JOURNEY TO THE ONE @ The House Of St Barnabas is a summer series of “jazz” sessions curated by myself, in the spirit of Straight No Chaser, that aims to musically span the spiritual, the cosmic and the global.

Matt halsall

First up… Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana Orchestra will conjure up a selection of deep and fresh compositions from his brand new long-playing offering ‘When The World Was One’ – which drops via his Gondwana imprint on the same day as the concert – Monday June 16th. There’s been a fascinating degree of synchronicity involved in this session finally arriving in the Chapel at The House Of St Barnabas and those who know me know that I can’t resist a bit of synchronicity. There’s are gentle modal, spiritual, mystical, Eastern influences at work in Matthew’s music and it will be given added life in the tranquil, meditative ambience of the Chapel.

I saw Matt at the Dingwalls session last Sunday and he was quietly buzzing at the prospect of their evening in the Chapel, as are we all at the prospect of a line-up that features Matthew Halsall on trumpet, Keiko Kitamura on Koto, Rachael Gladwin on Harp, Taz Modi on Piano, Gavin Barras on double bass and Teymour Housego on bansuri flute.  It’s an intimate session and tickets are limited to 70! So, check the website today to join us on the journey.

That’s June and in July, following on from our performances of ‘Enlightenment- A Love Supreme’ in the QEH on the final day of James Lavelle’s Meltdown, we present Sun Ra 100 with the London Art Collective  in the House Of St Barnabas. Now, there may be a few old folks out there who may recall an amazing, one-off gig dedicated to the mighty Sun Ra that took place, some years ago, at the Scala in Kings X and featured the very deep, Francisco Mora of Carl Craig’s Inner Zone Orchestra on drums and projections by the Light Surgeons. Brings back memories? Yes? No? Well, that legendary session was organised by one Lyn Champion. It featured flautist Rowland Sutherland, who had painstakingly written the charts for the evening, alongside piano/keys don Pat Thomas, vibes/marimaba player Orphy Robinson, bassist John Edwards and an excellent saxophonist who I’ve never seen since.

Sun Ra

On May 22nd 2014, the angelic supernatural force that was Sun Ra would have been 100, and in homage to his legacy we have unearthed Rowland’s charts and will perform them once more, on Monday July 7th, in the spiritual confines of the Chapel. Rowland, Pat and Orphy will be joined this time by Maurizio Ravalico on congas and percussion, bassist Neil Charles and saxophonist Rachel Musson. Expect to travel the spaceways and journey down those strange celestial roads.

Nina Miranda + Instrumentos Pic: Chris Franck

The final session of the series reflects the global cultural impact of Brasil and will feature Anglo Brasilian singer/songwriter Nina Miranda who is fresh from adding her vocals to Gilles Peterson’s ‘Sonzeira: Brazil Bam Bam Bam’ album and is busy working on her solo debut. Nina has worked with Da Lata, Smoke City, Zeep and an array of global musicians and she’ll be appearing in Chapel with percussionist Anslemo Netto and legendary Osibisa gutarist Alfred ‘Kari’ Bannerman, both of Ibibio Sound Machine.

Adriano Adewale

Our other guests for the night are the Adriano Adewale Group – a mesmerising Afro-diasporic quartet that features Senegalese kora player Kadialy Kouyate, bassist nathan Rikki Thomson, flautist Marcelo Andrade and Adriano on an array of percussion. Their most recent recording ‘Raizes’, released earlier this year on the Cabloco label, was described as “superb” in the Guardian while Jazzwise’s Kevin Legendre described the band as having “feminine grace combined with muscular brawn” and compared Adriano’s skills with legendary percussionists like Brasilian Nana Vasoncelos and the inimitable Trilok Gurtu.

Check the House of St Barnabas website to secure tickets. http://www.wegottickets.com/event/274099

The House Of St Barnabas is a charity which promotes the belief that  “working together we can break the cycle of homelessness” and these concerts are intended to maintain and raise the profile of the charity and their work.