DJ Soft Wax, mainstay of the Deptford Dub Club, is sitting in a 1950s south-east London living room. Only it’s 2016, and he’s in Hull.

He’s manning his installation at the Hull Freedom Festival which recreates London’s original Blues Parties.

At these DIY shindigs the West Indian community, often not welcome in mainstream clubs, would get together in residential houses to hear the sounds of Jamaica – rocksteady, reggae and ska – through booming speaker boxes.

After most of the visitors have moved on, Soft Wax notices a quiet man, clearly engrossed, lingering around.

They strike up a conversation and exchange details. Months later than he realises this man was John Cumming – revered jazz musician and founder of the London Jazz Festival.

Jerry Dammers, a founding member of The Specials, and one of Soft Wax’s good pals, also knew Cumming – but they only realised the mutual connection after Cumming’s death in 2020.

This year the two musicians decided to honour Cumming’s role as a “facilitator and nurturer” of London’s jazz scene. And what better way than with an outing of the Dub Club for his own festival?

But what, you may ask, is a dub night doing in a jazz festival? To answer that, Soft Wax intends to let the selections speak for themselves.

Actually, that’s not true. He’s a self-confessed “rambler” on matters of music: “We’re highlighting the cross-fertilisation between jazz and Jamaican-origin music. The main emphasis will be the influence of jazz over reggae, particularly instrumentally.”

He explains that the effect of jazz in Jamaica began well before the appearance of ska and reggae in the late ‘50s.

This happened through a number of avenues. One was migrant workers from the Caribbean who would bring back soul and jazz records from the USA, meaning the earliest Jamaican sound systems played mainly American music.

There was also something called the North Coast Hotel Circuit.

“The big industry for northern Jamaican towns was tourism. While guests were having their posh evening emails, the standard entertainment was a local band. Mostly they played American jazz, the likes of Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. A lot of the great Jamaican instrumentalists earned their crust on the hotel circuit playing jazz standards. And they got bloody good at it.”

The relationship between jazz and Jamaican-origin music is still evolving, right here in London.

There’s a group of young, contemporary south London jazz musicians whose music is influenced by their growing up around reggae. The show will also give a nod to that feedback in the other direction.

Other factors, such as the scarcity of record pressers and influence between islands in the Caribbean, played a part in this story. Soft Wax hopes that, if nothing else, this week’s show will voice the “often overlooked” connections between jazz and Jamaican-origin music, and let people have a dance.

Dammers, who penned definitive tunes such as Ghost Town, will be at the helm to headline the night. The 2-tone Records originator promises a “personal Jamaican Jazz inclined section” – a tantalising prospect to those who know his provenance.

Other guest selectors include vinyl nut DJ Vandorta, Ronnie Scott’s resident DJ Riot Girl, and local legend SoulRockers. Soft Wax will hold down the fort alongside regular mic man Doc Murdoch and the live Horns section.

The London Jazz Festival will run from November 15 to November 24.

Dammers and the Dub Club are playing for the festival at the Fox & Firkin, Lewisham, on Sunday, November 17.

 Tickets can be bought now online.