Joe Stilgoe

In the summer of 2023, jazz club nerds Joe Stilgoe and Giacomo Smith put their heads (and let’s face it, spectacles) together to create a new project that has every chance of changing the UK jazz scene forever. With a headline slot booked at Love Supreme, The Entertainers was born – an era-defining...

In the summer of 2023, jazz club nerds Joe Stilgoe and Giacomo Smith put their heads (and let’s face it, spectacles) together to create a new project that has every chance of changing the UK jazz scene forever. 

With a headline slot booked at Love Supreme, The Entertainers was born – an era-defining supergroup featuring members of Kansas Smittys, Joe’s own band and guest vocalists Emma Smith and Pete Horsfall. Stilgoe, Smith and Smith are in the ascendant – a chance to see these musicians playing live is not to be missed.

With a recently recorded album of oven fresh material that shines a light on those in the darkness, these beautifully crafted new songs such as The Man In The Moon, Hit The Big Time, Nobody, The Lovers and the instant festival favourite Mr Peanuts take us to a fantasy jazz club where anything can happen, and possibly nothing should.  The songs pay homage to the audiences who come and go, the lonely, bruised, glamorous, secretive souls who can be found at the bars of any club in the world, from Ronnie Scotts to The Blue Note Tokyo to Birdland in New York. Each song tells a different tale and presents a different character – the music is about membership, acceptance, a shared love of something vital, quixotic rules and regulations, the minutiae of everynight life, and importantly, the world of entertainment.

The people are the same everywhere you go, and they haven’t changed. The guy in the hat, the woman with the flowers, the one who can’t stop shouting at the drummer, the illicit lovers, the nervous fan, the faded star, the record executive who promises the world… The project is a love letter to the jazz club and the people who can’t live without it. Featuring an incredible band, harmonies to die for and musicianship to live for, we present THE ENTERTAINERS.