LIVE! Al Nicholls Quintet Cabbage Patch Weds 21 January
WELCOME TO RICHMOND RHYTHM CLUB
RRC Winter gig
Al Nicholls Quintet
Join us at the Cabbage Patch, Twickenham TW1 3SZ on Wednesday 21 January at 8pm for a special Rhythm Club gig. It features a swingin' quintet led by Al Nicholls on tenor, with Nick Mills (trombone), Richard Busiakiewicz (piano), Julian Bury (bass) and Chris Nichols (drums). £16 in advance, £18 on the door.
Nick Dawson - piano/vocals
Nick is our first guest of the New Year. Born in Ilford in 1974, he has worked as a pianist and singer for over 30 years, and has always had a great love of the classic American songbook. The fact that most if these songs were written for the Broadway stage is helpful, given his regular work in theatre in London.
Nick started playing the piano at the age of six, and the clarinet aged nine. He got into jazz after hearing Kenny Ball’s band at the age of 14 on a friend’s Walkman while rehearsing an old time musical for his secondary school’s PTA. By the time he was 15, he started sitting in with jazz bands on clarinet, since the band at The Queens Theatre in Hornchurch didn’t have a piano.
After gigging in and around Essex and London, he studied at the Royal College of Music.
Over the years he has been a member of many bands including Campbell Burnap’s Quintet, The Best of British Jazz Band, The Piccadilly Dance Orchestra, The Back to Basie Big Band, The Ronnie Scott Big Band, Richard Pite’s Jazz Repertory Company Big Band & Orchestra, and The John Wilson Orchestra. He has also run his own successful trios and quartets and quintets for many years, getting regular plays on radio.
He’s also worked extensively in theatre having cowritten six musicals for The Queens Theatre in Hornchurch. He has also worked in many pit bands for musicals in the London's West End, including Mamma Mia.
His real love has always been jazz, especially the period between 1930 and 1950, with a special fondness for Fats Waller, Errol Garner, Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Oscar Peterson and Gene Harris. Vocally, Nick has always been a big fan of singers who respect and appreciate a really good lyric, his favourite singers being Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Shirley Horn and Ella Fitzgerald, and he has always had a soft spot for Jimmy Durante.
Spring schedule, 2026
13th January
Nick Dawson - piano/vocals
20th January
Alex Clarke - saxophone
27th January
Vasilis Xenopoulos - saxophone
3rd February
Simon Spillett - saxophone
10th February
Michael McQuaid - saxophone
17th February
Laurence Cottle - bass and trombone
24th February
Denys Baptiste - saxophone
3rd March
Tom Ward - piano
10th March
NO MEETING
17th March
Steve Taylor - drums
24th March
MINI GIG - Euan Stevenson Trio