Blues, Jazz entertainment in Europe
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Blue Note
This jazzy pub-cum-dance-bar has a great summer beer garden and usually no cover charge.
reviewed
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U Malého Glena
‘Little Glen’s’ is a lively American-owned bar and restaurant where hard-swinging local jazz or blues bands play every night in the cramped and steamy stone-vaulted cellar. There are regular jam sessions where amateurs are welcome (as long as you’re good!) – it’s a small venue, so get here early if you want to see, as well as hear, the band.
reviewed
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Du Phare
Tucked into the remains of one of Bruges' original town gates, this off-the-beaten-track tavern serves up huge portions of couscous (and offers free bread, a rarity in Belgium). But Du Phare is best known for its live blues/jazz sessions - check the website for dates. Bus 4 stops out the front.
reviewed
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Jazzcafé the Duke
‘If we don’t have it, you don’t need it’ is its motto, and amid this cool-cat interior of yellowing, vintage jazz posters, the fine live jazz never makes you doubt it.
reviewed
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Jazz Café
A bit disappointing for jazz-lovers, this indoor-outdoor café still makes a lively spot for a drink. Live performances most Fridays.
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Sax Pub
In Trnovo and decorated with colourful murals and graffiti inside and out, Sax has live jazz at 21:30 on Thursday.
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Onda Pasadena
With jazz on Tuesday and flamenco on Thursday, has regular live music, mostly rock, but not always.
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Reduta Jazz Club
The Reduta is Prague’s oldest jazz club, founded in 1958 during the communist era – it was here in 1994 that former US president Bill Clinton famously jammed on a new saxophone presented to him by Václav Havel. It has an intimate setting, with smartly dressed patrons squeezing into tiered seats and lounges to soak up the big-band, swing and Dixieland atmosphere. Book a few hours ahead at the box office (open from 5pm Monday to Friday and from 7pm Saturday and Sunday), or through Ticketpro.
reviewed
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Nardis Jazz Club
Just down the hill from the Galata Tower, this venue, named after a Miles Davis track, is where the real aficionados go. Run by jazz guitarist Önder Focan and his wife Zuhal, Nardis is small but big in atmosphere. Its line-up of performers is exceptionally good; some come from the winners’ ranks of its yearly amateur contest and others are visiting international artists. Different daily performers make every visit fresh and serendipitous – book ahead.
reviewed
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606 Club
A lovely but slightly out-of-the-way basement jazz club and restaurant that gives centre stage to contemporary British-based jazz musicians nightly. The club frequently opens until 2am, although at weekends you have to dine to gain admission (booking is advised). There is no entry charge, but a music fee (£8 during the week, £12 Friday and Saturday, £10 Sunday) will be added to your food/drink bill at the end of the evening.
reviewed
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Rotterdam
The Rotterdam is a purist’s pub, unrepentantly old-fashioned and wonderfully atmospheric, with stone floors, an open fire, low ceilings and a perfectly poured pint of Guinness. It’s famed for the quality of its live-music sessions – jazz, folk, rock or blues plays most nights, and in summer the tables, and the gigs, spill outdoors. Get here before the bulldozers do – the Rott’s long-term future is far from certain.
reviewed
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Jazz Café
Established by Mete Gurman and Cengiz Sanlı in 1982, this mellow two-storey place is one of the city’s original jazz joints and is bathed in mood lighting. Great local jazz musicians such as Bülent Ortaçgil come here to perform to 30-something jazzheads, and musicians from other genres also feature – funk/acid or blues are played Tuesday to Thursday, for instance. In summer, the club decamps to Bodrum.
reviewed
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Blues Sklep
One of the city’s newest jazz clubs, the Blues Sklep ( sklep means ‘cellar’) is a typical Old Town basement with dark, Gothic-vaulted rooms that provide an atmospheric setting for regular nightly jazz sessions. Bands play anything from trad New Orleans jazz to bebop, blues, funk and soul. The icing on the cake – the bar serves excellent, competitively priced Ferdinand beer (28Kč for 0.5L).
