The HiFi Club & Leeds Jazz Festival presents... The Sunday Joint w/ Grifton Forbes Amos + Afrodesia

On Sunday 28th May, the legendary Sunday Joint sessions at The Hifi Club teams up with DJ Lubi & Leeds Jazz Festival to showcase a rising star in the London/UK jazz scenes....trumpeter Grifton Forbes-Amos.

London trumpeter Grifton Forbes-Amos is well known in Leeds music circles as he studied at Leeds Conservatoire from 2018 to 2021 and was involved heavily with the local jazz/soul/world music scenes. He is really starting to shine now in the UK jazz world, both as a member of afrofusion band and festival favourites TC & The Groove Family (Worm Discs) as well playing in recent times with Blue Note Records artists Blue Lab Beats and London jazz & bass collective Steamdown. Tonight we're proud to feature the first show by Grifton under his own name in Leeds since he graduated from the conservatoire in summer 2021 and returned to London. Grifton's coming home (well, his second home)....

London born and raised, he started playing trumpet aged 10 years old but happily confesses he didn't really get heavily into it until he was 18 when he hit Leeds College Of Music (now Leeds Conservatoire). Once in Leeds, he dived into the city's vibrant DIY jazz/soul/global beats scenes with a passion. He joined global fusion/afro jazz crew TC & The Groove Family (and is still there today), abstract jazz band Fall Quintet, Latin jazz band Punto Sabor and regularly sat in at DJ Lubi's jazz/hip-hop/soul jam session RE:SOUL (including ones at The Hifi Club back in autumn 2019). At the same time, he was involved with the highly regarded London youth big band/musical mentoring scheme Tomorrow's Warriors and also playing in a jazz ensemble in the capital called KOMA. While still a student, he played live gigs with Soweto Kinch's "Black Peril" era ensemble and then joined Leeds nujazz champions Tetes de Pois (replacing Jasmine Myra). And all this before he turned 21!

After returning to London, he continued playing with TC & The Groove Family, featuring on their 2022 debut album "First Home", and also appearing live with Blue Lab Beats and Steamdown. You'll also catch down at Neue Grafik's Orii Jam in London playing in the house band most weeks. More importantly, he began to concentrate on writing original music for his own band. Tonight, we feature Grifton playing his FIRST headline show in Leeds under his own name since summer 2021 and reuniting him with his old band mates from his time in the city. They are : Saul Duff (Awen Ensemble) - tenor saxophone, Ruben Maric (Plantfood) - keys, Joe Wilkes (Awen Ensemble) - bass, Eddie Bowes (Awen Ensemble) - drums. Expect some firing electric jazz fusion with amazing solos bouncing off heavy rhythms and grooves.

Support band is Afrodesia, made up of the next generation of Leeds' rising jazz stars emerging from Leeds Conservatoire following in Grifton's footsteps. They are an 8 piece afrobeat/afro-jazz ensemble led by alto saxophonist Reece Fogg. They've only played a handful of shows so far in Leeds at The Hifi Club and Brudenell Social Club but those have been firing sessions where their blend of classic afrobeat, highlife, contemporary jazz and Latin rhythms packed the dancefloor. With an average age of around 20, this band has so much potential for the future. Come and see them at this special Leeds Jazz Festival / Sunday Joint show!

As usual, this Sunday Joint session will be hosted and DJ'd by Lubi Jovanovic (DJ Lubi), Leeds' "Mr Jazz" since the dawn of time (or at least the mid 1980s), and our resident curator/DJ since January 2020.

Advance Tickets

£6 Early Bird // £8 General Release // More on the door