Nick Hempton Band — 6 November 2026, Jamboree (Barcelona)

Jazz

The Australian saxophonist out of New York brings his organ-band repertoire to Sala 1, with a Catalan trio behind him

Nick Hempton plays Jamboree Sala 1, on Plaça Reial, on Friday 6 November in two sets: one at seven in the evening and the other at half past eight. The listing does not say which of the two counts as the start time. General admission is €28 and €24 for members, and the promoter is MasiMas Live: the show is not part of the Barcelona Jazz Festival, which takes over Sala 3 the following night with Quiet Colors.

The format is an organ band, with no double bass: Hempton on saxophone, Gerard Nieto on Hammond organ, Joan Fort on guitar and Esteve Pi on drums. The venue places him in New York soul jazz and names Lou Donaldson and Jimmy Smith as the reference for a repertoire that mixes his own compositions with classic organ-band material.

The listing does not say which album he is touring. His most recent is “Horns Locked” (Cellar Music, 28 February 2025), a two-tenor date with Cory Weeds cut over a weekend at Frankie’s in Vancouver, with Nick Peck on Hammond organ and Jesse Cahill on drums. Before that came “Slick”, released on 12 November 2021 and cut straight to tape, precisely to get the sixties organ-quartet sound. There are ten tracks, six of them his own — “The Runaround”, “Liar’s Dice”, “Short Shrift”, “Upstairs Eddy”, “Snake Oil” and “Fryin’ With Fergus” — and the line-up was Peter Bernstein on guitar, Kyle Koehler on organ and Fukushi Tainaka on drums. None of the three is on the Barcelona bill.

Hempton is Australian and has lived in New York since 2004.

Text by Aina Torrents