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Castle
The Castle gets lively on Saturdays, when the market crowds pour in to rest their feet on the comfortable armchairs and sofas and enjoy the odd décor of industrial meets Moorish charm. There's Leffe and delicious strawberry beer, and the place is mainly populated by a crowd of local characters who keep it buzzing all day long. There's a full menu and live jazz on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
reviewed
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Zlatna Ribica
A collision of aesthetics as baroque, fin-de-siècle Paris and Vienna, and Art Deco crash together in this warmly lit bar. Nature abhors a vacuum and so does the owner who has filled every nook and cranny with period knick-knacks; it's a visual feast. Drinks come with a side plate of complimentary nuts and dried figs, and the music is blues and early rock'n'roll.
reviewed
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Agharta Jazz Centrum
Agharta stages top-notch modern Czech jazz, blues, funk and fusion in a very central Old Town venue. A typical jazz cellar with red-brick vaults and a cosy bar and café, the centre also has a music shop (open 7pm to midnight), which sells CDs, T-shirts and coffee mugs. As well as hosting local musicians, the centre occasionally stages gigs by leading international artists.
reviewed
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Nothin’ But the Blues
The oldest blues venue in town, NBB has been wailing for more than 15 years now. The name may be accurate Thursday to Saturday from 8pm when there’s always a live strummer or some such but acts vary the rest of the week. Jamming is on Sunday afternoon and open mike on Monday night. Grab the in-house ‘beer guitar’ and give it a go.
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New Morning
New Morning is a highly regarded auditorium with excellent acoustics that hosts big-name jazz concerts as well as a variety of blues, rock, funk, salsa, Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. Concerts take place three to seven nights per week at 9pm, with the second set ending at around the 1am mark. Tickets can usually be purchased at the door.
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Cantina Bentivoglio
Bologna’s top jazz joint, the Bentivoglio is a jack of all trades. Part wine bar (choose from over 500 labels), part restaurant (the daily prix-fixe menu costs €28) and part jazz club (there’s live music nightly), this much-loved institution oozes cosy charm with its ancient brick floors, arched ceilings and shelves full of wine bottles.
reviewed
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Christopher Columbus
This bar-restaurant, boasting an attractive timber-lined interior, overlooks the river and its less than fascinating dockyards, but you can always turn your chair to face the nearby Naval Academy. The curved bar resembles a boat, and there’s a vast beer garden. Jazz and swing music is on Monday and Tuesday evenings, respectively.
reviewed
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Bimhuis
The core of Amsterdam’s influential jazz and improvisational music scene since 1973, the Bimhuis – located in the Muziekgebouw – draws international jazz greats. The intimate auditorium has huge windows giving a view over the city, and a spiffy bar. There’s an open jam session Tuesdays at 10.30pm from September to June – fun and free.
reviewed
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Red Fox Jazz Café
The newest addition to St Pete’s jazz scene is the fun and friendly Red Fox Jazz Café, a subterranean space that showcases jazz in the old-fashioned sense: big band, bebop, ragtime and swing music. Sunday changes it up with a jam session, featuring anybody who wants to participate. The menu is extensive and affordable.
reviewed
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Café Jazz
It's not exactly your traditional smoky jazz basement, but this appealing hotel café-bar is the city's main jazz venue, with live jazz kicking off at 21:00 Monday to Thursday, and blues from 22:00 Friday (on Saturday nights it's a piano bar). Monday-night jam sessions give new talent a chance to sit in with the house band.
reviewed
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Jazz Garden Music Club
A sophisticated venue with traditional, vocal and Latin jazz, and odd decor: a faux cellar ‘garden’ with street lamps and a night ‘sky’ bedecked with blinking stars. Book a table (starters 1680Ft to 2650Ft, mains 2680Ft to 4180Ft) in the dining room; music starts at 9.30pm and finishes at 12.30am.
reviewed
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Jazz Eetcafé Desafinado
It does exactly what it says on the tin: serves up steaming portions of hot jazz in wood-bound surroundings, with authentic jazz and blues on the stereo, old-time vinyl adorning the walls, and live jazz on Wednesday nights. The food's not too bad, although watch out for those little snail thingies they serve up as nibbles.
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