Seven years and 270 gigs later

If the Spin Jazz Club in Oxford, celebrating its seventh birthday next week, was a solitary mortal it might just about be riding a bicycle on a public road. But over the last few years it has long outgrown simple pedalling.

Proof of the club's credentials as a real grown-up venue came earlier this month when it was short-listed in the Parliamentary Jazz Awards for Best Jazz Club 2006.

This is a pretty big accolade as the other three nominees were all major names in London so, although it did not win the prize, this makes the Spin, 'officially', the Best Jazz Club in Britain outside London. Altogether a very mature title for a club that started out as the brainchild of a couple of enthusiastic and dedicated musicians who persuaded a pub in the centre of Oxford to let them use an upstairs room for a weekly gig.

Now seven years and 270 gigs later, they are still using the same room but have transformed it in the minds of the jazz fraternity into one of the meccas of great music. Evidence of this, apart from the Parliamentary Awards, is that the club has first-class players queuing up for a slot and bands already booked in for the next 12 months.

Whatever magic combination makes a venture like this so successful most of the credit must go to the two organisers who pedalled so hard to maintain momentum in the early years.

Pete Oxley and Mark Doffman, who together keep the show running week after week, have between them the perfect combination of energy, organisation and, most important of all, musicianship. In their lives outside the Spin they are both professional musicians who have carved a path in a highly competitive world.

Guitarist Pete Oxley has his own highly acclaimed group, Curious Paradise, with which he has written and recorded two albums so far while at the same time running his own business as one of the country's leading bow makers.

Meanwhile, Mark works as a drummer with a wide range of bands, teaches and is also writing a doctoral thesis. Thus, as the key members of the Spin house band, they are both respected by the musicians they invite to take the solo spot. This respect and enthusiasm is visible on the bandstand where one great player after another clearly enjoys the backing he or she is getting from Oxley and Doffman.

Asked about other ingredients Mark explained how in setting out the programme he and Pete ensure they not only maintain quality but have deliberately established a certain musical identity to the Spin. This puts an emphasis on the younger generation of musicians and composers who work within what might be called a solid groove', without excluding either the older masters like Don Weller or the less accessible areas of free improvisation.

Alongside this they are aware that it is important to maintain a rapport with their audience, so there is now a core that is swelled by different people on different nights. In other words, the Spin has a reputation for putting on jazz of a class and quality that is accessible without ever being stale.

Personally, I have never felt any urge to slip away at half-time and when I asked a colleague to note down what for him have been a few of the great gigs over the past couple of years he listed without hesitation about 15 names, all of which were stars in the jazz scene such as Tim Garland, Gilad Atzmon and Wolfgang Muthspiel.

Apart from all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to ensure the public are informed about upcoming gigs, one other ingredient of the club's success has to be the personal relationship both Mark and Pete have built up with their audience.

While Mark, who writes wonderfully hip and amusing PR copy, is nearly always at the door to chat and welcome, Pete, as MC on stage, has a delightfully individual and very English manner that reminds me of the great Ronnie Scott.

One may sigh inwardly at the repetition but the manner of the delivery and the very predictability give one a warm sense of acquaintance and belonging.

The Spin is celebrating its seven years with a special Birthday Bash next Thursday, which includes guests Derek Nash and Peter Whittaker.

Bookings essential for this and many other gigs can be made online at www.spinjazz.com or by calling 01865 741909.