“M/House of Jazz” is celebrating its birthday this week and is bidding farewell

The jazz club “M/House of Jazz”, also known as the cultural venue “M/Darbnīca”, will be celebrating its sixth anniversary this week with a series of events. Unfortunately, this will also mark the beginning of the end, as this popular local jazz venue will be closing its doors – at least in its current premises – by the end of this year.

The birthday celebrations will kick off on 7 October at 8.00 pm with a jam session packed with talent, led by Reinis Puriņš, Miķelis Dzenuška, Toms Poišs and Reinis Zariņš, whilst on 8 October at 7.00 pm, the “M/Gallery” on the club’s ground floor will host the presentation of one of “M/House of Jazz”’s most significant projects of the year – photographer Haralds Vecvagars’ portrait exhibition “Latvian Jazz”, featuring retro-style analogue photographs.

On 9 October at 8.00 pm, the powerful funk band “Big Heavy” will perform at the club; on 10 October, the festivities will begin at the same time, and the highlight of the evening will be the “Latvian Jazz Stage” project, “Latvian Jazz Stage”, led by Ivars Arutjunjans, whilst on 11 October at 6.00 pm, “Duo Ictus” will perform at “M/House of Jazz”. This is a Stockholm-based percussion duo who, together with multi-artist Leo Eltes, will present the interdisciplinary programme “Echoes of the Surroundings”.

“I invite every jazz lover to celebrate this festival with us,” says Maija Moira Mazanova, Creative Director of “M/House of Jazz”. “For six years, together with musicians, audiences, partners and supporters, we have been building a vibrant, bold and internationally recognised Latvian jazz scene. Unfortunately, the club now has just three months left to run. Given the constant struggle to secure funding for a cultural venue of this kind, I knew almost all along that any given year could be its last. That year turned out to be 2026, when we decided to take another step forward by also offering a regular programme of international concerts.”

This year has been a particularly eventful one for M/House of Jazz. A total of 120 cultural events have already taken place, several video recordings of the ‘Brooklyn Jazz’ concert series have been produced, and, in collaboration with ‘Jersika Records’, a vinyl record of a live concert recording by Danish drummer Kresten Osgood’s quintet, ‘Live in Riga – At M/House of Jazz”, and a new educational programme for children, “Jazz for Kids”, has been launched.

It is also a particular pleasure to see the progress made by the young jazz musician Gerda Timrota – her performance at the “Pink Noise” festival at M/House of Jazz was nominated in the “Starts” category of the “Kilograms of Culture” awards

“At this festive time, I would like to express my immense gratitude to everyone who has taken part, performed, listened, supported and helped develop Latvian jazz alongside us,” Maija continues. “I wholeheartedly invite you to attend the ‘M/House of Jazz’ concerts right up until the end of this year, as we still have a rich programme of Latvian and international artists in store for you in the cosy atmosphere of our club.”

The “M/House of Jazz” club is located in the von Strick villa district at 9 Aristīda Briāna Street, Riga. Tickets for the birthday concerts can be purchased on the fienta.com website or at the door.