Jazz night «The Syndicate of Four» at Blake's House of Jazz

   Jazz in Hanoi bars usually works as background to a cocktail, but this Thursday is arranged the other way round: modern fusion with broken rhythm and open improvisation asks to be listened to. The club puts it plainly and suggests starting the weekend a day early rather than waiting for Friday.

   The band is The Syndicate of Four, the quartet named in the title of the night. The programme is billed as Modern Fusion, and the club frames it through raw energy, dynamic syncopation and the freedom with which the players handle form.

   Blake's House of Jazz opened in 2022 and occupies the second floor of a building on Nguyễn Hữu Huân street in Hoan Kiem. The room is built around a stage with a piano and a red curtain, the tables are lit by candles, and the club's own formula is unfussy: jazz and cocktails in company.

   This is aimed at anyone who tells jazz styles apart and would take fusion over standards. The club runs on table reservations, and it is worth securing a seat in advance — the evenings here are intimate and the room is small.

   Thursday works as a scouting run at the weekend, and fusion suits that better than any other kind of jazz.