Music Spoken Here presents: Impossible Conversations
The Marr’s Bar, Worcester
Thursday 13th February 2025
Local promoter Music Spoken Here presents the second event of their ‘Up!Beat’ series showcasing drummer-led bands at The Marr’s Bar, Worcester. This performance features ‘Impossible Conversations’, a new band from Birmingham led by young drummer Louis Hamilton-Foad, grandson of the late Andy Hamilton.
Jamaican saxophonist Andy Hamilton arrived in the UK in 1949 and eventually made Birmingham his adopted home. Working as a musician, promoter and educator in the city for decades, he established a legacy in Birmingham and the wider UK jazz scene. In the mid-1980s Andy started a weekly jazz night that found its home in the Bearwood Corks social club, later relaunched as Silvershine Jazz Club, named after the title of his 1991 album, shortly after his death in 2012. He also founded The Notebenders big band project in 2004 that continues to run through the Andy Hamilton Trust set up in 2007 to develop and nurture the next generation of young jazz musicians. He was awarded an MBE in 2008 for services to Music in Birmingham.
The club was kept going in various venues by Andy’s daughter Kim and her husband, the guitarist Paul Foad (who played in Andy’s ‘Blue Notes’ band in the nineties), with the last show at The Bear pub in November 2024. Their son, Louis Hamilton-Foad, is the second young drummer to be featured in the ‘Up!Beat’ series that started last month with a sold-out show from Lenny Kravitz’s drummer Jas Kayser and her ‘Chums’ band.
Louis has worked with several prominent artists from the Birmingham contemporary jazz scene, including saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch. On his 21st birthday recently, Louis was on drums for the world premiere performance of Soweto’s ‘Soundtrack to the Apocalypse’ at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, which was part of the Montreux Jazz Festival Residency at the South Bank Centre that ran 31 January – 2 February. Louis has worked with Soweto Kinch on several occasions and featured in the live performance of ‘White JuJu’ with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in October last year.
The five-piece band Impossible Conversations released their debut single “19:58” last year. Joining Louis in the lineup are Gabriel Amann, son of local jazz pianist Tim Amann on trumpet, Ben Carter on sax, Alex Smith on keys and Sam Sharpe on bass. Each of these young musicians bring their unique musical background and a combined love of jazz to create a sound that is both familiar, fresh and truly special with every performance.
The event starts at 8pm with a live DJ set from Staffordshire DJ ‘Moore Fe Jazz’ followed by Impossible Conversations on stage from around 8:30. Admission is free for Music Spoken Here Club Members, while non-members are invited to pay what they can on the door.
For more information visit the Music Spoken Here website