Vortex Jazz Club on Gillett Square in Dalston keeps the community music flowing

For almost four decades, the Vortex has been a home for musicians who like to push at the edges of jazz. Today the club sits on Gillett Square in Dalston, and it remains one of the most welcoming places in London to hear live improvised music.

The Vortex opened as a jazz club in 1988 on Stoke Newington Church Street, founded by David Mossman, a former taxi driver who later started the Margate Jazz Festival. When developers acquired that building, the club moved in 2005 to the Dalston Culture House at Gillett Square. The square itself opened on 10 November 2006 with a performance by Andy Sheppard's Saxophone Massive, a band of 200 saxophonists.

The roll call of artists who have played the Vortex is impressive. Derek Bailey, Django Bates, Tim Berne, Liane Carroll, John Etheridge, Evan Parker, Ian Shaw and Kenny Wheeler have all performed there, and in December 2007 the street in front of the club was renamed Aim Bailey Place in honour of guitarist Derek Bailey.

The club has also nurtured new talent. In 2007 it launched Vortex Records, whose first release was Portico Quartet's debut album, Knee-Deep in the North Sea, nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize. The Vortex has won the Live Jazz Award and has featured in Time Out readers' polls of London's best music venues.

Community is at the heart of how the Vortex works. In a New Year message for 2026, the team wrote that "The Vortex is a community", adding that "our regulars such as audience or volunteers are as important to us as musicians." Supporters can become members, volunteer or donate, and members enjoy discounted tickets and guaranteed seats.

The room itself is a mixed seated and standing space, with gigs usually running from Tuesday to Sunday between 7.45pm and 11pm, and occasional shows outside those hours. Membership also helps support a programme that has long championed adventurous contemporary jazz and improvised music.

For anyone curious about live jazz, it is an easy place to start: intimate, friendly and right by Dalston Junction and Dalston Kingsland stations.

The Vortex is at 11 Gillett Square, N16 8AZ. For listings, membership and volunteering, visit vortexjazz.co.uk.