If you’ve not been to Peggy’s Skylight yet, there’s now another great reason to visit...
Peggy’s is a real hidden gem, tucked in nicely into Hockley on George Street, just off the main drag of the indie heart of Notts. The award-winning venue has made a name for itself as a welcoming and cosy place for live jazz, served up with an amazing Middle Eastern inspired menu.
Now, it also offers the recently launched Wednesday evening program, which brings acts from the new UK jazz scene that has been blowing up across the country these past five years.
It showcases this new breed of talent from here in Notts, as well as London, Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, and Leeds. The latter is where ViperTime travelled from, to represent their own cities growing jazz scene.
Peggy’s is a real hidden gem, tucked in nicely into Hockley
ViperTime are led by the driving sound of Ben Powling on tenor saxophone, Matías Reed on bass, and the broken-beat-esque double drums of George Hall and Luke Reddin-Williams.
Born out of Leeds house parties, ViperTime draw from the depths of spiritual jazz and post punk to create improvised music for the dance floor, combining the mesmeric forms and harmonies of the 70s with the ferocity of 60s Detroit.
Their eclectic and energetic sound showcases their diverse influences from UK jazz peers such as Sons of Kemet, Nubya Garcia and Melt Yourself Down to Clifford Jordon, Keith Jarrett, and the Ramones.
ViperTime draw from the depths of spiritual jazz and post punk to create improvised music for the dance floor
Across two sets on the night, ViperTime showcased new material, plus tracks from their debut album Shakedown, and their 2021 single All Our Heroes Are Dead (dedicated on the night to Wilko Johnson, RIP). This laid out the band’s manifesto of heavy jazz, twisted post-punk and Ethiopiques-inspired textures.
Hip-hop afro-fusion artist Franz Von added another dimension with inspiring spoken word to the stage, closing ViperTime’s superb set with Head Up, their brand-new single which was released on Friday.
It was a brilliant night of new UK jazz and a great taster of Peggy’s Skylight’s Wednesday program. Make sure to check out some of the forthcoming highlights, with jazz and hip-hop from Major Ruse Curates with Jafro, and Acoustickle’s Winter Showcase.
The venue also has lots coming up in 2023, with hip-hop from Juga-Naut in January, as well as 2022 Mercury Prize nominee Fergus McCreadie, one of the most exciting young talents out of Glasgow, in February. Be quick, tickets are selling fast!
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
