Brighton Jazz Festival - STEAMDOWN & CAMILLA GEORGE

Friday 17th October 2025

9.30pm - STEAM DOWN

8pm - Camilla George

7.30pm - Doors

9.30PM - STEAM DOWN

Steam Down is a British Afro-Punk band, weekly event and music community based in London, England.

In a finely tuned alchemy of sound, space and energy, Steam Down have mastered the art of enriching human emotional, social and collective state of being through music.

Founded by multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Ahnansé in 2017, the initial event was created to connect London based musicians and producers. Since then it has evolved into a weekly event where Steam Down artists and its extended musical family generate spontaneous sonic soundscapes reflecting their lives in the city.

Steam Down has quickly become a household name in London’s music scene, receiving two Jazz FM awards including the innovation award sponsored by Mishcon De Reya and live experience of the year award sponsored by Yamaha UK featuring Kamasi Washington. In addition, Sky News produced a full feature on Steam Down and its fundamental role within London's flourishing jazz scene.

Since its entrance into the scene, Steam Down have sold out Jazz Café, as well as their own headline EU, US, South African and UK tours. Steam Down sold out Deptford's historical venue the Albany twice within a two-month period, as well as London's Village Underground. In addition to this, Steam Down has performed at a number of festivals including Giles Peterson’s We Out Here Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, SXSW and Glastonbury's Park Stage.

Steam Down has quickly established a growing fan base outside of the UK through opportunities such as the Mestizo Collective, sponsored by the British Council in Colombia, where they performed at Bogotá’s renowned Jazz Al Parque festival, Festival Centro and Colombia Al Parque. Every performance is a co-creative experience between musicians and audience where everyone's participation matters, regardless of language, background or nationality.

Steam Down pride themselves in their collaborative approach towards their music and peers and have worked with many incredible artists, including Sampa The Great, Nubya Garcia, D Double E and Charlotte Dos Santos.

Steam Down’s debut single, ‘Free My Skin’ written and produced by Ahnansé, has garnered over 3 million streams worldwide, and featured in the official Adidas 2020 FIFA World Cup campaign. their follow up single ‘Etcetera’ released through the legendary American jazz label Blue Note, has received over 2 million streams and appears on the FIFA21 official soundtrack, as well as the new highly acclaimed Paramount+ romcom ‘Flatshare'. following on from the successful release of their EP ‘Five Fruit’, Steam Down are currently gearing towards releasing their debut album ‘I Realised It Was Me’ on the 5th September.

8PM - CAMILLA GEORGE

Camilla George is a visionary saxophonist, composer, bandleader and innovator. Her strong cultural roots and love of fusing African and Western Music has informed her own unique style, a key reason why she is a firm fixture on the new London Jazz scene, alongside peers such as Nubya Garcia and Shabaka Hutchings.

Her music is a hypnotising blend of Afrofuturism, hip hop and jazz, with a politically minded subtext that has a powerful connection to her Nigerian identity, lineage and heritage, reflecting African history, culture and slavery.

Her forthcoming third studio album, ‘Ibio Ibio’, is a tribute to her tribe the Ibibio people of South Eastern Coastal Nigeria. The album features an incredible lineup, including Daniel Casimir, Sarah Tandy, Winton Clifford, Renato Paris, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Rosie Turton, Shirley Tetteh, hip hop drummer, Daru Jones, Birmingham based rapper, Lady Sanity and Sam Jones.

Born in Eket, Nigeria, Camilla has been interested in music from an early age and particularly in the fusion of African and Western music. She grew up listening to Fela Kuti, as well as Jackie McLean and Charlie Parker. She began playing the saxophone aged 11 years old, when she won a music contest where the prize awarded her saxophone lessons.

Camilla went on to study with many jazz greats such as saxophone giant, Jean Toussaint (of Art Blakey fame), Julian Siegal and Martin Speake at Trinity College of Music where she gained a Masters in Jazz Performance, as well as being awarded The Archer Scholarship for Outstanding Performance in 2011.

In 2009, she joined award-winning band Jazz Jamaica and performed with special guest, Ernest Ranglin at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club. In 2013 Jazz Jamaica was nominated for a MOBO award for Jazz Performance. They continue to perform extensively all over the world.

In 2014, Camilla formed her own critically acclaimed project showcasing the stars of the new UK Jazz Scene. Dubbed “The Golden Girl of Jazz” by The Evening Standard, Camilla’s debut album, ‘Isang’ (pronounced E-SANG which means ‘journey’ in Ibibio her native language) received huge critical acclaim.

Her follow up album, ‘The People Could Fly’ which was released in September 2018, featuring special guest Omar, as well as in hugely respected guitarist Shirley Tetteh, gained substantial critical acclaim with 4 star reviews from the Financial Times and Jazzwise to name a few. The album and Camilla was featured on several key playlists such as State of Jazz, and Camilla was the poster girl for Tidal’s British Jazz playlist. The album looked at tales that slaves passed onto their children through generations and, whilst full of sorrow, was essentially a story of hope for black people and mankind that we can one day live together in harmony.

Camilla’s band has gigged solidly, being fortunate to support Courtney Pine’s album launch featuring Omar at The Barbican, as well as performing at Love Supreme (where Camilla took part in a panel discussion with Kamasi Washington) and the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Camilla’s band also supported Dee Dee Bridgewater at The Cadogan Hall for the 2017 London Jazz festival. Dee Dee was so impressed she remarked, “The world is safe because we have Camilla!”

As part of the EFG London Jazz festival Camilla performed at the Purcell room, which was described by Jazz Journal as “A truly memorable concert…Jazz superstars in the making” with the London Jazz Review speaking of “the mature and imaginative compositions combined with some sublime saxophone solos”.

Also as part of the EFG London Jazz festival, Camilla performed at King’s Place to a very appreciative audience, a show that was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Camilla has been nominated for an Urban Music Award for Best Jazz artist in 2017 and 2018 and nominated for a Jazz FM award for Best Instrumentalist 2019. She has performed in the Jazz Re:freshed showcase for SXSW, which was filmed at Abbey Road studios in 2021, as well as the Jazzahead showcase in 2021 and reached the final in the DC Jazz Prix in 2021.

Most recently, she was awarded the PRS Foundation Momentum Award which funded the completion of her third studio album, ‘Ibio Ibio’, to be released in September 2022 on Ever Records/!K7 Music.