VortexPossibly for the more serious jazz lover and not those on a flying business-visit to find the best supplier of office furniture London has to offer, Vortex is quite the force to be reckoned with. Not only does the Vortex Jazz Club run some of the most eclectic performance schedules you’re likely to find anywhere in the world, but also its own non-profit record company at the same time! Needless to say, the best young and new talents come flocking to this jazz-mecca seven nights a week and although it can get a little (or more than!) cramped, the atmosphere is second to none. Address – Gillett Square, Dalston

3. Ronnie Scott’sPredictable yes, but it wouldn’t be fair to be listing the best without categorically THE best of all London serves up. Ronnie Scott’s continues to attract millions from all across the world for a very good reason – none make you feel more like you’ve really gone back in time to the 60s jazz scene. The club has welcomed practically every jazz and indeed other music legend the world has ever produced and today continues to do the same – alongside the most ‘British'of British foods and drinks imaginable. Address – Frith Street, Soho

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Louis Daniel Armstrong was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans in a very poor family. His grandparents were slaves. When his father William left his mother for another woman, she left Louis and his sister Beatrice in the care of their grandmother Josephine. When he was only five years old he went to live with his mother, who at that time earned her living by selling her body, or put simply prostitution. Louis also tried to earn some money by doing different things like working as a paperboy, collecting discarded food and later selling it to unsuspecting restaurants. He also worked as a coal-haver and something similar to what we now call a red diesel uk smuggler. He spent most of his time in the brothels near his home where he became an innocent witness of loose dancing and gambling. But it was in those awful brothels where he became enchanted by the music of Joe King Oliver and other famous musicians who were regulars there. He left school at the age of 11 and along with other boys of the same age became a street musician and dancer. But this brought him only trouble. Perhaps the only time he got lucky as a child, was when a Jewish family employed him and later accepted him as a member of their family.

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I discovered the other day that jazz has hidden powers; no, it can’t find you red diesel suppliers, but it is actually much more than just a music genre. All those years I’ve been a hardcore jazz fan and I never knew that there are guys out there who will use it to try and impress the ladies. OK, I’m a female jazz fan so a guy telling me how much he loves John Coltrane is always going to spark my interest, but does it really work on women who are more into Lady Gaga or Oasis? There was only one way to find out…

At our last “girl’s night out” I posed the question that had been on my mind since a male acquaintance told me that he has a box set of jazz CDs in his flat just to impress any women who happen to come over; would you be more likely to go out with a guy who likes jazz? Now, bear in mind that I know these girls really well and I also know that most of them cannot comprehend why I love such a “weird” kind of music. So imagine my surprise – shock, really – when all of them said that they would be so impressed that a guy knew his Miles Davis from his Steve Davis that even if the first date had gone terribly, they’d be more likely to give him a second chance if he dropped his love of all things jazz into the conversation.

Apparently men who are into jazz are more likely to be sensitive, artistic, poetic even. I could have added blatant liars to the list knowing what my male friend had told me, but I didn’t want to ruin their collective illusions! Seems it doesn’t work the other way, unfortunately, as my jazz chat has only driven men away – or sent them to sleep in the middle of the pub…

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The recent tragic death of Amy Winehouse has done two things; it has filled retail shop fitting units with her albums and brought her father, Mitch, very much into the public eye. Obviously, the tabloids have been eager to get photographs of the grieving family and Mitch has been on hand to provide them with some suitable soundbites about the government not doing enough to tackle the drugs problem. He’s even planning to set up a foundation in his daughter’s name to help young addicts.

Now I was never a huge fan of Amy or her music, but there was no denying the girl had some talent, even if she then decided to waste it. What I didn’t realise was that her Dad had released his own album of jazz covers, long after his daughter became famous. Hanging onto her coat-tails? Absolutely; give the album a listen and you’ll see what I mean. The guy has a decent enough voice, but no better than the thousands of amateur or semi-pro singers in jazz clubs up and down the country who never get a chance to make their own record. There are even some, rather cruel, people suggesting that Mitch will probably try and cash in on his daughter’s death by recording a tribute album to her, featuring artists like Mark Ronson who worked closely with her during her career, but also himself in a prominent musical role.

I’m trying not to be unkind, and trying to think that perhaps projects like the album and the foundation might be just what a grieving father needs to get over the death of his daughter, but part of me can’t help wondering if Mitch is a bit worried his own faltering musical career will come to an end now that he’s no longer the Dad of a successful recording artist?

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I grew up listening to jazz and this genre is just the perfect thing for serenading the soul. Back in the days, I did not really know much about the artists but I had the opportunity to listen to Jazz, thanks to my dad who made sure he played jazz every Saturday morning for about two hours. He did everything within his power to observe those sacred hours of classic jazz. My dad was a truck driver transporting diesel, I can still remember the time when I was just twelve years old and accompanied him to deliver diesel to Red Diesel Bournemouth. He made me listen to some of the best jazz music that I have ever listened to till now. There are countless jazz musicians around and all jazz buffs have their favourite ones. There are also genres within jazz itself which brings us to smooth jazz.

I discovered smooth jazz through one of my favourite guys; Dave Koz and I have never looked back since then. Like the name, it is very smooth but some people do not realise its difference or uniqueness. Smooth jazz was developed from jazz fusion and usually borrows music style from genres such as pop, funk and sometimes rock. Most of the songs from Dave Koz are a perfect example of this unique style of music. An interested person could start with Careless Whisper by Montell Jordan and Dave Koz. A music expert recently said that many people make the mistake of categorising smooth jazz as being part of contemporary jazz. In her opinion, they are both quite distinctive genres. For those who think smooth jazz is a recent thing, it is important that I mention that it’s been around for about five decades or more.

