Jazz at Karamel presents:

The Toots Project

The Toots Project

Karamel, London, GB

£8 advance, £10 on the door (£5 student otd)
Entry Requirements: 16+

Phil Hopkins: chromatic harmonica • Jonathan Gee: piano • Jeremy Shoham: sax • Yaron Stavi: bass • Rick Finlay: drums, percussion

The Toots Project is a live programme of music from virtuoso harmonica player Phil Hopkins, presenting an homage to the unique Belgian jazz musician Toots Thielemans, whose career over 50 years saw him working alongside the leading names in jazz, pop and media, gracing their recordings with the highly personal and stirring sound of chromatic harmonica.

Phil originally studied harmonica with the late Tommy Reilly, one of the world’s most acclaimed classical harmonic players. His highly personal presentation links engaging chamber jazz with a series of commentaries and anecdotes about Toots, taking the audience on a journey through this eclectic body of work.

In a concert programme endorsed by Thielemans himself shortly before his death in 2016, harmonica maestro Phil Hopkins joins some of the UK’s most inventive jazz musicians to explore the eclectic repertoire of Toots. Taking the audience on what amounts to a journey through popular music of the last 50 years, the setlist ranges from well-known themes to Sesame Street and Midnight Cowboy, Thielemans’ own composition Bluesette (which quickly became a jazz standard), and the results of famous collaborations with Benny Goodman, Paul Simon, Bill Evans and many others.

Doors 7pm, music begins at 8pm.

Line Up

The Toots Project quintet features some of the UK’s finest jazz musicians, whose reputation extends internationally:

Phil Hopkins has performed as a percussionist, harmonica player or musical director in more than 100 London shows in the West End and at the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre including Olivier award-winning productions at the National such as Oklahoma!, A Little Night Music and Sweeney Todd. He has also played/recorded with the best of Britain's jazz artists including Claire Martin, Jim Mullen, Norma Winstone, Stacey Kent, Guy Barker, Tim Garland and Julian Joseph. ​Phil has been featured harmonica soloist for major West End productions including Trevor Nunn's Porgy and Bess and Gone With The Wind, Tim Rice's From Here To Eternity and Stephen Sondheim's Assassins. As a recording musician Phil has performed on many TV, film, radio and album sessions as well as playing in prestigious concert halls in the UK and abroad. Lately he's been working with the London Sinfonietta…

Classically-trained bassist Yaron Stavi tours regularly with Richard Galliano, Gilad Atzmon and The Blockheads.

Pianist Jonathan Gee is constantly reinventing himself, and recently has been touring with Italy’s Gaetano Partipilo, and singer Cleveland Watkiss, whilst the 2017 London Jazz Festival saw him in three concerts which paid tribute to Thelonius Monk in his centenary year.

Drummer Rick Finlay, after a 30 year career in London’s West End theatres, now performs in the UK and overseas with artists ranging from dance company Rambert to jazz masters like Jim Mullen, Liane Carroll, Pete Oxley and many others.