Eleanor Thorn’s Tuned In London once again brings exciting music to Rotherhithe with An American Melt, writes Michael Holland.
This show on July 4th has Nathan Osgood, Joff Watkins and Kamila Bydlowska creating an evening of Blues, Jazz, Klezmer and Gypsy fusions and rhythms that will utilise the trio’s skills and backgrounds: Nathan’s American roots and Kamila’s Polish heritage along with Joff’s Blues’ history of playing chromatic harmonica that he has perfected over many years while gigging with Nathan in and around London. Eleanor promises Joff’s musicianship is ‘hot’.
This Independence Day special will provide both spoken word and music, with multi-award-winning violinist Kamila, more often found as a concerto soloist, dazzling with her incredible agility and prowess, and local US ex-pat, musician-actor Nathan impressing on guitar and vocals, both sung and spoken.
I asked Nathan how he became involved with this event.
‘We wanted to do something to show the influence of Europe on the American Jazz scene, along with short stories from my collection called ‘Yanked’, about having an American GI father and a mother from the East End of London.’
What can the audience expect from such a diverse trio?
‘Different musical backgrounds fused together. Kamila is a classical violinist, Joff is coming from a blues background, and myself being an actor and musician blends the music with storytelling.’
Have you played with these musicians before?
Joff and I have been performing together forever and Kamila Bydlowska has been performing with us on and off for a few years now… They are a joy to work with and rehearsals have been going great. We’re excited about this show.’
How did you decide on a playlist?
We want to show the varied music that influenced Jazz as we know it today: Boleros from Spain, Gypsy Jazz from France, Blues from the African-American community and folk music from both Britain and Ireland.’
Fri 4th July, 7.30pm
St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe.
Tickets start at £8 for under 16s and go up to £15/16.
Booking and full details: https://tunedin.london/
