Lean & Mean

A weekly spot at Ronnie Scott’s provides Adam Goldsmith with the welcome challenge of a stripped-back setup

- Adam Goldsmith

Sometimes it’s fun to be forced into a situation where you can only have minimal gear and potentially have to play any style known to man. If I have a big-budget studio session then it’s an easy call to ask my roadie to simply bring everything, but sometimes it’s fun – and necessary – to do everything on a minimal space and price basis.

I’ve experienced such a situation over the past few months with a regular Saturday brunch cabaret at Ronnie Scott’s in London. We’ve been extremely lucky to have been performing fairly regularly throughout lockdown to various-sized audiences, and currently, we’re at full capacity with no Covid restrictions.

The premise of the gig is that Olivier Award-winning actress and singer Cassidy Janson presents the show each week with a different guest who is mostly drawn from the world of West End theatre (rather than the more serious jazz acts that are traditionally associated with Ronnie Scott’s). This has proved particularly popular, especially with fans of this genre while the big theatres were mostly closed.