Stride piano is alive and 23 years old. Tom Ward, fresh from Guy Barker's Big Band Christmas at the Royal Albert Hall, leads his trio through Fats Waller and Art Tatum territory at Alfie's. Two houses above Greek Street, direct booking, over-18s. Old-school fireworks.
Alfie's is a candlelit jazz bar above Greek Street where the tables sit close enough to the stage that you can hear the band talking between numbers. A grand piano anchors the room and the cocktails are taken as seriously as the music.
Tom Ward is a jazz pianist who specialises in the stride piano tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, with Fats Waller, Art Tatum and Oscar Peterson as primary influences. At 23, he has already performed at the Royal Albert Hall, appearing as a special guest in Guy Barker's Big Band Christmas in late 2025, as well as at Ronnie Scott's. He has collaborated with Jamie Cullum and Kansas Smitty's, and performs with his own trio.
