The EFG London Jazz Festival 2015

Jazz Voice
Celebrating a Century of Song
Friday 13 November 2015 / Barbican Hall / 19:30
Tickets: £15 – 35 plus booking fee
EFG London Jazz Festival’s signature opening-night gala returns to the Barbican with a stellar cast of jazz voices performing an epoch-spanning celebration of singing and song. This year’s line-up includes singers Becca Stevens, Elaine Delmar, Foxes, Jarrod Lawson, Joe Stilgoe, Liv Warfield and Rebecca Ferguson who are accompanied by a 40-piece orchestra, marking the major anniversaries, birthdays and milestones that link the decades stretching back.

Produced by the Barbican in association with Serious
Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Part of the EFG Excellence Series
Find out more

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Barbican Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £15 – 25 plus booking fee

BBC 6Music DJ Gilles Peterson gives audiences a glimpse at the future of jazz, with a double bill of artists that will take apart preconceptions of what jazz even means. Kamasi Washington takes jazz from the shelf of relics and makes it into something unexpected again. Performing here in his London debut and following the release of his kaleidoscopic record The Epic, his blistering sax and luscious orchestrations are steeped in jazz tradition, whilst at the same time pushing in new directions. Manchester trio GoGo Penguin – newly signed to Blue Note – take a spin in a different direction. They collaborate with the brilliant choreographer Lynne Page, to create a very contemporary response to the 80s phenomenon of Jazz dance – the underground movement that ruled the dance floors of the UK’s club culture.

Produced by the Barbican in association with Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival
Find out more

Sunday 15 November 2015 / Milton Court Concert Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10 – 25 plus booking fee

Celebrating some 20 years of collaboration, the gifted Polish trio are joined by lyrical Swedish saxophonist Joakim Milder to play material from their fourth ECM recording, Spark of Life. This is European jazz that exudes confidence and class.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Sunday 15 November 2015 / Barbican Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10 – 35plus booking fee

Inspired by the sounds and street parades of his native New Orleans, Allen Toussaint makes a rare London concert appearance with a band that’s rooted in the distinctively deft and funky music of a city that remains a massive force in the music of today. Toussaint’s five-decade journey has included a string of hit songs – under his own name, or covered by a jaw-dropping range of artists, from the Rolling Stones and The Who to Bonnie Raitt, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – not to mention collaborations with countless musical peers, including Elvis Costello and Eric Clapton.  Blazing young trumpeter Theo Croker plays out of the jazz tradition with vigour and attitude. With a brand new EP scheduled for autumn release, in advance of a full album next year, this is one of the jazz stars of the next generation.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Tuesday 17 November 2015 / Barbican Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10 – 27.50 plus booking fee

Two of the most dynamic forces on today’s European jazz scene come together in this double bill.  Drummer of choice for – amongst others – Sting, Peter Gabriel and Jan Garbarek, Manu Katché’s magnetic performances with his own live band are as warm and engaging as they are powerful. Trumpeter/composer Ibrahim Maalouf returns to the 50s jazz sounds first explored in his 2012 album Wind, with the tonalities of Middle Eastern music adding a sublime and trance-like atmosphere.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Wednesday 18 November 2015 / Milton Court Concert Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10-30 plus booking fee

Legendary bass player Eddie Gomez joins Britten Sinfonia in this programme as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival. A leading member of Bill Evans’ band, Gomez has been working with composer Simon Bainbridge on a new work which will feature Gomez improvising alongside the orchestra. The concert is completed by a rich programme of jazz inflected music by Stravinsky, Zappa and Milhaud.

Promoted by Britten Sinfonia
Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Thursday 19 November 2015 / Milton Court Concert Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10 – 25 plus booking fee

One of the defining figures in European jazz, Miroslav Vitous left his native Czechoslovakia to make a profound impact on the New York scene in the 60s, making jazz history as a founder member of the hugely influential Weather Report and in a seminal acoustic trio with Chick Corea and Roy Haynes.  He makes a long-awaited return to London with the award-winning pianist and composer Emil Viklický where his sumptuous bass lines merge with Viklický’s robust combination of swing and lyrics.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Friday 20 November 2015 / Barbican Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10 – 27.50 plus booking fee

Terence Blanchard’s new project is positively teeming with an exhilarating blend of fiery solo statements and the colours of funk, R’n’B and soul.  With a brand new Blue Note album, Breathless, the massively influential trumpeter and composer brings together yet another band that’s packed with talented young players. Opening the show, Jacob Collier makes his UK concert hall debut, combining multi-instrumental wizardry with a live looping video relay to create a mesmerising live show that redefines what jazz is and what it can be.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Part of the EFG Excellence Series

Saturday 21 November 2015 / Barbican Hall / 19:30

(Please note that due to artist scheduling the afternoon performance of this concert has been cancelled.)

