Jelly Cleaver gets the Windmill, Brixton jumping with second jam session

Léa Sen (pictured below) commenced the night with a fresh selection of songs from her forthcoming EP, which she finished earlier that week. She arrived from Paris to London two years ago, and recently collaborated with Joy Orbison on ‘better’ on mixtape still slipping vol. 1. This evening, though, she accompanied herself on acoustic guitar, sharing a pensive honesty in the Windmill’s low-slung stage and kitschy tinsel backdrop.

She first played an untitled song written the night before with a beautiful refrain- ‘now I feel safe.’ Her warm, unforced vocals can both slink around soulful turns and carry a grungier, indie angst as she did with a cover of Alex G’s ‘Gretel.’ She closed with “10,” another recent composition, weaving intricate guitar lines and poignant, haunting chorus- “I like this, but I don’t know if weighs me down.”

Guitarist and composer Tjoe Man Cheung, who arrived in London last year from Hong Kong, led a funky set with Marco Marotta (tenor sax), Grifton (trumpet), Jack Robson (drums), and Benjamin Crane (bass).  They launched into their set, Marotta athletically veering across the full range (and beyond) of his horn and bending long, sustained notes. The band settled into ‘Mixtape,’ bebop horn lines over Robson and Crane’s tight, shuffling groove.

‘#pickupjazz’ was a fitting name for the contexts where I’ve first seen Tjoe play, as a stalwart house band member in a few different jams. He’s an engaging band leader, his solos building dense harmonies and shifting detailed picked melodies between them.

Like Tjoe, I’ve seen Grifton play at a few jams around town but hadn’t seen him play in a gig. His solos are beautifully cohesive, patiently exploring a song’s theme and crafting a story around it. He shone on the closing tune, ‘Aubergine,’ a cinematic, chunky groove from his 2017 LP and orange, inspired by Duke Ellington’s ‘Caravan.’

Jelly led a jam for the last hour night, free of pretension, welcoming, and disco-inspired. Benjamin stayed on as the bassist and was joined by Tash Keary on drums-Tjoe played bass for a bit, and the triangle also brings to jams and wryly dazzles everyone with.

Léa Sen can next be seen on 5 October opening for Oscar Jerome at Electric Brixton – NTBM’s next gig is 8 October at Brink in London Fields. Jelly’s Jams next installment is on 23 November at the Windmill when Eliza Oaks will be headlining