Jazz trio Jazz Sabbath plays new jazz arrangements of Black Sabbath songs, helmed by pianist Adam Wakeman.
Jazz Sabbath play Norwich Arts Centre on Thursday 22 October, bringing their jazz arrangements of Black Sabbath songs to the city. It's a British jazz trio that does exactly what the name suggests: they take the heavy metal songs Black Sabbath made famous and rework them as jazz. The band presents itself as having been founded in 1968, claiming to be the original authors of the tracks that Black Sabbath later made famous.
At the helm is pianist Adam Wakeman, who has played with Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne since 2004. The trio works at the boundary between jazz and the songs that defined heavy metal, revisiting existing jazz riffs and discovering new ones along the way. It's a particular way of looking at those songs — stripping back the distortion and the heavy riffs to see what's underneath, then rebuilding them with a jazz sensibility.
They've released three albums that charted high on the Billboard Jazz Charts, played sold-out shows worldwide, and earned rave reviews in both jazz and rock media. That crossover is part of the draw: it's a set that sits between two worlds, and the band describes their work as revisiting existing jazz riffs and discovering new ones. If you know the original songs, you'll recognise them, but you'll hear them in a completely different light.
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The gig runs from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm at Norwich Arts Centre, 51 St Benedicts Street, NR2 4PG.