Tickets: £15 – 40 plus booking fee

Rapper and actor Ice-T joins musical director and trumpeter Ron McCurdy in a brilliant 21^st century realisation and European Premiere of Langston Hughes’ creative masterpiece – his jazz poem suite Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. A seminal figure in African-American cultural history, Hughes devised the poem in the early 1960s and dedicated the work to Louis Armstrong. Unperformed at the time of Hughes’ death in 1967, Ask Your Mama recreates the journey from the Harlem Renaissance through the beat poets and the birth of bebop, to the looming explosion of black performance art in the 60s – from the blues, gospel and New Orleans to bebop and beyond.  A vivid visual backdrop as part of the two Barbican performances evokes the life and times of an American icon, illuminating Hughes’ vision of the struggle for freedom in the 60s – with a message that resonates as strongly today as ever.

Produced by the Barbican in association with Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Sunday 22 November 2015 / Milton Court Concert Hall / 14:00

Tickets: £10 – 25 plus booking fee

Phronesis celebrate a decade of music-making with a brand new project that combines their mesmerising live performance with one of Europe’s finest critically acclaimed jazz orchestras. With the inventive hand of UK composer/arranger Julian Argüelles creating innovative

arrangements of the trio’s compositions and directing this versatile ensemble, this promises to be a unique tenth anniversary celebration.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Sunday 22 November 2015 / Barbican Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10 – 25 plus booking fee

Performing with an extended line-up to their usual live show, Submotion Orchestra close the EFG London Jazz Festival with their spacious, entrancing mix of jazz, dub and electronica. Submotion Orchestra formed in 2009 when a collection of jazz musicians approached electronic producer, Ruckspin with the idea of making dubstep music with a live band. Recruiting vocalist Ruby Wood, all the elements came together, and three albums later they’re praised for their song writing and showmanship alike.  Opening the show, Catching Flies presents an enveloping full-band show. Sitting somewhere between Flying Lotus and Bonobo, his bass-heavy yet melodic mesh of broody electronics and intricate rhythms draws on elements of everything from hip-hop to house, from soul to jazz.

Sunday 22 November 2015 / Milton Court Concert Hall / 19:30

Tickets: £10 – 25 plus booking fee

Pianist Julia Hülsmann’s most recent recording for ECM has received a tremendous response for its emotionally charged interpretation of the music of Kurt Weill – from some of the master’s best-loved songs (Mack the Knife, Speak Low) to theUnsung Weill. With a dramatic use of tempo and telling contributions from the luminous voice of Theo Bleckmann (here making a very rare London appearance) and trumpeter Tom Arthurs, Hülsmann has created an enticing, beautifully-crafted artwork.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

An accompanying film programme in the Barbican cinemas as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival sees the evolution of jazz alongside the civil rights movement in the 1960s mirrored by contemporary concerns that continue to occupy the creative drive of today’s artists.

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Cinema 2 / 14:00

Tickets: £9.50 plus booking fee

A fascinating double bill drawn from a landmark Channel 4 series, stylishly filmed at the Roundhouse by Mike Dodds at the 1981 Camden Jazz Festival: the ancestor of today’s EFG London Jazz Festival.  Seeing the light for the first time since their original TV broadcast in 1983, these two films catch two giants of contemporary jazz in their prime, with interview and backstage coverage complementing some great music.  Shepp – the firebrand saxophonist who emerged in the maelstrom of the 1960s avante-garde – fronts a terrific quintet, while South African pianist/leader Chris McGregor leads an edition of his irrepressibly rocking Brotherhood of Breath, packed with talented soloists from South Africa, Europe and the States.

The Saxophonist: The Antithesis of War UK 1983 Dir Mike Dodds 52 min

Good Friends UK 1983 Dir Mike Dodds 53 min

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Cinema 2 / 16:00

Tickets: £9.50 plus booking fee

The alto saxophonist Frank Morgan was a wonderful talent. But like so many musicians, he fell prey to drug addiction and spent a considerable 30-year-period of his life in and out of prison.

