The London Piano Forte Network musicians including the London Piano Forte Network’s founder, Grant Sav, enjoy longstanding musical residencies at world famous hotels across the Capital. Famed piano bars at the likes of The Savoy, The Wellesley and The Ivy maintain their historical roots to live jazz in particular and their links to music are incredibly strong. The Wellesley, now a stunning Art Deco style hotel, was a former jazz venue on Hyde Park Corner in fashionable Knightsbridge and stays true to it’s musical roots by hosting weekly jazz nights in its fine Italian restaurant and stylish live music performances throughout its distinguished collection of bars. You may even catch The Sav Jazz Band who have a long standing residency at the Wellesley or the fabulous Noemi Nuti performing.
The Savoy was opened by the impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte in 1889, built with profits from his Gilbert and Sullivan opera productions. The first luxury hotel in the country, The Savoy was lavishly furnished and introduced many innovations including electric lights throughout the building, electric lifts, bathrooms in most of the rooms and hot and cold running water. Carte established an unprecedented standard of quality in hotel entertainment and elegant dining, attracting royalty and the rich and famous through its doors. It had its own house bands including the Savoy Orpheans and the Savoy Havana Band who went on to become famous in their own right and welcomed other entertainers of the age (both as guests and performers) including George Gershwin, the inimitable Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne and Noël Coward.
Aptly, a pianist still plays the best of American Jazz every night of the week in the famed American Bar – so named because it mixed American style drinks – cocktails. A White Lady cocktail mixed by bar tender Henry Craddock was buried in the wall at The American Bar in 1929. Interesting fact!
