BBC Radio 3 Programme | EFG London Jazz Festival 2023

From Friday 27 October to Wednesday 22 November, BBC Radio 3 marks the 21st edition of the EFG London Jazz Festival with special programming celebrating all-things jazz.

Friday 27 October, 23:00 -01:00 

Late Junction: JJJJJerome and Angeline Morrison in session

Bringing Black History Month to a close in style, Verity Sharp presents our latest Late Junction long-distance collaboration session, this time involving the pairing of American multi-instrumentalist, producer and poet JJJJJerome with British folk artist and songwriter Angeline Morrison, who appears at the EFG London Jazz Festival on Monday 13 November.

Elsewhere in the show, we hear “mutant” club music from Kampala-based Congolese producer Chrisman, new sounds from Jessika Kenney & Eyvind Kang inspired by interviewees living in the tribal territories on or near the Hanford Nuclear Site in Washington state, and a reissue of Bert Jansch’s Avocet.

Friday 3 November, 23:00 – 01:00

Late Junction: A Mixtape from Irreversible Entanglements

Verity Sharp shares a mixtape from Irreversible Entanglements, an American free jazz collective “orientated in liberation thought, mind and practice”. Looking forward to their London Jazz Festival appearance on 15th November, their specially-created Late Junction mixtape offers spiritual jazz, New York salsa, Congolese rumba and birdsong from Panama. The band members all contributed tracks and suggestions, with trumpet-player Aquiles Navarro then shaping and sequencing the selections into a sonic journey

Elsewhere in the show, “turbo-folk” anthems from Serbia, a new release from an icon of musique concrète, and a musical invitation to a Sunday in Bamako.

Sunday 5 November, 16:00 – 17:00

Jazz Record Requests

Alyn Shipton includes requests from some of this year’s featured artists appearing at the 2023 London Jazz Festival.

Friday 10 November, 19:30 – 22:00

Radio 3 in Concert: Jazz Voice

EFG London Jazz Festival's opening night gala, live from the Royal Festival Hall. The Jazz Voice is an annual celebration of singers and song-writing and the featured artists tonight include Emeli Sandé, Clarke Peters, China Moses, Omar, Brendan Reilly, Naomi Banks, Judi Jackson, and Vanessa Haynes. Guy Barker directs the specially-created EFG London Jazz Festival Orchestra and the event is hosted on stage by Jumoké Fashola.

The interval features a mixtape celebrating some of this year's jazz centenarians with classic recordings from innovators such as guitarist Wes Montgomery, trumpeter Fats Navarro, tenorist Dexter Gordon, drummer Philly Joe Jones and vocalist Johnny Hartman from his 1963 collaboration with John Coltrane.

Friday 10 November, 22:00 – 00:00

J to Z Late: Live from Pizza Express Live, Holborn

Radio 3’s J to Z returns to Pizza Express Live for the raucous opening night party of the EFG London Jazz Festival 2023. Hosted by Jumoké Fashola, and featuring Radio 1Xtra’s Casskid, the event features another stellar line up of top names drawn from across the spectrum of Jazz, broadcast live to the world on BBC Radio 3. On the bill: rising star pianist Sultan Stevenson, plus top secret names including a New Orleans legend.

Saturday 11th November

This Classical Life: Cécile McLorin Salvant

Jess Gillam meets the jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant to swap some of their favourite music.

Cécile is a 3 time Grammy award-winning jazz singer and her music shows off her passion for storytelling and finding the connections between vaudeville, blues, jazz, baroque and folkloric music. She speaks to Jess ahead of her show at London Jazz Festival 2023 and picks some of her favourite voices from Maria Callas singing Puccini to flamenco star Camarón De La Isla, and an air de cour by Gabriel Bataille.

Jess brings along a string quartet by Caroline Shaw, a Hollywood inflected Concerto by Korngold and the most beautiful of songs by Aretha Franklin.

Sunday 12 November, 00:00 – 01:00

Freeness: London improvises

Corey Mwamba shares music from artists playing at the EFG London Jazz Festival, and introduces free jazz from Chicago and a new track from a quintet helmed by AMM’s Eddie Prévost with Binker Golding (saxophones), Henry Kaiser and N. O. Moore (guitars) and Olie Brice (double bass).

Elsewhere in the show, the programme includes a track from the reissue of 2001’s Masses, a collaborative album made by East London duo Spring Heel Jack together with a group of improvisers drawn from the contemporary UK and New York scenes. And there is an extract from a recent live performance by Kemetic Tapestries, the supergroup of David Boykin and Eliel Sherman Storey (saxophones), Nicole Mitchell (flutes), Zahra Baker (vocals), Jeff Parker (guitar), Josh Abrams and Darius Savage (basses), Avreeayl Ra (drums) and Lawrence Jones (percussion).

Monday 13 – Friday 17 November, 12:00 – 13:00

Composer of The Week: John & Alice Coltrane

Kate Molleson is joined by Kevin Le Gendre to explore the lives and music of revolutionary jazz power-couple, John and Alice Coltrane. As soulmates and fellow seekers in sound, John and Alice both transcended cultural and genre boundaries, helping to pioneer avant-garde and spiritual jazz. But following John’s premature death in 1967, Alice began her solo career and would take forward their journey of creative and religious expansion. All this week, Kate and Kevin dive into the lives and music of these monumental figures, and explore their contributions to the jazz world and beyond.

Monday 13 November: Stepping Up
Kate and Kevin explore the first stages in John’s career- and the little steps that led him towards his early triumph, Giant Steps. Along the way, he’s offered a golden opportunity, to play with Miles Davis.

Tuesday 14 November: Trial and Error
John finds overnight success with My Favorite Things. But fame and money aren’t enough – they don’t complete his ongoing quest for the perfect band, and the perfect sound.

Wednesday 15 November: Higher Love
John and Alice meet. Kevin and Kate discuss the significance of their family home, where John composed his masterwork A Love Supreme, and the music that they made together in his final years.

Thursday 16 November: A New Journey
Alice’s world is turned upside down when John dies at the age of 40. Kate and Kevin explore how she channelled her grief into a new musical chapter, and at the same time, found her spiritual awakening.

Friday 17 November: Eternal Sounds
Divine instruction reveals Alice’s new life purpose. Kate and Kevin discuss her retreat from the music profession, and the life she created for herself at Sai Anantam Ashram in California. In the privacy of her community, she made recordings of her original devotional music, which were almost lost to time. But now, a new generation of listeners are discovering the rich spectrum of her work.

Sunday 18 November, 17:00 – 18:30

J to Z: London Jazz Festival Highlights

J to Z features highlights from their stage at the Barbican on Sunday 12 November. With music by four of the most exciting names at this year’s London Jazz Festival, including a Japanese piano virtuoso and one of the world’s leading drummers, hosted by Kevin Le Gendre.

Wednesday 22 November, 19:30 – 22:00

Radio 3 in Concert: BBC Concert Orchestra with Miho Hazama and guitarist Rob Luft

Radio 3 in Concert presents a performance recorded at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Thursday 16 November, as part of the London Jazz Festival: composer and conductor Miho Hazama, guitarist Rob Luft and the BBC Concert Orchestra take a very personal journey into their shared jazz roots.

Miho Hazama: Minamino Bo
Rob Luft: Guitar Concerto (From Silence, Music is Born)
Toshiko Akiyoshi: Long Yellow Road
Ellington: Peanut Brittle Brigade from Nutcracker Suite (after Tchaikovsky) arr. Miho Hazama for orchestra