Impossible Gentlemen

From the very beginning the idea of the Club was to not only support the many excellent established working jazz musicians, but also to provide a place where young jazz musicians could learn their craft. The ad hoc "jam session" nature of the old Club was the perfect vehicle to allow younger, less experienced, players to share the stage with the more established names of the day and learn from them as they went. And of course, in those days the idea of "jazz education" was only just beginning to make itself felt, so musicians of that, earlier, generation (like me) had little opportunity outside of private tuition and "hanging out" with the more experienced players to learn how it was done. In fact, during the period I was studying classical flute at Trinity College (early 70's), it was still possible to be suspended from the Royal College of Music if you were caught playing jazz on the premises! These days the RCM runs several excellent jazz courses itself...how things have changed. And it was this ethos of supporting UK based musicians and encouraging younger musicians that we took with us when we moved, in 1988, from the old 606 Kings Road set up to the new premises in Lots Road. By the time the pianist featured in this evening's performance first started playing at the Club (the early 2000's), the jazz education world had extended to five courses in London alone and was, and still is, producing some truly excellent and innovative players. Each generation throws up a number of really talented musicians, but there is often one who stands just that little bit above the crowd, and that was certainly true of Gwilym Simcock. By 2000 we had established a good working relationship with the Royal Academy of Music (which persists to this day) so I became well acquainted with Gwilym from his early days as a RAM student. It was obvious to all of us that he had a prodigious talent and by the time he was just 20 he was already making waves on the UK jazz scene. I remember Gwilym playing piano on his birthday for the Laurence Cottle Big Band, one of the finest bands of its kind in Europe, one Sunday lunchtime here at the Club when the band suddenly struck up a particularly unusual version of "Happy Birthday" that Laurie had written as a surprise for Gwilym. He was just 21. Since then he's done a myriad of gigs here in various guises and combinations (including numerous "Birthday" gigs, which have become something of a tradition since that first one) and it's immensely rewarding to see him develop into the internationally renowned musician that he is today. In many ways Gwilym epitomises the relationship the Club has with the young musicians we try our best to encourage and support, and no 606 Club celebration would be complete without him. So it is with enormous pleasure that we welcome to the Club the wonderful Gwilym Simcock appearing this evening with the brilliant Impossible Gentlemen, a band crammed full of world-class musicians, Mike Walker-guitar Iain Dixon-sax/keys, Steve Rodby-bass and Adam Nussbaum-drums. Welcome to the 40th Anniversary!

"The upper echelon of the jazz world is a place of constantly shifting alliances. But even by those standards, the Impossible Gentlemen is a rare and fabulous group of talents" The Times