 
John Blanke: The Black Musician at the Tudor Court, took place 4th June in British Library's Piazza Pavilion. It was part of the library’s Beyond the Bassline : 500 years of Black British history exhibition (26 April–26 August 2024) .  The very first John Blanke Live! symposia event took place at British Library on November 3rd, 2017. The first featured historians, visual artists and poets this one featured musicians : Nigerian composer and multi-instrumentalist Olá Akindipe , and Lance Sargeant Lawrence Narhkom member of the Band of the Grenadier Guards. Dr Mykael Riley a co-curator of the exhibition opened the event. I gave a brief introduction to John Blanke and the John Blanke which was followed by a discussion between me and Dr Misha Ewen on who John Blanke was and what his presence at Tudor court signified and what his image means to us today.  Following Misha and I Olá played on the clarinet his arrangement of the melody from John Blanke Anthem followed by a high life piece on the bass clarinet as an example of the music that would have been played to leaders and elites like Henry VIII in Nigeria.  Lawrence on trumpet improvised on a jazz tune, seamlessly blending it with military band marches and the traditional slow and quick marches of the Household Division tunes that he will be playing as one of 400 musicians who will be taking part on 15th June in The King’s Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour) . John Blanke would have played in similar events for Henry VII and Henry VIII making 500 years of Black British music manifest.  The evening closed with Lawrence playing the Last Post
Feedback from the evening by email included ‘beautiful and moving’, ‘incredible to hear Ola and Lawrence’ and ‘unforgettable evening.’ John Blanke is part of the Beyond the Bassline exhibition the installation is described in a previous blog post.
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