Rami Atallah At Dock Street Jazz Club

Rami Attallah
Dock Street Jazz Club
Belfast, N. Ireland
September 7, 2025

It was an auspicious day in the old docks area of Belfast, for on this day a new jazz club was born. Dock Street Jazz Club, nestled upstairs in The American Bar, swung into life with a gratifying Sold Out sign on its website.

Dock Street Jazz Club is tucked down a side-street of an area known as Sailortown. In the mid-19th century, Belfast's docks saw sailors disembark from all corners of the globe. The bustling cobblestone neighborhood was then home to several thousand people. Demolition for the advent of a motorway would later see the neighborhood all but vanish.

Today, one church and two pubs are almost all that remain from that era. One of those pubs, The American Bar, has been pulling pints on this spot since 1860.

A cultural hub, The American Bar hosts all kinds of music most nights. Craft clubs, life drawing classes and comedy nights are regular fixtures. It is a welcoming space for the LGBTQ+ community, with a book club, open-mic nights and trad sessions catering for the Rainbow warriors. And, as of September 7, 2025, the American Bar extended its welcome to another minority group—jazz lovers.

The honor of playing the first gig in Dock Street Jazz Club fell to Egyptian pianist Rami Attallah—one of Egypt's foremost jazz musicians. He was joined by bassist Neil O'Loghlen —whose five-hour drive from the depths of County Clare was about the same schlep as a flight from Cairo to London—and David Lyttle, the MOBO-award-nominated drummer behind Dock Street Jazz Club's programming.

Taking the mic, Lyttle welcomed the crowd and introduced the musicians: "It's incredible to be up here from Waringstown, Cairo and Ballyvaughan. What a combo! It's not going to work..." he deadpanned. But from the first few bars of the standard "Alone Together" it was clear that the music was in very good hands.

To the breeze-like stir of Lyttle's brushes Attallah respectfully traced the melody of this Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz standard on the Yamaha electric piano. In no time, the trio found its improvisational mojo as brushes made way for sticks and the pianist's lines gathered tumbling momentum. A sing-song solo from O'Loghlen and a healthy rattling of the kit from Lyttle preceded a return to the head, and, via an adventurous unaccompanied piano passage, a soft landing.

For a first outing together the trio's cohesion was impressive—but the glue already existed. Lyttle and O'Loghlen are old sparring partners, having toured aplenty over the years, while the former knew Attallah from a British Council-sponsored trip to Egypt in 2022. The lingua franca of jazz standards—and the welcoming playground therein—represented familiar stomping ground to all three.

Refreshing therefore, that the set also featured several original compositions. Attallah's Latin-tinged "All About Life" saw the pianist juggle harmonically luminous, two-handed choral progressions and dancing right-hand runs. A vamp invited a roiling solo from Lyttle—the Dock Street Jazz Club logo on his bass drum reverberating to his kick.

Miles Davis' "Nardis" steered the trio into more modal terrain, with hints of Arabic maqam peppering Attallah's melodic vocabulary. Solos followed from O'Loghlen—whose unobtrusive swing and judicious embellishments colored the music greatly throughout the evening—and Lyttle. Arco drone and crying cymbal combined in an atmospheric finale. Attallah's lively "Dancers of the Sultan" highlighted both the pianist's rhythmic vitality and his keen melodic ear. Breaking from the through-composed roadmap, Attallah led a three-way improvisation that stuttered a little, briefly sparked, but failed to catch fire. It brought the first set to a close.

The second set began with Lyttle's self-penned "Camels." Played at a gently swaying waltz tempo, it featured handsome solos from all. The Waringstown drummer is rooted in the jazz tradition and fluent in the standard repertory, yet his own compositions—especially on the crossover album Faces (Lyte Records, 2015)—reveal a composer with plenty to say for himself.

Rami's brother Amir Attallah—who had flown in from Portugal—took over the drum stool on a relatively fast-swinging take of Victor Young's "Stella By Starlight." A piano vamp afforded Amir the opportunity to let loose. This, however, was a masterclass in melodic improvisation from Rami. Before returning to the head the pianist launched into a Michel Camilo-esque Latin vamp that Amir responded to with gusto. Had there been space to swing a cat, salsa dancing might well have broken out.

Not just a notable pianist, Rami Attallah also possesses a winning set of windpipes, as he demonstrated with velvety panache on "I Fall in Love Too Easily"—complete with scatting. Comparison with Chet Baker was inevitable, but Attallah's inflections and accents were very much his own. O'Loghlen's solo mirrored the melancholy in Attallah's delivery, while Lyttle—restored to his perch—stirred his brushes with soft hands.

The last word went to two young musicians who have come through Lyttle's Jazz Juniors program. Clarinetist Ben Falconer (16) and singer Marianne McBride (15) joined the talent development program in 2021. Both have since come a long way. Falconer was the recipient of Skidmore Jazz Award—a scholarship that will take him to the Skidmore Jazz Institute in upstate New York, while faith in McBride's talent was recognized by Lyte Records's Spirit of Jazzlife bursary.

The Gershwins "Summertime" provided the set closer and the perfect vehicle for both Falconer and McBride to shine. The former impressed with a fluid improvisation of dramatic arc, the latter with a rich tenor delivery and confident scatting. This was a great opportunity for the pair to get a feel for an authentic jazz club atmosphere—backed by a professional trio. The audience's enthusiasm was acknowledgement that they had risen admirably to the occasion.

For many, this was an introduction to Rami Attallah—a classy, emotive pianist deserving of a wider audience. No sooner had the final notes decayed than the invitation for the Egyptian to return to Belfast was quickly extended. Inshallah. This was a great opening night, and hopefully just the first of many more to come at Dock Street Jazz Club.

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