Migdalia van der Hoven – drums and percussion J Fashole-Luke – keyboards Wikus van der Hoven – EWI Philip Wain – bass Composition by Philip Wain Audio mixing by Wikus van der Hoven Video editing by Migdalia van der Hoven I was asked by Well Grounded to create something to celebrate their #supportthe234 project. Well […]
2007 – A World Barista Championship win and the birth of Square Mile You may remember part one of our history of London coffee which set up the backstory before 2000. Part two took us up to the end of 2006. Now, are you sitting comfortably for part three? In January 2007 Jorge Fernandez who had worked alongside Gwilym Davies at Monmouth set up […]
Let’s head back to the start of the Millennium when more people thought that all the computers were really going to stop working than were in search of a decent coffee. What did go down at the Millennium parties was the mobile phone network that simply couldn’t cope. So many spent New Year’s Eve 1999 […]
I wrote this back in 2012 and have often wondered about putting it out there. A Timeline of the rise and rise of London Progressive Coffee. Why do this? Well in the last very few years the independent coffee scene has massively blossomed. When I first got involved I struggled to find 20 decent places, […]
A new idea: a monthly post of the latest news from the London coffee scene. Not necessarily a gossip column … more the latest developments on the scene. Why? Well, one week this month there were four great coffeeshops opening in one week and I am constantly being asked about the new openings and developments […]
One of my favourite trios is playing at the Vortex in Dalston on Tuesday February 4th. Stephan is known best as the bassist in Vijay Iyer’s groundbreaking and original trio but plays regularly in his wife Jen Chapin’s trio. Stephan appears at the Vortex with his own Rosetta trio featuring the unique line up of […]
This summer, I spent three weeks travelling down the West Coast to visit family and attend a family wedding. Of course I got to try a little coffee along the way. We travelled from Vancouver BC, down through Seattle and San Juan Island, Vancouver Washington and Portland Oregon to a week or so in Pasadena […]
Interesting and thoroughly enjoyable trip to Belgium. Fabulous cycle infrastructure, very few helmets used, generally friendly and courteous road users and also, interestingly, cyclists who generally obeyed traffic laws. The four day trip to Leuven courtesy of the province of Vlaams Brabant (Flemish Bramant) showed me how a city could accomodate cyclists, walkers and drivers […]
Thundercat – The Golden Age of Apocalypse Mind blowing debut from Stephen Bruner alias Thundercat. Part of the incredible scene around guys like Flying Lotus and Miguel Atwood Ferguson in LA at the cutting edge of jazz, hip-hop, electronic music, dance music and the avant-garde, The Golden Age of the Apocalypse features layers of melodic […]
In no particular order: Matt Stevens – Ghost Genius looped instrumental guitar tunes with intensity and humanity Vijay Iyer – Solo Quite brilliant. Completely absorbing individual music. Like no solo jazz piano you ever heard before. Steve Lawson and Trip Wamsley – Slow Food Two great musicians improvising beautifully. They both happen to play bass […]
Phil Wain 