The history of Jelly Jazz!

It all began way back in January 1993 when a Wednesday night slot at The Quay Club in Plymouth became available and was offered to Pete to do a 'jazz' night. Pete had been playing in some jazz funk bands as a percussionist through the 80's and had then got into DJing around 1989 through the acid house explosion. But when the chance came to start a night, it wasn't house music but jazz and funk that was to be the focus, as this was where the passion lay, and also the diversity. Four to floor was great for a few years but it did get a little boring!

The first night was hastily put together, without a name and just Pete playing records. Some simple posters and flyers were photocopied saying "Jazz Funk" at The Quay Club. It was a Wednesday night, it was Plymouth (not a town known for it's cultural vibrancy) and Acid Jazz was very much a thing that hadn't made it past Bristol, to be truthful, no one thought it would work! But the very first night around 120 people showed up and it soon became evident that it was a case of 'right time, right place'. The Quay Club was a fantastic venue based right on the harbour side of Plymouth's historic Barbican, it was an upstairs club with a lovely wooden dancefloor that definitely had a jazz vibe! So after getting over the surprise of a successful inaugural party, a name needed to be thought of and a funk squad needed to be found.

Amazingly the name Jelly Jazz was the first thing Pete thought of, it's connotations of wobbly yet fun music was perfect. And being equally lucky in finding DJ Griff spinning old school funk and jazz in Plymouth University's bar, and the first girls to do the door, Becky and Dianne, the original Jelly Jazz team was born. A new poster design was made, in homage to the Acid Jazz label, and week 2 as the first real 'Jelly' night kicked off with a full house! The night hit the ground running and almost overnight became one of the cities most popular clubs.

For the first 2 years, Bongo (Pete's DJ name at the time) & Griff ruled the roost, became thoroughly obsessed and highly competitive with records and developed the Jelly 'sound'. The club had a loose policy of not bothering with guest DJs insisting that the music was the most important thing and not who was playing it, although the club did have some guests in those early years. People like DJ Bunny from Acid Jazz, Chris Goss, some local lads and one or two others became part of the family. There were also the first handful of live gigs at The Cooperage with Mother Earth (Acid Jazz), Izit and Federation (Mo Wax) amongst others. But as time went on, and with more and more people coming to dance, things had to change, to move forward and to grow. When Griff left Plymouth in 1995 to get a 'job', Pete took Jelly to a new venue called The Studio because the Quay Club closed its doors for refurbishment. And it was at The Studio that things really exploded.

With Griff in London, Pete began booking DJs from around the world. With fully established DJs like Norman Jay to the many emerging artists in the funky jazzy breaks scene, the variety and quality of these guests helped Jelly Jazz become the South West's premier jazzfunk night. Week in week out the Studio saw up to 700 people go nuts on the dancefloor, it got so that the Studio had to open the doors to the 2000 capacity venue next door to act as a chill out! And the next obvious step was to move into that for a BIG party. So on the clubs 4th Birthday, local funk band Big World Skunk and DJs Pete, Chris Goss and Goldenchild played to 1100 people in The Warehouse, Plymouth's legendary acid house venue. A taste for big nights beckoned…

The next few years saw Jelly Jazz continue at The Studio weekly but also hosting twice yearly parties at The Dance Academy further down the road. A beautiful old Victorian theatre with a very large stage and perfect for throwing some incredible parties. Arguably some of the best ever sessions occurred here with acts like Pucho, Sharon Jones, New Mastersounds, Sugarman 3 all playing to huge crowds.

Jelly Jazz moved it's weekly session back the The Quay Club around 1998 (it took that long to renovate!!!), the spiritual home of Jelly but now twice as big and set on 2 floors. Griff moved back to Devon, hating the rat race in London, and rejoined the Jelly Jazz family. Pete had married the original Jelly Jazz door girl Becky and a Jelly Baby had been born! And then for the next 9 years Jelly Jazz continued at The Quay Club and Dance Academy and various other venues in Plymouth presenting the best in jazz, funk, soul, latin, breaks and beats from a vast array of international artists.

During this time, things also branched out across the South West and beyond: There was an crazy 5 year run at The Koola in Newquay where things exploded in much the same way as it did in Plymouth. Kicking off there on a Tuesday night, Jelly regularly saw up to 1000 people piling in over the night with some of the craziest most energetic dancefloors ever experienced! Bands also came down to The Koola to play with The Bamboos surely taking top prize as the best ever night there, so so so so so so good! In 2003 Jelly Jazz began it's association with The Eden Project in Cornwall and threw some massive parties there with Lou Donaldson (Blue Note), Quantic Soul Orchestra and Fertile Ground and then in the last couple of years have become resident at The Eden Arts Cafe, a monthly live music, education, arts and performance event. There have also been many many other one off parties and residencies and guest spots all over the UK, Europe and beyond. Pete and Griff between them have played in France, Germany, Canada, Sweden, Spain, Italy, Norway, Argentina, New Zealand, USA, Poland, Switzerland and Holland.

It's been an incredible 20 years, meeting and hearing so many amazing artists and partying with so many great people, and it's always been the people that made Jelly Jazz. We have been blessed. Here's to some more! keep scrolling down the page to see everyone who has played Jelly Jazz over the last 20 years, thank you to all of them and thank you to the 1000's of dancefloor freaks that have made it all so much fun, we couldn't have done it without you.

