It wasn’t much time at all. When Nick Lewis got on the phone with his new boss on his first day as Blue Note’s head of music earlier this year, he was told he had just three weeks to find their opening 53-show run.
From his home in Hackney, Lewis set about calling up practically every artist and industry contact he’d amassed in his 20-year career. Could Erykah Badu be persuaded to drop in? She could, in fact, never mind that capacity was 250 people and she’s used to selling out arenas. Jamie Cullum also decided to play. As everyone from American hip hop royalty Slum Village to celebrated British drummer Yussef Dayes got in on the action, things started to become clear. If all went to plan, this would be one hell of an opening run.
Six weeks in, and Lewis and the rest of the team can just about pause for breath. Blue Note — a legendary brand of jazz clubs founded in Greenwich Village in the 80s — marks the third major music venue that Lewis has helmed in London, after a 15-year stint at Ronnie Scott’s in Soho and a five year run as tastemaker in chief at KOKO in Camden. Both Ronnie’s and KOKO became some of the buzziest spots around London under his reign. He’s become a key figure within an increasingly lively London jazz scene, as Blue Note’s opening has become curiously central to the narrative of the city.
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