606 Club’s 40th Anniversary: Peter Churchill: Polly Gibbons/James Pearson: Dan Reinstein/mike Gorman/chris Garrick

For this, the second Saturday of the Festival, we return to our Jazz roots with a classic 606 Club eclectic selection of great singers, performs and instrumentalists. Peter Churchill is renowned not just as a wonderful singer/pianist but also as a composer, choral director and educator of substance and vision. I first met him in the early 90's when he was teaching at the Guildhall School of Music and recommending a steady stream of excellent young musicians to me (now continuing with his work at the Royal Academy of Music). Pete was at that time also accompanying the great US singer Mark Murphy whenever Mark was in town, and it was soon apparent that he was an excellent player in his own right. What I hadn't realised, though, was that he was also a very good singer. And so the Pete Churchill trio, and later quartet with saxophonist Bobby Wellins, made its way to the bandstand at the Club. However, that wasn't the end of it. Pete's knowledge of the Great American Songbook is extensive and during one of his wonderful post-gig story telling sessions it occurred to me that this mix of story telling and performance would make a great show, and so “An Evening With Peter Churchill” was born. Pete is also responsible for directing the brilliant 16 piece vocal group the London Vocal Project, who also perform here at the Club on a regular basis, but it's his singing and piano playing that will be taking centre stage on on this occasion. "Churchill has a warm, rough-edged, lived-in voice which brings added resonance to the lyrics. He's also a lyrical and unusually responsive accompanist—Mark Murphy's pianist of choice whenever the American worked in the UK." All About Jazz

And following on from Pete will be someone I first heard when she was just 17 years old, introduced to me by the great Ian Shaw (Sun 23rd). Even at that early age it was clear that Polly Gibbons had something special about her and 15 years on, this enormously talented singer has established an enviable reputation in the UK and now a burgeoning one in the US. A regular at the Club throughout the 2000's, performing a mix of classic standards with some Groove and excellent jazz-influenced originals thrown in, we have seen her develop into the assured artist that she is today. Polly is very much part of the 606's "DNA" and it is with enormous pleasure that we welcome her, just back from her US tour, this evening, accompanied by her regular pianist, James Pearson. This is of note to me not just because James is a fabulous pianist and brilliant accompanist, but because he is also the Artistic Director at Ronnie Scott's and leads the Ronnie Scott's Quintet (which also features Alex Garnett - Mon 24th). I mention this because it's not possible to have a 40th Anniversary Festival without mentioning Ronnie and acknowledging the enormous support that he gave both to myself and the Club over the years. When we moved from the old Club to the new Ronnie called me pretty much on a weekly basis to see how we were getting on and he played the opening night for us with his quintet, plus the 1st and 5th Anniversaries. A good friend, although he passed away almost 20 years ago now he is still much missed and it's great to continue that close contact with Ronnie's that has lasted for so long. “Polly Gibbons…a truly exceptional, once in a generation talent, possessing a voice of such sizzling intensity and raw emotion you could fry an egg on it” Jazzwise; “James Pearson is a forebodingly brilliant and melodically inventive jazz pianist and few can match him” Blues and Soul

And for this last Saturday of the 40th, I thought it would be cool, in the spirit of the Club over the years, to put together a "jam session" band involving some of the great musicians who have performed here. I first met expat US Saxophonist Dan Reinstein at the old Club when he was a medical student studying in London. After taking time out to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston h