The 20th May 2022 marks The Blues Kitchen Manchester’s first birthday.
Loved for its Southern American Barbeque delights, unrivalled selection of bourbon and whiskey, and its concert hall which many a legend has now graced, The Blues Kitchen has become one of the city’s staple destinations in just one short year.
Join Blues Kitchen in celebrating their first birthday on Friday 27th May from 9pm, at their dedicated Manchester Got Soul. Their iconic house band will be blowing the roof off with sets of classic funk, soul and rock n roll, to be followed by DJs spinning a timeless selection of rhythm n blues until 2am.
Since opening, over 80,000 of their finger lickin’ burgers have been demolished, and nothing short of half a million of their signature Buffalo chicken wings have been devoured. 250,000 cocktails consumed, 50,000 of which were their good ol’ Old Fashioneds. More than a bar and restaurant, but a music venue in its own right, Blues Kitchen has hosted over 500 live performances. Musicians spanning over six continents have taken to the stage, (just Antarctica left to complete) – including the iconic Slum Village, Evelyn Champagne King, Jay Electronica, Mud Morganfield, Billy Cobham and more, alongside our city’s very own, incredible homegrown talent, including Mali Hayes, Jenna G, Lovescene, Black Josh, [ K S R ], Kinkai, Abnormal Sleepz and Skittles + 8 Gold Rings.
To celebrate the one year anniversary, the concert hall will host world-renowned blues & soul legends across the month of May. Kicking off with American funk, soul-jazz hero Roy Ayers, who needs no introduction. A man decades ahead of his time, and transcendent sound, his rare performance on Wednesday 25th May will no doubt be one to remember.
Thursday 26th May, the Chicago hip-hop brass band Hypnotic Brass Ensemble bring their incendiary live show to Manchester, off the back of their outstanding new album Bad Boys of Jazz. The eight-strong cohort of horn-playing brothers (plus one unrelated drummer) are all sons of jazz trumpeter and composer Kelan Phil Cohran (Sun Ra Arkestra). Together they’ve formed a formidable reputation as one of the best live bands around, releasing three acclaimed albums on UK label Honest Jon’s Records and working alongside Prince, Mos Def, Gorillaz and many more. With a sound that calls to mind the traditional New Orleans big-band and nods to the avant-garde style of their father, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble promise an electric fusion of rap, funk, jazz and hip-hop.
On Tuesday 31st May, three-time Grammy nominee, North Mississippi Hill Country blues guitarist and singer and songwriter, Cedric Burnside, will be performing ‘I Be Trying’ – a 13-track album treatise on life’s challenges, pleasures, and beauty. Born into a family of blues greats, most notably his grandfather R.L Burnside who brought him up in Holly Springs, Mississippi, he contains within him the legacy and future of the region’s prescient sound stories. At once African and American and southern and Mississippian, his stories tell about love, hurt, connection, and redemption in the South.
See what’s on at The Blues Kitchen here.
