Claudette Johnson: I Came to Dance
Claudette Johnson: I Came to Dance
Inspired by Claudette Johnson’s love of jazz, DJ Octavia Freud curates these free, live jazz sessions featuring 60’s east coast jazz, classic female vocalists and Afro-beat.
For this session we are thrilled to welcome singer songwriter China Bowls and Theo, an Oxford-based singer/songwriter.
China Bowls delivers a smooth honey pot of sounds, combining neo soul, jazz and hip hop influences. Bowls’ playful use of acrobatic vocals weave in and out of her percussive guitar tones and combine with honest and insightful lyricism to tackle a range of subjects including grief, belonging and horrible bosses. A true storyteller, she is now armed with a band of some of the best players from Bristol’s thriving jazz scene and her live show soars between solo moments of quiet vulnerability to full blown fire.
Theo marries the harmonics and sonics of neo-soul with the storytelling rooted within folk lyricism. Her aim is to use sound and words to draw the listener into new realms, escapism being a key focus within her writing. Over the past year Theo has supported acts such as Nilufer Yanya, Low Island and Omar. Recent air play on BBC Introducing and upcoming festival appearances look set to raise the profile of this exciting act.
Free, drop in
Watch China Bowls’ video for “The Way”
Octavia Freud
Originally from Manchester, Martin Andrews (aka DJ Octavia Freud) first caught the DJ bug as a young raver hanging out at the Hacienda club. He went on to set up the influential South London electronica label Projector Records and spent several years running the eclectic Neural Ohmlette nights at the Heavenly Social club. He has shared the DJ stage with Groove Armada and performed at Bestival and La Flèche D’Or club in Paris.
For these jazz-inspired events, Martin is returning to his youth when he used to stay up late into the evening on school nights listening to his dad’s jazz vinyl collection, from 60s East coast jazz and classic female jazz vocalists to wacked out 70s space funk and Afro-beat. Also expect Martin to spin some bang up-to-date new tunes from the recent resurgent London jazz scene.
