London club Mau Mau Bar has closed

Home of the legendary jazz:refreshed residency for nearly 17 years.

London club Mau Mau Bar has closed its doors.

Located in Notting Hill on Portobello Road, the venue was a vital force within the city’s independent music scene, largely thanks to jazz:refreshed and its weekly Thursday night events.

Hundreds of bands and musicians graced the jazz:refreshed stage, including Dele Sosimi, Kokoroko and Nubya Garcia.

jazz:refreshed will continue its residency elsewhere, though a brief hiatus will occur whilst it finds a new home. Label activities and special events will proceed as normal.

As some of you may have heard, Mau Mau Bar – the home of the Jazz re:freshed weekly live residency for 16 years and 7 months – has been sold. We were expecting to be a part of the new set up, however, certain important factors have prevented us from being able to do that. So, it is with great sadness, but even greater pride that we are saying goodbye to the place where it all started. Being able to put on a weekly event consistently in the same venue for over 16 years is a privilege that we always appreciated and never took for granted – especially in a world where music venues close and reshape so frequently. We are extremely proud to have hosted some INCREDIBLE nights at Mau Mau and created some very special memories for many people, including ourselves. We’ve been privileged to have witnessed hundreds of bands and thousands of musicians take the Mau Mau stage to express their incredible talents. We always knew, from the very beginning, that a day would come where we would have to leave Mau Mau and although we would have hoped that it would’ve been under different circumstances, that time has come. THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE WEEKLY RESIDENCY. We have been and are actively looking for a new home for the Jazz re:freshed weekly live residency and we are having several discussions with potential new spaces (recommendations welcome). This will mean that there will be an extended hiatus until a new place is sorted, which hopefully will not be too long. Justin, Adam, Yvette, Chippy, Bunny, Garth and Mikey would like to thank:- All of the musicians who have graced the Mau Mau stage, The audiences who have come out and supported the music at Mau Mau for over 16 years, All of our Jazz re:freshed family and friends who support, help out, give up their time to lend a hand at the residency, And all of the Mau Mau staff over the years, especially owners Swan and Jay for giving us the opportunity and believing in our vision – there would not be a Jazz re:freshed without you. Thanks again for your continued support and here’s to the future. jazz re:freshed

A post shared by jazz re:freshed (@jazzrefreshed) on Feb 14, 2020 at 1:29pm PST