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For those who are into music collection, such Storage is incomplete without a few dose of good Jazz music. Music and musicians have become very influential in the world today, this is why we will be considering some of the most influential artists ever to grace jazz genre. The list starts with my personal favourite, Billie Holiday the woman known as Lady Day. Born Eleanora Fagan, she has a vocal style inspired by the sound of the instruments she heard which was filled deep intensity. The song ‘strange fruits'is regarded as one of the most important songs in history because of the theme Lady Day sung about. She has many posthumous awards to her credit. Louis Armstrong is considered one of the most important musical personalities in the history of the United States.

Armstrong is very influential and regarded as one of the early pioneers of modern jazz. He was a recipient of many awards and influenced many popular musicians like Frank Sinatra. Charles Mingus was not only a singer but was known as a human rights activist as well. He was known to have developed an approach to jazz that made him unique. Duke Ellington was one of the most important band leaders in music and his charisma endeared him to many. He won more than ten Grammy awards, Pulitzer price and a presidential honour. Finally on this list is Charlie Parker; a pioneering alto saxophone player. He was known to have also influenced many musicians of his time.

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I fear I may soon succumb to geek temptation and be forced to alphabetise my music collection. I really don’t want to; middle aged men alphabetise their LPs, not cool young girls with eclectic taste and absolutely no Dire Straits records. I’ve resisted temptation on previous occasions, but Satan keeps on tapping me on the shoulder – and at the moment, he’s being very persistent!
It all started a couple of weeks ago when I was having a party. More of a soiree really, but we got on to talking about old jazz records and I said I would go and look out a particular Charlie Parker live recording that I’d bought a few years ago at a record fair. Cue an hour and a half of fruitless searching through all the storage boxes where I keep my vinyl, Then in the back of the cupboard where I used to keep my vinyl in case Charlie had got left behind when I transferred all my records to their new homes. Then back to the storage boxes. Still no sign.
One of my guests, a bordering-on-middle-age guy who I reckon definitely has some Dire Straits in his collection, said rather smugly that he never has problems finding a record or a CD as he has alphabetised both his collections, and has even put up shelves in his living room to give them a permanent home and pride of place.
As I gazed around my large and under-used lounge, I realised I had plenty of space to do the same thing. Then Charlie and friends would always be close at hand and I’d never lose anyone again. Now does Charlie Parker go under “C” or “P”?

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I sometimes look at the contents of my overflowing inbox and wonder what kind of weird sites I’ve been signing up to. After all, companies using email marketing to sell Viagra should be trying to reach a very different group to charities using the same software to beg for cash, yet somehow I end up with both those types of email in my account, and all the different types in between!
It’s my own fault really. I’m not very picky about who I give my email address to, assuming that nobody can do much damage in terms of ID theft armed with just that piece of knowledge. I enter tons of competitions online, all of which require an email address before your entry can be validated, and I will sign any petition that friends send me, which means I’m still being pestered by the representatives of causes that I’ve long since stopped caring about…
My worst habit, though, is signing up to mailing lists at gigs. Every band has a website, or at least a myspace page, and many of them are starting to crack onto the possibilities offered by email marketing. Check out the merch stall at any gig you go to, and there will be a couple of sheets of A4, inviting you to sign up for updates and special offers relating to the headliners, the support act, the support act’s side project and the support act’s side project’s lead singer’s girlfriend’s group. I stick my email address on all of them, and then wonder why my inbox is so full if rubbish every day! I should really learn to be more discerning!
However, rather like the planet and global warming, I think my current email address is probably beyond rescue. Maybe I should just sacrifice that to the Gods of Junk Mail and create a whole new account, for real life communication from real life people only? I reckon it would be less than a week before I’d signed up to some band’s mailing list.

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In the United States of America, there’s an argument going on about whether the government should provide healthcare for free. To an outsider, this seems like a no brainer – much like a lot of America. Why would anybody volunteer to have to pay for healthcare? Buying health insurance is expensive – even if you get cheap private health insurance, you’re still forking out hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for your cover. Millions of people all over the USA are not covered by insurance, a large proportion of which are young children. If somebody gets ill or injured in the United States, they have to pay for the ambulance, the “emergency room” (casualty) treatment, the surgery, the ongoing treatment, and even the palliative care if it all goes wrong. The insurance companies – like car companies in this country – aren’t enthusiastic about paying out, and sometimes look for reasons not to pay. A treatment which would be free in the UK (or would cost about £7 or thereabouts) might cost thousands of dollars in the United States.

We should be very grateful that we do not need to pay to get better in the United Kingdom. It’s just a shame about the dentists…

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In the UK, healthcare is free at the point of consumption. The National Health Service provides us with free healthcare, hospital treatment, mental health services and old age care on the basis that we contribute to “national insurance” and a few taxes. This is extended to people who work in the UK, students in the UK under certain circumstances, and British nationals abroad (with the right form) who can use that country’s health services.

In the United States of America, there’s an argument going on about whether the government should provide healthcare for free. To an outsider, this seems like a no brainer – much like a lot of America. Why would anybody volunteer to have to pay for healthcare? Buying health insurance is expensive – even if you get cheap private health insurance, you’re still forking out hundreds, if not thousands of dollars for your cover. Millions of people all over the USA are not covered by insurance, a large proportion of which are young children. If somebody gets ill or injured in the United States, they have to pay for the ambulance, the “emergency room” (casualty) treatment, the surgery, the ongoing treatment, and even the palliative care if it all goes wrong. The insurance companies – like car companies in this country – aren’t enthusiastic about paying out, and sometimes look for reasons not to pay. A treatment which would be free in the UK (or would cost about £7 or thereabouts) might cost thousands of dollars in the United States.

We should be very grateful that we do not need to pay to get better in the United Kingdom. It’s just a shame about the dentists…

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