Yet, this is no clichéd journey: this documentary takes us through Morgan’s rise, fall and re-creation as a musician during the last 22 years of his life. Interspersed throughout footage of Morgan’s music and life are clips of his rehearsals and a concert for a performance at San Quentin State Prison, which he took part in with other incredible musicians. Named Best of the Fest at the 26th Palm Springs International Film Festival in 2015, this is an original documentary about music and redemption.

US 2014 Dir NC Heiken 84 min

Sunday 15 November 2015 / Cinema 2 / 16:00

Tickets £9.50 plus booking fee

This documentary by Adam Kahan tells the astonishing life story of the musician Rahsaan Roland Kirk: an exceptional musician who deserves the exposure this film gives.  Blind from infancy, Kirk was a musician who pushed at the boundaries from the very start. A multi-instrumentalist, his signature was playing up to three saxophones at any one time, or the nose flute; he fought to get black classical music on television, playing an unplanned version of Charles Mingus’ Haitian Fight Song on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1971. Kirk suffered a stroke and played for two years more, one-handed, before another stroke killed him at 42.

This amazing life story is punctuated generously with Kirk’s madly energetic and mesmerising performances.

US 2014 Dir Adam Kahan 88 min

Monday 16 November 2015 / Cinema 3 / 20:45

Tickets: £9.50 plus booking fee

Produced by Metallica bassist, Robert Trujillo and the team behind Searching for Sugarman, Jaco tells the story of one of the music’s most influential bassists; Jaco Pastorius.  Most known from his work with the band Weather Report, Jaco was a larger-than-life character who truly influenced the course of modern music before his tragic death at the age of 35 in 1987. Told from the eyes of his family and various musical collaborators, the film features interviews with some of the industry’s leading musicians including Joni Mitchell, Carlos Santana, Sting and Flea from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Jaco is the compelling story of a self-taught talent whose artistry has not been forgotten.

USA 2015 Dir Stephen Kijak/ Paul Marchand 110 min

Tuesday 17 November 2015 / Cinema 3 / 20:45

Tickets: £9.50 plus booking fee

Directed by Shirley Clarke and adapted from the Warren Miller novel, this realistic drama documents life in youth gangs in Harlem. Set to Dizzy Gillepsie’s celebrated jazz score, the film features real members of the Royal Python gang and tells the tale of Duke, a fifteen year old boy who is desperate to buy a gun in order to become president of the gang he belongs to.

This stark and powerful film captures the essence of life in 1960s gangs and displays beautiful synergy between the cinematography and Dizzy Gillepsie’s score.

USA 1963 Dir Shirley Clarke 105 min

Sunday 15 November 2015 / Frobisher Room 1, Level 4 / 14:00

Tickets: £5 plus booking fee

Audiences can join internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and vocalist Joe Stilgoe for this fun but intimate workshop, designed for all ages and abilities to sing jazz standards and explore vocal techniques.

Some singing experience welcome

Recommended for ages 12+

Approx. 90 minutes

Tickets are limited – advance booking essential.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

22 November 2015 / Frobisher Room 1, Level 4 / 14:00

Tickets: £5 plus booking fee

Audiences can join one of the UK’s most original and entrancing vocalists and songwriters, Nia Lynn, for this fun but intimate workshop, designed for all ages and abilities to sing jazz standards and explore vocal techniques. Nia leads the critically acclaimed jazz trio, The Bannau Trio (Whirlwind Recordings) whose current release Points of View features the great Norma Winstone as a guest artist.  As part of the Jazz Faculty at the Royal Academy of Music and Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Nia is a passionate educator with an infectious energy.

Some singing experience welcome

Recommended for ages 12+

Approx. 90 minutes

Tickets are limited – advance booking essential

As part of the annual EFG London Jazz Festival programme, there are always plenty of free shows, talks and events across London for audiences to enjoy, with the Barbican Freestage forming a much-loved fixture within the Festival.

Friday 13 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 18:00

‘A fabulous performer with a knockout voice,’ according to Tony Bennett. Nina Ferro performs material from her new album Into the Light.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 12:00

An afternoon of original and improvised music programmed by adventurous London night LUME.

