The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, Shoreditch Town Hall

Shoreditch Town Hall became, in reality, more dance hall than jazz club, with the result that a boisterous capacity audience made full use of the opportunity to take to the dance floor, and the formal dancing by the always interesting Clod Ensemble got rather subsumed into the general jollity. Lost, too, was the kind of respectful, almost religious silence, with which jazz club audiences listen to the music.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The event at the Shoreditch Town Hall, part of the 2023 EFG London Jazz Festival, was conceived by Clod Ensemble, a performance/dance company with public engagement at its heart, together with Nu Civilisation Orchestra, a 12-piece jazz band familiar with Charles Mingus’s work.

Their aim was to celebrate the 60th anniversary of The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady, generally considered one of the greatest jazz albums of all time and Charles Mingus’s masterpiece. Double-bassist, composer and band leader Charles Mingus intended it as a kind of jazz ballet, and although he originally envisioned an unbroken piece of music, he eventually agreed to divide it into six sections.

It is an extraordinarily powerful work, simultaneously avant-garde and hinting at jazz traditions represented by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker, all of whom Mingus worked with and admired.


Donovan Haffner, Nu Civlisation Orchestra. Photo: Hugo Glendinning

The Nu Civilisation Orchestra led by Peter Edwards, offered an expert rendition of the transporting moods and intricacies of Mingus’s work, including the sections of collective improvisation and deeply evocative Spanish guitar solos by Ashley Blasse. This took up the entire second half of the evening.

Just to get us in the mood, the first half of the programme brought a performance of new jazz pieces: the up-tempo Let’s Lime by Romarna Campbell, Slow Dance by Peter Edwards, evocative of languorous, sultry urban nights, and Cripps Yard by Paul Clark.

The moment the first notes were heard, Clod Ensemble performers drew out members of the audience, who were expectantly gathered on the edges of the dance floor, the actual dancers only occasionally glimpsed among what soon became a heaving throng.

As a dance writer, I had expected to see Clod Ensemble perform unimpeded in the second half of the evening, but no such luck. There were brief sections when they had the floor to themselves, and then we were able to admire the skill and enthusiasm with which they responded to Mingus’s music and fulfilled his designs that this should be a jazz ballet.

There were sequences of improvisation, where the irrepressible Valerie Ebuwa stood out, as did the very elegant Kenny Wing Tao Ho (both pictured top), while Arran Green showed hip hop could also be married to Mingus’s brand of jazz.

From what I could see, Suzy Willson's group choreography seemed uninspired, but perhaps the choreographer wisely realised it would be impossible to compete with the sheer power of Mingus’s music and resigned herself to letting dance take a modest second place.

All in all, though, this was a good, successful gig, cleverly pitched at the audience it attracted.