Listen to the LV Project on Soundlclick

As many of you may know, I’m a bassist based in Central London; I’d been playing with drummer Pierre Helliofor some years in a variety of soul, funk, rock and reggae-minded projects and I was delighted to get a call from him one day to consider working with a jazz project Pierre was already involved in. You have to understand that jazz, in many of its forms had been one of the major passions of my life. I’d spent most of my life listening to it, studying it and practising it. But, partly because of my choice to play electric bass, I’d had a lot less jazz gigs than I’d have liked. I’d had more Ghanaian Highlife gigs than jazz gigs and definitely played Louie Louie more than I’d had jazz gigs so I jumped on the chance to rectify the situation.


OK, new band, new gig, new players, new tunes to learn. The upside was the incredible players; the fact that we had a similar attitude to playing passionate music with controlled dynamics and an enthusiasm to interact with the audience; and the fact we played often at a lovely intimate venue with a fantastic atmosphere; and we could play just about anything we wanted. The downside was that the gigs were 10:30pm – 2:30 am and that the pay was on the light side.



I enjoy playing regular 4 hour gigs and you definitely get to warm up and express yourself during the sets. I joined LV Project, then called The Lyveden Project in July 2008. After our debut at a school fair we have been gigging together at least twice a month ever since and built up a fabulous rapport. They actually play at Jazz After Dark in Soho more regularly than that but with other wonderful guest bass players as I cannot easily find a balance between regular late night modestly paid gigs, family and church. The compromise I’ve come to is to play twice a month at Jazz After Dark.


Now LV Project are regularly rehearsing (for the first time in our history) in order to introduce some material and prepare to record a CD which we hope might lead to more gigs playing at more reasonable hours of the day and possibly even at rates that might recompense the effort we put into playing.
The band

• Polish born guitarist Maciek Pysz – a rhythmically sophisticated and exciting, inventive player.
  
• Irish born singer Kate Hayes who has an elegant way with jazz phrasing
  
• Alternating with
  
• The exciting Susana Lang Lenton on vocals, originally from the Canary Islands who leads here own excellent band that plays regularly upstairs at Ronnie Scotts
  
• Alternating with
  
• The wonderful jazz singerPepa Nieblafrom Spain
  
• The breathtaking Pierre Hellio from Brittany on drums
  
• Yours truly, alternating with Len Bendel, Jerelle Jacob and others on bass

You can find us on Youtube:
My Favourite Things
Out of Nowhere
Song for My Father
And MySpace
The old site
The new
And on Facebook


Current sets might include:
500 Miles High, Affirmation, Afro-Blue, Ain’t No Sunshine, Autumn Leaves, Behind the Veil, Blue Bossa, Canteloupe Island, Chameleon, Chan Chan, Cissy Strut, Crazy, Desafinado, Fever,Footprints, Girl From Ipanema, Good Times, I Feel Good,Impressions, Jeep on 35, Midnight Hour, Mr P.C., Mustang Sally, My Funny Valentine, One Note Samba,Out of Nowhere,Red Baron,Softly As In The Morning Sunrise, Night and Day, All of Me, Solar, Song for My Father, Spain, Stratus,Summertime, Sunny, Superstition, Take Your Mama Out, The Red One, This Masquerade, Tu Me Das Vida, Valerie, You Don’t Know What Love is, All the Things You Are, Signed Sealed Delivered, Captain Marvel, Masterblaster, Armando’s Rhumba, My Romance, Manha de Carnaval . . .


Come down to Jazz After Dark some time and check us out, it’s a great atmosphere and a groovy adventurous band. Hopefully we’ll have some other gigs to tell you about soon too! Next dates are 3rd and 4th April at Jazz After Dark, Greek Street, Soho. The sets start with jazz, bossa, samba and fusion and the last set usually morphs into funk and soul if the audience is that way inclined.

And, courtesy of The Swell City Guide, who reviewed of one of out March gigs, some new tasty photos of the band.