leon thomas

One of the most memorable live performances I ever saw was at the Jazz Café in 1998.

I had heard all sorts of rumours about Leon Thomas’ health and ability to perform that when I left a dark, damp Camden Parkway to enter the club that night, I’m not sure I was expecting anything much at all, yet for just over an hour the tall man with the dextrous voice blew me and a crowd of several hundred others away. I was reminded of him last year at another small London venue when the latest jazz vocal sensation, Gregory Porter, took the stage. He has an equally large voice and is also steeped in the blues, and when asked was only too happy to admit his love of Leon Thomas’s work.