Kai's Cats Upstairs at Ronnie's October 6th - and this week's prize draw

Kai's Cats - (Kai Hoffman, vocals, Gavin Broom, trumpet, Sam Bullard, saxophone, Simon Whiteside, piano, Dave Chamberlain, bass and Darren Altman, drums) have had a monthly "Live and Let Jive" residency in the upstairs bar at Ronnie's since 2008. That's a lively group to say the least, one day I must sample the wisecracking..... The music is a brand of jump jive and swing, always potently rhythmic. And Jump Jive and Swing is also the title of the group's bouncy album.

Kai is a New Englander, an adoptive Londoner, and has also written some great pieces for LondonJazz, including this, what is almost certainly the last review anywhere of  Fran Landesman.

The album is this week's prize for LondonJazz newsletter readers. Detour: I have a soft spot for the 1990 album "Flood" from "They Might Be Giants," and the track Istanbul (Not Constantinople) gets given a 40's jump jive makeover and spruce-up from Kai and her crew.

'Why did Constantinople Get the works?
That's nobody's business but the Turks'

Ronnie Scott's Bar, October 6th / kaihoffman.co.uk