Mike Westbrook Charity Jazz Concert

The Simon Community, a homeless charity based in North London, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a fundraising concert by world-renowned jazz musician Mike Westbrook at St. Giles-in-the-Fields Church on Saturday, February 8th at 8PM.

The Simon Community was founded in 1963 by Anton Wallich-Clifford, a probation officer at Bow Street Courts. Clifford saw many people in his work who he called ‘homeless and rootless’. He started the charity as a community of homeless people and volunteers, living and working together on behalf of London’s street homeless. Today, the Simon Community runs numerous outreach services, including a day centre in Islington and soup runs across London. The charity estimates they serve over 700 meals to vulnerable and excluded people each week.
In celebration of the Simon Community’s landmark 50th anniversary, supporter Mike Westbrook has agreed to a rare performance of his celebrated settings of William Blake’s poetry Glad Day. Described by The Independent on Sunday as “perhaps the greatest work in all British jazz”, Glad Day was originally commissioned in 1971 for the National Theatre production of Adrian Mitchell’s Tyger and has been performed throughout Europe and in New York and Australia.

The concert will take place at St. Giles-in-the-Fields in London’s West End. The church has a long history of providing relief to London’s poor, and has continued this tradition by donating the use of its forecourt to the Simon Community’s weekend street cafes, which provide lunch to dozens of street homeless people every Saturday and Sunday. The church’s partnership with the Simon Community, combined with its reputation as the ‘Poet’s Church’ (having hosted performers ranging from Patti Smith to Bon Iver) made it an obvious choice for the anniversary celebration.