Blues Workshop at the Vortex in London

The goal of MusicGurus workshops is intimate musical moments with awesome musicians. This one is about what happens when four of them share a stage - and what it takes to do that well.

Pianist Paddy Milner, guitarist Marcus Bonfanti, drummer Pat Levett, and bassist Jay Darwish are four of the UK's most in-demand blues performers. They've worked with Tom Jones, Jack Bruce, Van Morrison, Ginger Baker, Ronnie Wood, Sting, Bernard Purdie. They're also bandleaders and educators in their own right.

For three hours at the Vortex jazz club in London, they take you inside the music - but not how a textbook would. This isn't a course about licks or scales. It's a course about how a band actually plays together: how a guitarist locks a shuffle with the drummer, how a slow blues breathes around the singer, when to leave the gap, how to start and end a tune as a unit, how to signal a chorus change with your eyes.

The workshop has two halves.

Part one: the band plays five grooves. A blues shuffle, a slow blues (Memphis Slim's Mother Earth), New Orleans 4/4 (Professor Longhair's Big Chief), a Bourbon Street feel, and Meters-style funk (Just Kissed My Baby). After each one they break it down - Pat on where the pocket sits in the drums, Marcus on how the guitar shadows it, Paddy on how the piano leaves room, Jay on the bass role.

Part two: four student bands take the stage. Each plays a blues for the room and gets live feedback from Paddy, Marcus, Pat and Jay - not on technique, on musicianship. Leading a solo. Communicating endings. Listening across the stage. Recovering from mistakes. Knowing when to play less.

By the end you have a vocabulary of grooves to take home and a set of habits for the next time you step onto a stage with other people.

About the artists:

• Paddy Milner is one of the world's top blues pianists. He is currently keyboard player of choice for the legendary Tom Jones, following several years with the late great Jack Bruce. He is a noted soloist and bandleader in his own right, having twice won Best Keyboard Player at the British Blues Awards. “I love it…there’s a guy who can really play the piano” - Dave Brubeck on Paddy Milner
• Marcus Bonfanti is a guitarist and singer who fronts Ten Years After and the Ronnie Scott's Blues Explosion. He has worked with Ginger Baker, Van Morrison, and Ronnie Wood. His solo albums have been named among Classic Rock magazine's ‘Albums of the Year’.
• Pat Levett is one of the UK's most in-demand drummers. He has performed and recorded with The James Taylor Quartet, Tim Minchin, and Bernard Purdie. As well as drums, Pat plays chromatic harmonica and is a featured soloist on two albums by Will Grove-White. His own project The Coalminers is dedicated to playing New Orleans funk and soul.
• Jay Darwish is one of the most in-demand bassists in London. From playing and recording with Sting and Newton Faulkner to Gilles Peterson, he's made his mark on the London scene and continues to perform and record regularly in a variety of contexts. Jay is equally at home on Double Bass and Electric Bass.

Many thanks to the Vortex Jazz Club for hosting this workshop.