The Basement Tapes Tour, taking place from today (23 September) – 24 November 2015, will travel round London’s finest subterranean cocktail joints, filling them with their distinctive brand of jazz and style of cocktail.
Basement Tapes, Kansas Smitty’s popular in-house weekly event, showcases some of the UK’s most talented musicians, each week featuring members of the band playing with some of the finest jazz musicians from London and beyond. With the popularity of these evenings clear from numerous sell-outs, Smitty’s have decided to take Basement Tapes on tour, connecting London’s coolest underground bars with sensational live music performances on Tuesdays throughout the autumn months.
Examples of the bars that the band has teamed up with include the likes of Bourne & Hollingsworth Group, Basement Sate, El Camion, Nightjar, and Nightjar’s sister venue Oriole.
A sour mash of jazz genres, the Kansas Smitty’s gritty style is influenced by the sounds of New York, New Orleans, Paris, and Havana, and now with this new musical tour, the band will be bringing their aurally and visually stunning performances all over the city.
At the heart of Smitty’s identity is another true American classic; the Julep. As part of the Basement Tapes Tour, the band will be inviting each resident bar to create their own unique julep for the evening, using whatever method and garnishes they fancy, served for one night only, in one of Smitty’s signature ‘monty cups’.
From jazz enthusiasts to complete newcomers, the tour will allow Londoners to be able to enjoy each bar’s unique take on the Julep, while discovering new sounds and spaces they might otherwise never have found.
At a time when an increasing number of live music venues across the Capital are being closed down, Kansas Smitty’s want to encourage people to continue to flock to these basement bars, where live music and dancing until the early hours continue to take place under the streets of London.
