Exploring the work of Kurt Weill - a fascinating composer who lies at the intersection of European classical music, jazz, opera and American musical theatre.

Weill was known for his collaboration with Bertolt Brecht which led to some of his most important works including The Threepenny Opera and The Seven Deadly Sins. He also became an established composer on the American musical theatre scene and his songs form standards of the Great American Songbook.

Sam Braysher (alto saxophone) is a London based jazz saxophonist who is a regular performer at jazz clubs across Europe. He has received international acclaim for his warm, delicate sound and deep knowledge of the standard repertoire and American Songbook.

He is joined by two rising stars of London’s thriving jazz scene. Annie Majin's charming, powerful voice is inspired by Barbara Streisand and the sounds of classic Broadway shows. Hungarian pianist Matyas Gayer has played accompanist to jazz legends Eddie Henderson, Jesse Davis and others.

Expect to hear classic songs such as Mack The Knife, My Ship and September Song in addition to hidden gems from the Weill catalogue and music by adjacent American Broadway composers like Rodgers & Hammerstein, Gershwin and Harold Arlen.

'I can’t think of another alto saxophonist with a sound quite like Sam Braysher’s' ★★★★ Dave Gelly, The Observer

'Braysher's cool, modernist twist on old songs is just superb' Simon Adams, Jazz Journal

'The warm-toned young London saxophonist Sam Braysher is a prize-winning investigator of the early recordings and published music of Jerome Kern, Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington and many others, and imagines a new jazz closely attuned to an old world' John Fordham, The Guardian

Studio
£16

Sam's website

X Sam Braysher
Insta sambraysher
Fb Sam Braysher

•   9 May from £16

Mullen’s career brought him from Glasgow to London back in 1969.

As one of the most soulful and subtly virtuosic players the UK has ever produced, he has recorded and toured with the very best, also carving his own place in jazz-funk history as a founding member of the Morrissey-Mullen Band and The Average White Band.

As a key player and soloist for five decades(!) Mullen has become an institution in the British Jazz scene and has literally played with ‘everybody’ from organist Jimmy smith to vocalist Clare Martin. We’re very pleased he can come and play for us at Norden Farm.

What to listen for – his ever developing melodic improvisation that has a momentum of its own - also I like his entertaining knack of effortless weaving into his playing musical quotes from other songs other genres.

Jim Mullen (guitar)
Alex Hutton (piano)
Jez Brown (bass)
David Ingamells (drums)

Studio
£16

•  17 May from £16