The Spitz, a former East London jazz venue, returns for its 30th anniversary

The Spitz, remembered as one of London's great jazz venues, is returning to Old Spitalfields Market for two free anniversary sessions marking 30 years since it first opened, UK Jazz News reported on August 9. Mussinghi Brian Edwards, Arthur Lea and Henrik Jensen play the first date on Friday, August 28, and Jay Phelps, Emine Pirhasan, Rick Simpson and Ben Hazleton play the second on Friday, September 25.

The venue opened in 1996 and closed for the final time in 2007, after the redevelopment of Spitalfields Market ended its run following 11 years and more than 3,000 concerts. Saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings played clarinet on the closing night. Founder Jane Glitre, writing for UK Jazz News, said the idea behind the venue never went away even after the doors shut.

In 2013, Glitre established The Spitz Charitable Trust, drawing on musicians from the venue's heyday, including saxophonist Pete Wareham and trumpeter Jay Phelps, to bring live music into care homes, hospitals, GP surgeries and community settings across London. Glitre pushed back on the idea that music for older audiences means only wartime nostalgia: people in their 70s and 80s, she wrote, "grew up on The Beatles, met their future spouses in smoky jazz clubs, rebelled with folk and protest songs."

The charity's musicians, now including JazzFM vocalist of the year Alice Zawadzki and guitarist Marcus Bonfanti alongside venue veterans like Wareham and Phelps, play for people across the whole lifespan, from newborns in hospital to older people living with dementia. Glitre described sessions where a jazz standard suddenly unlocks a memory, or someone who has not spoken all morning begins singing every word of a song learned as a child.

The anniversary programme brings back musicians who helped define the original Spitz, including Miles Danso, who still talks about carrying his double bass from Liverpool Street station to play in the venue's old bistro, alongside musicians such as Bonfanti and Emine Pirhasan, whose connection to The Spitz began through the charity rather than the venue itself. Even the next generation is part of the story: 17-year-old Quincy Wareham, son of musician Pete Wareham, has worked as sound engineer for several Spitz events, including a July date at the market.

Both anniversary sessions run 5:30pm to 7pm at Old Spitalfields Market and require no booking, UK Jazz News reported. The return follows a run of London venue milestones this year, from Blue Note's new London club opening on the Coltrane centenary to the Steve Nelson Quartet's own upcoming date at Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho.