fruit because you once had a bad experience with a gooseberry! It’s those people, rather than a typical ‘jazz crowd’, that we’re trying to reach.”
The Marr’s Bar is integral to the Music Spoken Here identity, as Fuller explains:
“Jazz is often associated with elitism and snobbery. A couple of years ago, a local radio producer declined covering a regional jazz artist development scheme because they believed jazz is not relevant to their ‘predominantly working-class audience’. Using an established, old-school rock ‘n’ roll venue, full of character and local, grassroots music history keeps the focus on the music and local community.”
For more than two years, the club operated ‘pay what you can’ admission and continue to offer exceptional value through their Club Membership, which includes complimentary admission to all their gigs, reserved seating and other benefits for just £20 per month.
“You see a lot of posts on social media banging on about the importance of buying tickets in advance, as, understandably, many venues and promoters are cancelling gigs if the pre-sales aren’t going to cover the costs. Rather than trying to change people’s behaviour, we observe and adapt to it. For me, it’s about building a supportive community, not selling out a gig. Our audience has grown on average 17% every year since we started in 2022.”
Fuller personally funds the project and curates the diverse program, which increased its events from monthly to fortnightly in January 2024. Along with established musicians (some with very successful careers with artists such as Lenny Kravitz, Paul Weller, Robbie Williams, Sting, Jeff Beck and Steve Winwood, along with members of bands including King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Incognito and Brand New Heavies), the program has also featured many young and early-career musicians from London, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham who are breaking out into the current, vibrant UK jazz scene.
With jazz at the musical centre, the repertoire is invariably influenced by other styles – Latin, Afrobeat, funk, rock, hip-hop and electronic dance music have all been characteristic of performances over the last four years. As reported by Herefordshire-based, award-winning jazz journalist Ian Mann, who has been attending and reviewing the events for TheJazzMann.com since 2023, Music Spoken Here is “bringing a strand of jazz to Worcester that is not represented at any of our other local jazz clubs, which are far more straight ahead. MSH really does offer something unique for the area and we have had the pleasure of seeing some absolutely brilliant musicians in Worcester over the course of the last three years, musicians who in many cases are rarely seen and heard outside London, although The Midlands and other regional jazz scenes have been featured too.”
The special anniversary gig on Thursday 28th May will feature the London-based Tomorrow’s New Quartet, led by drummer Rod Houghton. Doors open at 7:30pm for an 8pm start. Admission is complimentary for Music Spoken Here Club Members, or £15 on the door for non-members. For more information go to the Music Spoken Here website.