During the month of November, there will be a brand new art exhibition throughout the public areas of the Gonville Hotel, as part of the Cambridge Jazz Festival 2025.
This art & music exhibition will feature 10 original pieces of art by Cambridge-based artist Musa Hamwala. Each piece of art, in oils, interprets a different song from Cambridge-based jazz musician Robin Phillips’ latest album, which itself was created after inspiration from a motorbike trip from Chicago to New Orleans, to retrace the path of jazz & blues in America.
All the pieces of art will be accompanied by QR codes enabling visitors to listen to the songs via their smartphones, with many of the pieces also accompanied by AI treatments, which bring the art to life.
Musa had already created many pieces of art inspired by jazz music and jazz musicians, which is how the creative pair first met, and Robin’s originals album became a powerful source of inspiration for this project taken on by Musa.
The songs on the album tackle subjects such as the cities of Clarksdale Mississippi and New Orleans, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, Sam Phillips (Founder of Sun Studio, Memphis), a book called South Of Haunted Dreams, the International Jazz Scene, and returning to England after the life-changing trip. However, Musa was given free rein to interpret the songs any way he chose.
Drawing on his background in technology, Musa has also taken the project further by using generative AI to bring many of these paintings to life, aiming to capture the improvisation and energy at the heart of jazz.
The art exhibition is free to enjoy throughout the hotel during the month of November, with the exhibition culminating in a dinner jazz performance by Robin Phillips: ‘Harry, New Orleans, & Me’.
Musa Hamwala, 28, was born in Zambia, moving to East Yorkshire at the age of eight, and now lives in Cambridge, where his professional life centres on technology but his heart remains in art.
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Accessibility Facilities
- Assistance dogs welcome
- Blue Badge Parking
- facilities for disabled guests
- Mostly flat terrain
- restaurant
- Staff available to assist
- Wheel chair accessible
- wheelchair access
- Wheelchair accessible
