Blue Note will open its first UK jazz club on St Martin's Lane in Covent Garden on 23 September, and Robert Glasper headlines it. He plays two nights, 23 and 24 September, returns for seven more shows in November, and joins the venue as its creative ambassador. Erykah Badu, Jamie Cullum, Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes, KOKOROKO and the East London singer and rapper Hak Baker are also on the first run of shows.
Blue Note began as one room in Greenwich Village, opened on 30 September 1981 by its founder Danny Bensusan, and has since become a chain with clubs in New York, Los Angeles, Milan, Tokyo and elsewhere. London is the newest of them and the first in Britain, and the company's co-owner, Tsion Bensusan, called opening here one of the biggest moments in its history.
The main room holds 250 people and runs two shows a night, at 7pm and 9.30pm. A second room of 100 capacity, called B-Side, opens later in 2026 and is meant for emerging British acts. The club stays open until 1am from Monday to Saturday and midnight on Sunday, with a food menu and cocktails through the week. Legeard Studio, a New York architecture and interiors firm, designed the space.
The opening date is not an accident: 23 September is the 100th birthday of John Coltrane. Glasper, a five time Grammy winner, said the point of the room is a place where jazz, R&B and hip-hop can meet and surprise people, and that he wants it to feel intimate and fearless. Nick Lewis, the club's director of music and programming, said it will put visiting artists alongside the British jazz scene, which is why KOKOROKO, Nubya Garcia and Yussef Dayes are all on the first bill.
Two membership tiers went on sale before the room did, including a Founders Society capped at 100 people. Tickets for the first wave of shows went on sale at 10am BST on 14 August after two presales. Erykah Badu's nights there fall inside the UK leg of the tour behind the joint album she and The Alchemist set for August 28, and Glasper's recent work includes a return from Dinner Party. The rest of the venue news is in our music business coverage.
The facts
- Blue Note London opens on St Martin's Lane, Covent Garden, on 23 September
- That date is the 100th birthday of John Coltrane
- Robert Glasper headlines 23 and 24 September and is creative ambassador
- He returns for seven more shows in November
- Erykah Badu, Jamie Cullum, Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes and KOKOROKO are booked
- The main room holds 250 and runs shows at 7pm and 9.30pm
- A 100 capacity second room, B-Side, opens later in 2026
- Tickets for the first wave went on sale at 10am BST on 14 August
How this checks out
Confirmed
Reported by 5 independent outlets
Independent outlets reported it separately, enough to treat it as confirmed.
One background citation is listed separately below. It fills in context and does not count toward corroboration.
Cited sources 5
Every outlet that reported this, linked to what it published. Equal credits, in alphabetical order.
Background 1
Context we looked up, with the source for each one. Nobody reported these as part of this story, so they count for nothing toward how well it checks out.
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The first Blue Note opened in Greenwich Village, New York, on 30 September 1981, founded by Danny Bensusan, and the chain later reached Tokyo in 1988
Source Wikipedia