The Jazz Café on Parkway is a small, much-loved Camden venue that has stretched the meaning of "jazz" since 1990 to take in soul, funk, hip-hop, Afrobeat, and Latin alongside the real thing. The room is intimate — a standing floor in front of the stage and a balcony of dinner tables looking down on it — and the closeness to the performers is the point.
The booking is consistently strong, mixing established names with rising acts, and the late club nights keep going after the live sets. Book a table upstairs for a meal-and-music evening, or stand downstairs for the sweaty version. Either way it is one of the best places in London to hear a band up close.