V6 Organ Trio – Café Spotlight

Don’t miss this hot, fiery, swingin’ and groovin’ new outfit rooted in the classic Hammond Organ trio tradition – with pop, R’n’B and big-band influences!

Featuring Arran Shanghavi (Crumar Mojo dual manual organ), Jono Hilliam (drums) and Jamie McLeish (guitar).

“For a band so early on in its career this really was an excellent performance.The standard of the playing was remarkably high throughout, combining fire and fluency with a great sense of fun.”  – Ian Mann, The Jazz Mann, June 2026

Shanghavi – of the Big Wolf Band and The Detroitwich Funk Machine – brings that bluesy, funk-infused playing style that helps create the Hammond style we all know and love. Hilliam’s big-band background brings drive and energy to the small-band format. McLeish completes the sound with a highly-developed harmonic sense and melodic sensitivity – and is credited by colleagues as having ‘the ‘finest ear in the Midlands’.

The band’s exciting repertoire includes a healthy dose of classic organ-trio material like the groove-oriented writing of John Scofield and Joshua Redman’s Elastic album, to carefully-chosen standards and other works from the jazz canon, both contemporary (eg Bob Reynolds) and classic (eg Wes Montgomery).

Alongside this, V6 reinterprets well-known popular songs such as Wichita  Lineman (written by Jimmy Webb for Glen Campbell), bringing a fresh perspective to familiar material. The trio also adapts big-band works by writers and arrangers such as Jacob Mann and Tom Kubis. Amid the high-energy flow of a typical V6 set, the  trio  shifts by contrast into intimate territory with selected ballads, where the warmth of the Hammond organ blends beautifully with Mcleish’s rich guitar tone.

Enjoy an afternoon with the classic sounds of a swingin’ and groovin’ Hammond organ trio with tunes you know  and  tunes  you  don’t  –  and some  that  you’d  never think of hearing in this setting!

JAMIE MCLEISH – GUITAR
Jamie  McLeish is in his third year of studying jazz guitar at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has been gigging in and around Birmingham for the past couple of years playing various styles of music such as funk,  R&B, soul and jazz. He brings these other styles and experiences into his jazz playing, and doesn’t shy away from classic tropes of these genres that audiences love. Jamie is making himself known as a composer and arranger, having recently had one of his arrangements played in his Conservatoire’s Eastside Jazz Club. His influences include John Mayer, Mateus Asato and Pat Martino.

ARRAN SHANGHAVI – ORGAN
Arran Shanghavi is a freelance musician hailing from Berkhamsted but now residing in Birmingham. Recently he is being noticed for his specialization into the Hammond organ, a  less  frequent  occurrence among pianists in the UK jazz scene. As well as being a member of Detroitwich Funk Machine  fronted by Tom Clarke- Hill (voice of Tony the Tiger) and Andy Shillingford, he joined the Big Wolf Band (UK Blues Awards nominated band – Top 5 Best  Blues Bands) on their 2025 European tour. Arran brings these funky and bluesy influences into his jazz playing, creating that naughty Hammond style and sound we all know and love!

Arran read Philosophy and Politics at the University of Birmingham (UoB). Despite this, he integrated himself into the Conservatoire and local music scenes. He hosted a month of jam sessions at Jazz at the Spotted Dog (now Digbeth Jazz, the parliamentary award-winning club) – the first UoB student  to do so. His serious journey in jazz started when he earned a place on the Junior Jazz programme at the Royal Academy of Music, taught by UK jazz legend Gareth Lockrane. Arran also composes and records for film and TV, a recent work of his being used on ABC’s network for a trailer for the Oscars.

JONO HILLIAM – DRUMS
Winner of the 2024 Tony Levin drum prize, Jonathan is a graduate of Royal  Birmingham Conservatoire. A versatile player, comfortable in settings  ranging from full jazz orchestra to piano trio to jazz fusion, he enjoys a wide  range of music. After finishing at Hot House in Derby, a music school dedicated to bringing jazz to young people, he now teaches there himself, tutoring their highest-level drummers. Coming from a musical family Jonathan was exposed to classical music from a young age and played viola in Leicestershire and Derbyshire youth orchestras. While he has now made the switch to jazz he still occasionally goes home to Leicester to play orchestral percussion. He holds the drummer chair in the big band for the successful  touring theatre show The Story Of Swin’ of which band mate Arran is also a part.

Social Media [Instagram]:
@jazzyarran @jamie.mcleish @jonathanhilliamdrums