Levitation Orchestra X NYJO

Voodoo Daddy’s, situated at the top of London Street, has, in its relatively short life (when compared to some of Norwich's more established live music venues), impressed me again and again with its programming in bringing to Norwich many dynamic new names for the first time, as well as providing a platform for some of the city's best local acts. OK, its nights don't automatically get five stars from me – Annanbella Lwin's Bow Wow Wow is possibly one prime example (although support act The Baby Seals more than saved the day), but the number of new acts that I have been introduced to, and the number of local acts that I have grown to love, all thanks to Voodoo's, has always far outweighed the disappointments. And yet, until tonight, I had never been to a jazz gig at Voodoo's.

Levitation Orchestra is a London based jazz collective, formed in 2018 by trumpet player Axel Kaner-Lidstrom – you may have seen them when they headlined the Adnams Spiegeltent during the 2022 Norfolk & Norwich Festival. As part of a collaborative venture, Kaner-Lidstrom and Levitation recently teamed up with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra to create a special performance for last year's EFG London Jazz Festival. Following on from that, this very special evening at Voodoo's brought together four members of Levitation Orchestra, together with three young musicians from the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, and delivered an astonishing 70 minute set, and all centred around the music that they had collectively written specifically for that EFG performance.

The evening opened with an impressive set from Honō Collective, the innovative shapeshifting Norwich ensemble of drums, saxophone, guitar and bass that are the regular house band at Voodoo Daddy’s regular new wave jazz nights. The session ends with Levitation flautist Lluis, together with Axel and his trumpet, joining them on stage for an inspired improvised jam.

After the break, it is the turn of the collaborative seven piece ensemble led by Kaner-Lidstrom to perform, and he quickly points out to any who might have been expecting the entire eleven-piece Levitation Orchestra, together with the whole of the National Youth Jazz Orchestra to somehow fit onto the stage of Voodoo Daddy’s, that the music tonight is being performed by ‘Levitation Orchestra x NYJO’. And what a performance it is, brimming with talent and combining experience with youthful innovation, the two drummers, keyboard player, bassist, flautist, trumpeter and trombonist deliver the most spine-tingling, foot-tapping, awe-inspiring hour of jazz that I have ever heard in Norwich. Voodoos had, for the night become a jazz venue to rival the basements of Soho, or the clubs of Manhattan’s 52nd Street.

For those who were prepared to wait whilst the bands took a well earned break, a spontaneous jam session was laid on, a further chance for these wonderful musicians to explore and create even more musical worm holes. But for me, feeling fully sated, and very humbled, it was time for to call it a night.