This year’s EFG London Jazz Festival is full of not-to-be-missed new collaborations between the finest emerging and established talent across the UK & international jazz scenes.
London-based performance artist GAIKA will be joined by R&B singer Miink and Gorillaz/Massive Attack collaborator Azekel for an audio-visual performance titled Palatium (Saturday 14 November Café OTO and streamed Friday 20 November).
Genre busting South African cellist Abel Selaocoe will join forces with the BBC Concert Orchestra for a concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3 (Friday 20 November) and experimental Korean drummer SooJin Suh will perform alongside acclaimed pianist Kit Downes - both ECM artists meeting for the first time (Monday 16 November).
Elsewhere electronic producer James Holden will link with Polish clarinettist Waclaw Zimpel for an improvisational performance inspired by Morocco’s Gnawa music (Monday 17 November) and producer/multi-instrumentalist Tenderlonious will lead a showcase of material from his record label, 22a (Sunday 15 November) with music from and collaborations between Ruby Rushton, Nick Walters, his Tubby Hayes tribute The Piccolo and more surprises, along with a DJ set from Dennis Ayler.
Established renown meets emerging talent in multi instrumentalist/composer Orphy Robinson and composer/filmmaker/director Gabriel Finn on Orphy Robinson’s Virtual Jazz Club Band (Saturday 21 November). Together, they take on the mammoth task of transforming video submissions of a new jazz commission into one unified digital ensemble.
Championing music that transcends genres, a series of shows from Between The Lines will also be broadcast as part of this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival. Erased Tapes present a label bill including cellist Anne Müller, Japanese vocalist Hatis Noit and Immix Ensemble founder Daniel Thorne (Monday 16 November).
Experimental producer Leafcutter John will be joined by Ruth Goller’s Skylla ensemble and saxophonist Helen Papaioannou (Tuesday 17 November). The series is rounded out by a line-up curated by GAIKA’s Spectacular Empire collective, featuring Hyperdub signing Loraine James, RnB artist GLOR1A and Afro-Irish rapper Demigosh (Wednesday 18 November). All three shows will be available to stream free of charge via a new partnership with Mixcloud.
Tomorrow’s Warriors’ co-founder and artistic director Gary Crosby makes a rare live appearance (Friday 20 November), collaborating with some of the finest musicians to come from the Warriors stable in Nathaniel Facey, Shirley Tetteh, and Moses Boyd to perform a Charlie Parker songbook as well as some new original material.
Three of the UK’s brightest young pianists Ashley Henry, Joe Armon Jones and Sarah Tandy will share the same stage to perform rare solo sets at Ronnie Scott’s (Friday 20 November), in conjunction with the much anticipated release of the album ‘Alone Together’ on Decca.
At the Barbican, Cassie Kinoshi’s SEED Ensemble will celebrate music of Pharoah Sanders with guests including Shabaka Hutchings, Sheila Maurice-Gray (Kokoroko) and Shirley Tetteh (Saturday 14 November) and Shabaka will perform with Britten Sinfonia (Wednesday 18 November). These concerts are sold out but livestream tickets are still available.
