London is the Place for Me Vol 2

The Good Thing - October 2018

October is a cool, crispy month and no better time to bring out this cool crispy record! This vibrant and beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking compilation is bursting with early black british treasures.

The narrative thread of the black british jazz story is on full display here, widened and enriched in its scope by the Carribeans who came to London in the 40’s as part of the Windrush Generation. Families and children arrived on the ship The Empire Windrush to claim the citizenship they were guaranteed by being birthed in the commonwealth. It wasn’t easy for them. It still isn’t, as British Immigration laws continue to move the goalposts and citizenship can seem tenuous. These tracks are each a part of an intricate story of survival and love.

Here are the singers, trumpeters, clarinetists, and lyricists in the full and clear context of their new lives as well as their native folk musics. Willie Roachford, social pot stirrer Lord Kitchener, early mutant british jazz freaks like Young Tiger and Timothy Gerrard.

These artists carve out a glimpse of an important musical and social moment for Jazz, Calypso, Kwela, and more importantly young black britain. It’s fun and sassy and holds some true keystone moments in british jazz history. I can never get enough of listening to it.

-Briana Holt

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