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Restaurant critic Jay Rayner, undoubtedly the best jazz pianist in Britain of all the judges on MasterChef, leads an ensemble of top flight musicians through a compelling and vivid night of the very best of song-writing and jazz.Expect blistering performances of iconic tunes from jazz greats like Herbie Hancock, and Horace Silver to song-writing legends including Tom Waits, Cole Porter and Harold Arlen. All of this comes liberally seasoned with extraordinary, often outrageous, sometimes filthy stories from Jay’s life in the worlds of food and journalism. He may also rant about chefs serving food on slates. Jay really hates food served on slates.Since forming the Jay Rayner Quartet in 2012, the band have played some of the most prestigious music venues in Britain, including Ronnie Scott’s, King’s Place and Snape Maltings. They’ve performed live on BBC Radio 3, been supported by Will Young (kind of; he played after them) and have made a point, while on tour, of eating better than any other jazz ensemble in the UK, courtesy of Jay encouraging top restaurants to send their best dishes backstage ahead of the show. In 2022 they celebrated ten years of gigging by becoming a sextet and launching a new repertoire of arrangements celebrating the chart hits of the 80s which had jazz in their bones, songs by Sade, Matt Bianco, Everything But The Girl, Swing Out Sister and more.A night spent with the Jay Rayner Sextet promises great music, killer stories and often quite inappropriate laughter. The Sextet: with the bassist Robert Rickenberg, saxophonist Dave Lewis, singer Pat Gordon-Smith, guitarist Chris Cobbson and drummer Sophie Alloway.

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Gigs

Jazz Up the 80s with the Jay Rayner Sextet at Pizza Express Dean Street

Apr 20, 2026

Jazz Up the 80s with the Jay Rayner Sextet at Pizza Express Dean Street

May 24, 2026

Jazz Up the 80s with the Jay Rayner Sextet at PizzaExpress Live (Holborn)

Jun 13, 2026

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