The world-class
British jazz scene was hit hard by the pandemic. As live shows and in-person collaboration resume, Steam Down, Soweto Kinch and more discuss the future
Music moves differently depending on the space it’s played in. A typical pre-Covid Wednesday evening at the Matchstick Piehouse in
London would see its arch space filled with writhing bodies as the jazz collective Steam Down spilled off the stage, their
music in dialogue with our yelps, claps and calls to the band.
But on a humid night in May, during the first week of socially distanced indoor performances beginning again, the music took a different route. Playing two Steam Down sessions to a 30-person, seated and masked audience, the seven-person band launched into an extended riff on Nas’s The World Is Yours and bandleader Ahnansé’s liquid tenor solo bounced off the walls while a train rumbled overhead. Steam Down’s music loudly reverberated around us as we danced in our seats, feet vigorously tapping to the beat.