"What a brilliant club" - Forbes 2025
THE VERDICT
APPJAG Jazz Venue of the Year 2024
The Verdict is a multi award winning grass roots music venue, the only full time Jazz venue outside of London in the south of England, it has been named as one of the best jazz clubs in the World by Star Insider. Weekly hosting the best in jazz music with Top International acts, playing blues, swing, funk, Latin Jazz and fusion.
Roella Oloro Trio
“Roella Oloro is an exceptional young voice in contemporary jazz — a pianist and composer whose music is both intellectually rich and deeply expressive.”
Roella Oloro - piano/vocals
Davide Mantovani - bass
Tristan Banks - drums
Roella Oloro is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and bandleader from Gloucester, UK, with Nigerian and Jamaican heritage. Her music blends jazz, classical, and contemporary influences, and her work ranges from intimate trio and quartet writing to large-scale jazz ensemble and symphonic compositions. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music in May 2023 on a full-tuition scholarship and completed her Master’s Degree at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in June 2024.
Roella has performed internationally as a bandleader and collaborator. In Fall 2025, she completed a US/UK tour with her trio, performing in New York, Connecticut, and Boston, as well as in the UK at the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall, The Ned, Templeton Gardens for Brave Poets, and the Stroud Goodshed. Earlier in 2024 she performed with her trio and with tenor saxophonist Mary Orji’s band on the Bands at The NAMM Show stages at the Hilton Hotel and Grand Plaza. In May 2024 she toured Panama with the Berklee Global Jazz Ambassadors led by pianist, composer, and artistic director Danilo Pérez.
Her performance highlights also include appearances at the Reno Jazz Festival, the Detroit Jazz Festival Collegiate Competition, and BAMS Fest 2023, where she performed with drummer and composer Terri Lyne Carrington’s band. In 2023 she performed at The NAMM Show in Anaheim and at the SHEROCKS showcase at Capitol Turnaround in Washington, DC.
In May 2022 Roella won the Emerging Black Composers Prize from the International Society of Jazz Arrangers and Composers and traveled to Austin, Texas to perform her winning work with a 17-piece jazz orchestra. That same year she completed a London mini-tour with her Berklee trio during the EFG London Jazz Festival, with sold-out performances at the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, and PizzaExpress Jazz Club Soho. The tour coincided with the release of her debut EP Sentient Sounds. Her composition La Voyage de La Rivière for wind orchestra premiered shortly afterwards, conducted by Roella with the Berklee Symphonic Winds Orchestra.
During her studies, Roella received mentorship from renowned musicians including Terri Lyne Carrington, Joanne Brackeen, and Tia Fuller, and studied with Esperanza Spalding at Harvard University. She has appeared on BBC television programmes including Basic Black and Jazz 625: The British Jazz Explosion and was a semi-finalist in BBC Young Musician
Tom Ford Trio
Guitarist and producer Tom Ford presents music from his debut full-length album goodbye, forever, released in 2025. Known for his genre-blurring approach and collaborative spirit, Ford’s work brings together improvisation, songwriting and adventurous musicianship in a way that reflects both his deep roots in jazz and his wider musical influences.
goodbye, forever marks a significant creative turning point for Ford. Conceived as a personal and artistic rebirth, the album represents a move away from the sounds and ideas that previously defined his work, embracing instead a new phase of exploration and growth. At its core, the project reflects Ford’s belief that artistic identity should never remain static, but should constantly evolve through curiosity, collaboration and experimentation.
The music itself moves freely across stylistic boundaries while maintaining a strong emphasis on improvisation. Ford draws inspiration from a wide range of artists and traditions, with subtle nods to the textural guitar work of Allan Holdsworth, the melodic openness of Milton Nascimento, and the atmospheric edge of bands such as The Police and The Smiths. The result is a sound that feels both deeply personal and stylistically unrestrained.
True to Ford’s long-standing approach, collaboration plays a central role in the album. goodbye, forever features contributions from a number of respected voices within the international jazz community, including drummer Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave, bassist Frederico Heliodoro, violinist Anatole Muster, saxophonist Otis Sandsjö and bassist Logan Kane. Each musician brings their own voice and perspective, reinforcing Ford’s commitment to music as a shared creative space rather than a purely individual statement.
In a live setting, Ford presents the material in a stripped-back format that highlights spontaneity and raw energy. Typically performing as a trio of guitar, bass and drums, the group is often joined by Chicago-based vocalist and artist Chase Alex. Rather than recreating the album note-for-note, the band approaches the music with an open, interpretive mindset, allowing space for improvisation and reinvention at every performance.
Ford has been an active figure on the UK jazz scene for over a decade, regularly performing at leading venues including Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, the Jazz Café and Ninety One Living Room. Alongside his own projects he has worked extensively as a sideman with artists such as Reuben James, Jas Kayser and Jay Phelps, while also touring and recording internationally with Chris ‘Daddy’ Dave’s Drumhedz, Keyon Harrold and Petter Eldh’s Projekt Drums.
