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 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 Donadson (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, Spain, Italy, Norway, Argentina, New Zealand, USA, Poland, Switzerland and Holland.

It's been an incredible 18 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 18 years, thankyou to all of them and thankyou to the 1000's of dancefloor freaks that have made it all so much fun, we couldn't have done it without you.