Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat + Chris Cobbson's African Jazz Quartet

One of the must-watch films of Season 4, set-off with LIVE music from Chris Cobbson’s African Jazz Quartet, one of the UK’s foremost Jazz and World music guitarists who has worked with Courtney Pine, Ronnie Scott, Omar, Maceo Parker, Pee Wee Eliis, Osibisa; expect his quartet’s set to be filled with infectious music, great percussion breaks and dance rhythms. Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat has been Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 2025 Oscar’s. United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate. Please note doors open at 7pm with the band starting early so early arrival is advised. The film will be screened after the band and the event will finish at approximately 10.30pm