Count Ossie & the Rasta Family ‘Man from Higher Heights’ album page. Source: https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/sjr/product/man-from-higher-heights
Swing Caraïbe. Caribbean Jazz Pioneers in Paris (1929 – 1946). Source: https://www.plastichead.com/swing-caraibe-caribbean-jazz-pioneers-in-paris-1929-1946-compact-disc-double-fa069
Chano Pozo and Dizzy Gillespie by Allan Grant for Life Magazine, 1948. Source: https://jazzinphoto.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/jungle-type-drum-being-played-by-drummer-of-dizzy-gillespies-band-he-beats-on-the-drum-with-his-hands-instead-of-a-drum-sticks-0.jpeg
Thu 4 Jun 2026, 6.30 - 8pm
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | 11am–6pm |
| Wednesday | 11am–6pm |
| Thursday | 11am–9pm |
| Friday | 11am–6pm |
| Saturday | 11am–6pm |
| Sunday | 11am–6pm |
Access requirements
Whitechapel Gallery is committed to making all of our events as accessible as possible for every audience member. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
Information about access on site at the gallery is available here https://www.whitechapelgallery.org/visit/access/
This includes information about Lift access; Borrowing wheelchairs & seating; Assistance Animals; Parking; Toilets and baby care facilities; Blind & Partially Sighted Visitors; Subtitles and transcripts; British Sign Language (BSL) and hearing induction loops; Deaf Messaging Service (DMS).
About This Event
This event takes place in Assembly Room at Whitechapel Gallery, located on the ground floor
This event lasts approximately 1 – 1.5 hours. Attendees are encouraged to take as many breaks as they need during the event.
Seating available will include a mixture of beanbags and spider leg staging, with audience members also invited to sit on the floor. Chairs will be available on request for audience members who require them. Please contact access@whitechapelgallery.org if you would like to discuss a particular seating request and we will gladly discuss with you the best way to accommodate it.
You must book a ticket to attend the event.
If the ticket price affects your attendance, please email tickets@whitechapelgallery.org to be added to the guest list (no questions asked, but dependent on availability).
This event is suitable for those over the age of 16
We are unable to provide British Sign Language interpretation for this event
We are unable to provide live closed captioning or CART for this event.
An audio recording of the event can be obtained by emailing publicprogrammes@whitechapelgallery.org following the event.
Transport
To the best of our knowledge, there are no planned disruptions to local transport on the date of the event.
Our nearest train station – Aldgate East Underground (1 min) is not wheelchair accessible. The closest wheelchair accessible stations are Whitechapel (15 min), Shoreditch High Street (15 min) or Liverpool Street (15 min).
Free parking for Blue Badge holders is available at the top of Osborn Street in the pay and display booths for an unlimited period. Spaces are available on a first come, first served basis.
Live Recording
Please note: we audio record all events for the Whitechapel Gallery Archive and possible future online publication via Soundcloud.
Seeding itself in the essence of Multiple Conversations, artist, writer, and poet Rhea Dillon presents an evening focusing on the oft forgotten existence and spirit of jazz in the Caribbean, transforming the gallery into a lo-fi listening room where musicians will perform works in progress and/or practice.
Dillon presents “Caribbean Jazz” as undidactic by nature, and in its liveness becomes a means by which we can hold multiple conversations at once through rhythm, tone and improvisation. Extending from Veronica Ryan’s current exhibition, musicians will be invited to respond to her layered, intuitive attention to how memory is held and transformed, both individually and collectively.
Spotlighting those carrying the sound of the Caribbean islands, as well as the wider archipelago, this will be an evening of artists coming together in their own rhythm of encompassing sound, resonant energy and conceptual spirit.
Featuring Luke Bacchus on keys, Nathan Dawkins on double bass, Nate Ricketts on drums, and Marlon Hibbert on the steel pan.
Alba Caffé will have a special aperitivo menu by a pop-up chef available to purchase on the night.
Studio Studio’s Happenings, curated by Rhea Dillon, are a series of public convenings that are born from her and interlocutor’s research practices as a means of direct conversation, deeper listening, and radical sharing.
These images are excerpted from Dillon’s research and references for the evening.
This event accompanies our current exhibition Veronica Ryan: Multiple Conversations
Luke Bacchus is a musician, composer and academic, born and raised in London to Guyanese parents. A finalist in BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022, Bacchus impressed audiences with his treatment of standards, as well as his own unique Caribbean-inspired original music, fuelled by his exploration of his own identity as a Caribbean person. Bacchus describes music as a ‘doorway through which he can explore his heritage’ and his compositions and playing have been hailed by Julian Joseph as having ‘real heart and sincerity’.