First up, spontaneous, living music-in-the-moment from two of the UK’s finest improvisers.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 12:30

An afternoon of original and improvised music programmed by adventurous London night LUME. Fiery, free-wheeling sax and drums duo from DIY improv/noise record label, Raw Tonk Records.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 14:00

An afternoon of original and improvised music programmed by adventurous London night LUME.. Juggling order and chaos, composition and improvisation, Dee Byrne‘s quintet takes listeners on an exploration of the musical cosmos with their debut album New Era.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 15:00

An afternoon of original and improvised music programmed by adventurous London night LUME. Cath Roberts draws together improvisers from across the north, using experimental graphic scores as a jumping-off point for freely improvised group explorations.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 17:00

Audiences can join Alyn Shipton for a special edition with live music from festival guests.

Suggest your own must-hear tracks by emailing jazz.record.requests@bbc.co.uk by the end of October.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 14 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 18:00

An afternoon of original and improvised music programmed by adventurous London night LUME. Intricate compositions and delicate textures from saxophonist Tom Ward’s chamber jazz sextet.

Sunday 15 November / Barbican Freestage / 14.30

Winner of BBC Young Jazz Musician

Sunday 15 November / Barbican Freestage / 16.00

Misha Mullov-Abbado is a musician who combines great imagination, raw talent tempered by a clear vision, and a colourful character. He performs on the Freestage with his Quintet as part of the launch tour of debut record New Ansonia, out now on Edition Records.

Sunday 15 November / Barbican Freestage / 17.30

Laurent is an award-winning French pianist who has opened for Sting, Marcus Miller, Avishai Cohen, Chucho Valdes and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Hear him on the Freestage as he ‘jumps from one universe to another’ (The Digitalophone).

Sunday 15 Nov / Barbican Freestage / 18.45

Alan Hampton plays bass and sings with Meshell N’Degeocello and Robert Glasper, has worked with Sufjan Stevens, Derrick Hodge, Kendrick Scott and Esperanza Spalding. Hear his own sound in this Freestage performance.

Tuesday 17 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 18:00

Incorporating influences from Japanese culture into his work, Pascal Schumacher has put his own spin on Orientalism, pursuing a style of minimalism from the Japanese concept of ‘wabi-sabi‘, combining harmony and disorder. With the subtle, polished sound of his quartet as a base, he has created a piece of art more diverse than anything he has recorded to this point.

Listening to this creative work, the beauty of the vibraphone reverberating, the sound travelling through the air and disappearing, brings up visions of ‘wabi-sabi’. Pascal Schumacher’s artistic skill can be felt through his vibraphone, truly touching the Japanese soul.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 21 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 12:30

An afternoon programme from Match&Fuse kicking off with a technically brilliant, raucous and refreshing live act whose riffs and grooves rub shoulders with rowdy free playing and softer melodies.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 21 November / Barbican Stalls Lounge / 15:00

Professor Tony Whyton chairs a panel exploring jazz as part of cultural heritage and music as a tool for regeneration and social change.

Saturday 21 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 16:30

Part of a Match&Fuse afternoon on the Barbican Freestage, Jazzator combines the freedom of jazz with the harmonic vocabulary of contemporary art music and adds the vigour of breakbeat to the mix.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Saturday 21 November / Barbican Stalls Lounge / 17:00
A panel discussion inspired by this evening’s Langston Hughes project, including writer and editor Margaret Busby and BCU’s Nicholas Gebhardt.

Sunday 22 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 14:00
Featuring some of Birmingham’s finest improv musicians, an original set of high-energy groove paralleled with contrasting beauty and delicacy.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Sunday 22 November / Barbican Fountain Room / 15:00

Professor George McKay chairs a panel exploring the role of the festival with Chief Executive of Dance Umbrella Emma Gladstone and Match&Fuse’s Dave Morecroft.

Sunday 22 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 16:00

This warm and delicate-toned trumpeter and composer won the Académie du Jazz Best French Artist of 2014 award. Audiences are invited to come and hear why.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Sunday 22 November 2015 / Barbican Fountain Room / 17:00

Writer Richard Havers, Professor Andrew Blake and journalist Nick Hasted explore the ways in which music interconnects.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Sunday 22 November 2015 / Barbican Freestage / 18:00

Gold of My Own is a fresh collaboration between soul star Vanessa Freeman and toon whizz Chris Pedley – soul with twists of hip hop and left-side beats.

Produced by Serious

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival

Source: EFG London Jazz Festival