For Thursday 1 October and Friday 2 October, the useful jazz route is a compact one: Camden for a large-scale gathering shaped by a formative training community, then Soho for two late sets built around working bands. Tomorrow’s Warriors’ I AM WARRIOR at Jazz Cafe brings its Big Band together with Yazz Ahmed, Soweto Kinch, Binker Golding, Emily Tran, Mark Kavuma, Cherise, Peter Edwards and Axel Kaner-Lidstrom. Around it, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club presents Jon Onabowu’s Cosmic Fusion on Thursday and Phil Meadows’ Future Movers on Friday. The common thread is practical musicianship in public: leaders assembling players, repertoires that leave room for movement, and nights whose shape comes from the people on stage together.[1][2][3]

Thursday, 10.45pm: Jon Onabowu’s Cosmic Fusion at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club

Jon Onabowu opens the route upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club on Thursday at 10.45pm. His Cosmic Fusion residency positions the drummer at the centre of a five-piece line-up with David Mrakpor and INSXGHT on keys, Francois Fasano on guitar and Leslie Essel on bass. The club describes the project as a meeting point between 1970s fusion and present-day improvising musicians, with Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Weather Report among the stated reference points. That gives the night a clear logic: rhythmic material and electric instrumentation, played by musicians who are each active beyond the band. The residency also invites emerging players to sit in, so the late slot carries the feel of a working session as well as a booked concert.[1]

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Friday, 6.30pm: Tomorrow’s Warriors’ I AM WARRIOR at Jazz Cafe

Friday begins earlier at Jazz Cafe, where I AM WARRIOR opens at 6.30pm. The bill is an all-star celebration led by the Tomorrow’s Warriors Big Band, with special guests and a wide group of alumni across several generations. Jazz Cafe presents the evening as a gathering of musicians whose stories began in the Warriors community, with new arrangements and guest-led performances forming the programme. That collective framing is the point of the night. A big band can make an unusually clear picture of a scene’s connective tissue: individual voices arrive with their own sound and experience, then work inside shared arrangements, sections and cues. With Ahmed, Kinch, Golding, Kavuma and Cherise on the announced line-up, the event offers a concise view of the broad musical paths that can emerge from one organisation.[3][4]

Friday, 11.15pm: Phil Meadows’ Future Movers at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club

After Camden, the second Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club late show starts at 11.15pm on Friday. Phil Meadows directs Future Movers from alto sax, with October’s announced group comprising Cameron Scott on euphonium, Alfie Dean on guitar, Georfe Balmont on bass and Miranda Radford on drums. Future Movers works across jazz, hip-hop, Afrobeat, funk and soul, and Ronnie’s identifies Fela Kuti, Tony Allen and Maceo Parker among its influences. Its ever-evolving personnel is central to the appeal: Meadows curates the band, while each edition gives a specific combination of players room to define the night. Ronnie Scott’s Late Late Show format also includes DJ sets before and after the live performance, keeping the handover between concert and late-night listening intact. Check Jazz Cafe and Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club’s official pages again before travelling, since line-ups, doors and running times can change.[2][3]

Sources

  1. Late Late Show Upstairs with Cosmic Fusion — Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
  2. Late Late Show with Future Movers — Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
  3. I AM WARRIOR — Jazz Cafe
  4. What’s On — Jazz Cafe