Bacchus’ exploration of his Caribbean identity has developed into a keen interest in Caribbean music, history and culture, going on to pursue a Masters degree in Caribbean Studies at University College London (UCL), and an academic career researching the Caribbean. His music reflects that journey, and he continues to impress audiences with his unique approach to the blanket term ‘Caribbean Jazz’, as he uses his music to highlight important characteristics of the Caribbean experience.
Bacchus has travelled the world performing his own music, and alongside leading names in jazz such as Yussef Dayes, Ezra Collective and Nubya Garcia, and has recently composed for the theatre production of Andrea Levy’s novel ‘Small Island’ and acted as Musical Director for the theatre production of the reggae film ‘The Harder They Come’.
Bacchus’ commitment to studying and sharing music from the English, French, Dutch and Spanish-speaking Caribbean, and his ability to recontextualise said music into traditional jazz settings, sets him apart as one of the most unique and exciting emerging musicians and composers.
Compelled by a profound passion for music, Nathan Dawkins is a London-based bassist active in the Jazz, R’n’B, and Neo-soul scenes. He is dedicated to respecting the lineage of music that has come before and hopes that his love of music can be translated without the use of words.
He has played across Europe, spanning as far as Saudi Arabia and Saint Lucia also currently performs with various notable artists and ensembles such as Olympia Vitalis, Grifton Forbes-Amos Quintet and Tokyo Riddim Band.
Marlon Hibbert is an award-winning steelpan musician, composer, arranger, and educator from South East London. He is the founder and manager of Endurance Steel Orchestra, and an alumnus of both Kinetika Bloco and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where he made history as the first musician to graduate performing on steelpan.
A 2026 participant in Serious’ prestigious Take Five artist development programme, Marlon is stepping forward as a solo artist, drawing inspiration from Victor Provost, Ashley Henry, Stevie Wonder, Hiromi, and video game music. He has performed and collaborated with a wide range of artists and organisations, including Luke Bacchus, Ezra Collective, Zara McFarlane, and Lox.
In 2026, Marlon is working with Southbank Centre as a composer for Steel Scenes, celebrating 75 years of steelpan in the UK, and with Barbican Centre on Sankofa Carnival, marking 60 years of Carnival in the UK.
Nate Ricketts is a London-based drummer and percussionist, with over a decade of professional experience.
A product of Haringey Young Musicians and Tomorrow’s Warriors for his versatility, dynamic and refined approach, he has performed and recorded across jazz, grime, rock, afrobeat and contemporary music, collaborating and touring internationally with artists including Steam Down, Theon Cross, D Double E, China Moses, House of EL, Lex Amor, Halima, Summer Pearl, Femi Temowo, Bokani Dyer, Talia Rae and Lola Moxom.
A proud great-grandchild of Windrush travellers, Nate’s musical foundations are rooted in the steel pan community, sound system culture, the Pentecostal church. He is an archivist in progress, committed to educating and inspiring younger generations of the diaspora through the rich history of reggae music and its culture.
Rhea Dillon is an artist, writer and poet based in London and New York. Dillon works across mediums to articulate an aesthetic of diasporic Blackness grounded in a postcolonial nonbeing. Her charged exhibitions and writing use poet(h)ics, abstraction, and everyday objects to produce distinctive arrangements of sense and affect.
Dillon’s first U.S. institutional solo exhibition “Heads” recently closed at the American Academy of Arts and Letters, NYC and her first European institutional solo exhibition “Gestural Poethics” was in 2025 at Heidelberger Kunstverein, Germany. Select recent solo and group exhibitions include DFT 2025 at Wesleyan University, Connecticut; Accumulation – On Collecting, Growth and Excess, The Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich; Fractal Being at Cordova, Barcelona; Air de Repos (Breathwork) at Capc Bordeaux, France; Tituba, qui pour nous protéger? at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Each now, is the time, the space at Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland; ‘The Black Fold’ at Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna; and ‘An Alterable Terrain’ at Tate Britain, UK.
She was an Elaine G. Weitzen Studio Program Fellow at the Whitney Museum’s Independent Study Program 2024/2025 in New York.
Website: dillonrhea.com
IG: rheadillon
IG: __studio__studio
