"What a brilliant club" - Forbes 2025
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.
THE VERDICT
Lorne Lofsky / Nigel Price Quartet
Lorne Lofsky – Guitar
Nigel Price – Guitar
Jeremy Brown – Double Bass
Dave Ingamells – Drums
An extraordinary meeting of two generations of jazz guitar excellence comes to The Verdict as Canadian guitar legend Lorne Lofsky joins one of the UK's most celebrated guitarists, Nigel Price, for a very special quartet performance.
Lorne Lofsky is quite simply a living legend of jazz guitar. Over a remarkable career, he has toured and recorded with some of the greatest names in jazz, including Oscar Peterson, Joey DeFrancesco and Chet Baker. He is also renowned for his long association with the great Canadian guitarist Ed Bickert, whose sophisticated, understated approach has had a profound influence on generations of jazz guitarists.
Joining him is Nigel Price, one of the UK's most respected and in-demand jazz guitarists. A former member of the legendary James Taylor Quartet, Nigel has established himself as a major figure on the British jazz scene. He was voted Best Guitarist in the 2016 British Jazz Awards and is a regular performer at Ronnie Scott's, where he has appeared around 600 times.
The quartet is completed by two outstanding musicians from the UK jazz scene. Jeremy Brown is one of the country's most sought-after double bassists, regularly performing with leading visiting international artists, while Joel Barford brings his distinctive musicality and highly interactive approach to the drum chair.
Expect an evening of spontaneous, swinging and beautifully melodic jazz, with the repertoire decided by Lorne on the night. The set may include music from the quartet's recent release, Live at The Globe, capturing the chemistry between these exceptional musicians.
Don't miss this rare opportunity to hear Lorne Lofsky live alongside Nigel Price and three of the UK's finest jazz musicians.
Book your tickets now for what promises to be a very special night of guitar-led jazz at The Verdict.
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Jasper Høiby’s 3Elements
Jasper Høiby – Double Bass
Xavi Torres – Piano
Naíma Acuña – Drums
“The brilliant bass player, Jasper Høiby, outstanding music” - GILLES PETERSON
“Høiby fashions his pieces so the lines between freedom and form are beautifully blurred - everything belongs, nothing is forced.” - MOJO
“The intricate, information-dense linear arrangements and tightly plotted rhythm tracks that characterised Phronesis are here relaxed so that the music is allowed to flow and breathe.” Editors Choice - JAZZWISE ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
“3 Elements” offers an uncompromising and robust sound palette, which recalls the groove ofPhronesis while being distinguished by the richness of the charismatic and unique sound of Høiby's bass. - RADIO FRANCE
“3Elements” offers a compelling, uncompromising, and robust sonic palette reminiscent of the groove-centric Phronesis, whilst being enriched by Høiby’s unmistakably charismatic bass sound. UKVIBE ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Conversations of Hope is the third album from Jasper Høiby’s acclaimed 3Elements piano trio, featuring pianist Xavi Torres and drummer Naíma Acuña.
At the centre is Jasper Høiby, one of the most distinctive bassists, composers and bandleaders on the contemporary European jazz scene. His international reputation was shaped through Phronesis, the influential trio he co-founded in 2005, which helped redefine what a modern piano trio could sound like.
That same spirit of structure, risk and collective momentum drives 3Elements. The music moves fast and hits hard, built around strong melodic ideas, shifting time signatures and an acute sense of space. Acuña’s precise, driving drumming and Torres’ harmonically rich piano language lock tightly into Høiby’s bass-led compositions, creating music that is urgent, physical and constantly responsive.
Released on Edition Records, Conversations of Hope sees Høiby refining his approach to intensity, interaction and ensemble playing with remarkable clarity and purpose.
Expect adventurous contemporary jazz, powerful interplay and three musicians operating at the very highest level.
Ricky Ford Quartet
Ricky Ford - Tenor Sax
Emile Hinton - Piano
Conor Murray - Double Bass
Kai MacRae - Drums
Legendary Boston saxophonist Ricky Ford is one of the most distinctive and commanding voices in modern jazz. First gaining international recognition during his time with the great Charles Mingus in the late 1970s, Ford has spent a remarkable career developing a sound that is powerful, lyrical, fiercely individual and unmistakably his own.
A unique stylist, Ford combines a majestic tone with an extraordinary sense of invention. His playing can move effortlessly from hard-driving, muscular improvisation to moments of extraordinary sensitivity and lyricism, always retaining the intensity and spontaneity that have made him such a compelling performer.
Throughout his career, Ford has worked with an extraordinary roll call of jazz giants, including Roy Hargrove, Abdullah Ibrahim, McCoy Tyner, Sonny Stitt and Jaki Byard. His extensive and eclectic discography reflects a musician who has never been confined by a single style, drawing on bebop, hard bop, post-bop and the broader traditions of African-American music while continually pushing his own musical language forward.
But it is on stage where Ricky Ford truly comes alive. Renowned for his explosive energy, fearless improvisation and unpredictable approach, he is a performer who commands attention from the first note. There is an urgency and physicality to his playing that makes every performance feel spontaneous and unrepeatable.
Now bringing his extraordinary musical personality to Verdict Jazz Club, Ricky Ford promises an evening of uncompromising, world-class jazz from a musician whose career is woven into the history of the music itself.
A saxophone colossus, a true jazz original and a phenomenal live performer — Ricky Ford is not to be missed.