Pete Isaac (Jelly Jazz)	DJ Griff (Jelly Jazz)	Quantic (Tru Thoughts)
Gizelle Smith	James Curry	Chris Read
Daytoner	DK	Mr Thing
Dynamite MC	Cheeba	Nightmares On Wax
The New Mastersounds	Chris Goss (Hospital)	Dom Servini (Wah Wah 45s)
Luke Vibert	Ally Kidd	Ariya Afrobeat Arkestra
Gilles Peterson (6Music)	Mr Scruff (Ninja Tune)	Simon Goss (Wah Wah 45s)
Patrick Forge	Jazzanova	Norman Jay
Lou Donaldson (Blue Note)	Ruckus Roboticus	Sharon Jones & The Dapkings
Quantic Soul Orchestra	Ugly Duckling	Five Corners Quintet
London Elektricity	The Bamboos	Keb Darge
DJ Finewine	Rainer Truby	DJ Snowboy
Boca 45	Lee Fields	Sugarman 3
Florian Keller	DJ Format	Spanky Wilson
Nickodemus	Abdominal	Lefties Soul Connection
Pucho & His Latin Soul Brothers	The Soul Providers	Saravah Soul
Lizzy Parks	Makala	Moneyshot
Kokolo	Adrian Gibson	Jasper The Vinyl Junkie
Christine Indigo	Femi Fem	Gerald Jazzman
Dean Rudland (BGP)	Ross Allen	Rob Luis (Tru Thoughts)
Russ Dewbury	Espen Horne	Eivind Olsvik
John Stapleton	Faze Action	Stoned Soul Picnic
Snowboy & The Latin Section	Big World Skunk	DJ Vibra
DJ BNX	Ross Clarke	Mike Chadwick
The Soul Destoyers	Afrodizz	Big Cheese Allstars
Organic Audio	DJ Lubi	Andrew Jervis
DJ Food	DJ Vadim	Izit
Bobby Hughes Experience	Little Barrie	Speedometer
Ollie Stratton	Aquasky	Paul Murphy
Future Homosapiens	Greg Belson	Ian Wright
Nik Weston	Karmisnsky Experience	The Three Deuces
Mother Earth	Corduroy	The Longo Allstars
Quinton Scott	Dave Hill	Jazzie Q
Mex (Black Grass)	Mr Hermano	Fertile Ground
The Boogaloo Investigators	Olu Butterfly	Keyser & Shurikan
Gav Smith	Tim Love Lee	100% Dynamite
Jazzcotech Dancers	Mr Guder	Manteca
Big Daddy Moochin	Ursula 1000	Jun Matsuoka
Bushy & Professor	John Kong (Do Right!)	Hundred Strong
Snorre Seim	Karsten John	Macca
Dynamo Productions	Dr Rubberfunk	Jon Kennedy
Robin Pulver	Taco Fett	DJ Fase
Fryer	Skeewiff	Sidewinder
Tobias Kirmayer	Henry Storch	Natural Self
Nostalgia 77	Beatfanatic	Simon S
Mad Mats	Federico Aubele	Ben Davies
Miles Cleret (Soundway)	Mark Pritchard	Olski (Melting Pot)
Steady Diggin Workshop	Poets Of Rhythm	Shepdog
Dreadzone	Bonebookbang	Underbelly
The Apples	Alice Russell	The Fantastics
The Filthy Six	Lack Of Afro	Giant Panda
Earl Zinger	Gerardo Frisina	Diesler
Kinny	Graham B	Hannah Williams
The Correspondents	Flevans	Andy Smith
Treva Whateva	Monk One (NYCT)	DJ DRM (Bastard Jazz)
Melosa	Smerrins Anti Social Club	DJ Trout
Zen Hussies	Simon Lee	Stuart Chalk
King Porter Stomp	Miss Funky Fox	Backbeat Sound System
Blacc Jazz	The Boxettes	Chico Malo
Dante	Dizraeli & The Small Gods	DJ Dupree
DJ EZ	Skeg	Spider
The Federation	Dropsteady Freddy	Freshly Squeezed
James Trouble	The Allergies	Heavy Stylus
Boca 45 Experience	Boycom	Gerard
Le Philph	Mr Gone	James Maycock (Harmless)
Funky Wah Wah Family	Ethan (Soul Jazz)	Goldenchild
Pete Reilly (Soul Jazz)	Casper Melville	DJ Bunny (Acid Jazz)
Combination	Patrick Sansom	Raj
Toni Rossanno	Gary Johnson	Tony M
Mr Skip	Mark Jones	Barnaby Ray Quartet
Gentlemen Rebels	Gordon Ritchie	Si Bigga
Si Cheeba	Barth Fader	Dan Jordan (Harmless)
DJ Franco	DJ Fede	Pondlife
Daryl G	Mr Melody	First Priority
Maggot (Acid Jazz)	Dominic (Twisted Nerve)	Dean Johnson
Claire Maloney	Sha Gov	Dr Jam
Richard Staite	Freakniks	Simon Dehany
John Paul	The Funky Plumber	Paul Morrissey
Smooky	Rainy But Funky	Ben Dubisson
Jake Holloway	Big Bird	Jimi Needles