Cécile McLorin Salvant with Sullivan Fortner Publicity picture

Peter Bacon reports:

This year’s EFG London Jazz Festival will run from Friday 15 to Sunday 24 November and the first shows to be announced, with most going on sale this week, are:

Jazz Voice, Royal Festival Hall, Friday 15 November: 
The traditional opening-night gala with 42-piece orchestra, arrangements by Guy Barker and soloists. This year’s line-up still to be announced.

Cécile McLorin Salvant with Sullivan Fortner, Barbican, Saturday 16 November: Grammy Award winning vocalist, performing her newest release The Window, with pianist Sullivan Fortner.

Jan Garbarek Group, Royal Festival Hall, Sunday 17 November: Norwegian saxophonist and composer who epitomises the ECM label (which is celebrating its 50 anniversary this year) with German pianist and keyboarder Rainer Brüninghaus, the Brazilian bassist Yuri Daniel and the Indian percussionist Trilok Gurtu.

Cross Currents Trio featuring Dave Holland, Zakir Hussain, Chris Potter, Cadogan Hall, Sunday 17 November: 
Following their mperformance at our 2017 festival, the all-star trio is back.

Makaya McCraven + Rosie Turton, Village Underground, Tuesday 19 November: McCraven’s performance was one of the highlights of last year’s festival, a regular of the “best jazz albums of 2018” lists with his latest release Universal Beings, and the Jazz FM Awards nominee for the same category. This time in a double bill with London-based trombonist and composer Rosie Turton.

Lars Danielsson Group: Liberetto III with Grégory Privat, John Parricelli and Magnus Öström, Wigmore Hall, Tuesday 19 November (tickets on sale in May): 
Swedish bassist, cellist, composer and arranger teams up with an all-star line-up for the London premiere of Liberetto.

Marius Neset: Viaduct, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Thursday 21 November
: Following their award-winning collaboration on Neset’s 2016 album Snowmelt, the London Sinfonietta and the dynamic jazz saxophonist join forces once again for a new commission.

Omar Puente and friends: An Evening for Debbie, Kings Place, Friday 22 November: 
Internationally-acclaimed Cuban violinist Omar Puente is performing a very special show in honour of his wife, campaigner Debbie Purdy who died in 2014. Puente will be joined by some very special guests including pianist Alex Wilson, saxophonist Courtney Pine, trombonist Dennis Rollins plus some surprise appearances.

Eliane Elias + Vinícius Cantuária, Barbican, Friday 22 November: 
This stellar double bill is part of a celebration of 60 years of Bossa nova which is being celebrated throughout the year.

BBC Concert Orchestra, Nu Civilisation Orchestra, String Ting and Misha Mullov Abbado, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Saturday 23 November: Cellist Matthew Barley gives the world premiere of Mullov-Abbado’s Cello Concerto, commissioned by BBC Radio 3 especially for this concert. Principal Conductor Bramwell Tovey directs the BBC Concert Orchestra joined by Southbank Centre resident groups the Nu Civilisation Orchestra and String Ting.

Battleship Potemkin: live soundtrack by Matt Calvert/Three Trapped Tigers + Jan Bang/Punkt, Kings Place, Saturday 23 November: The masterpiece of early cinema, Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet classic finds its new sound with Opera North’s 2017 commission.

Dan Tepfer: Natural Machines, Kings Place, Sunday 24 November: Dan Tepfer uses the Yamaha Disklavier piano to bring together his world-class pianism with his background in physics and programming. As he improvises, the piano responds in real time with notes of its own and the music is created, another set of custom-made coding turns the data into animated visual art.

Swingin’ with Strings featuring Claire Martin and Iain Mackenzie, Cadogan Hall, Sunday 24 November
: An evening of superb historical musical recreations from the Jazz Repertory Company – their biggest production with 22 string players and a harpist added to a 17-piece big band. It includes Claire Martin performing music from Billie Holiday’s 1958 album Lady in Satin, and Pete Long performing Artie Shaw’s Concerto for Clarinet.

LINK: EFG London Jazz Festival website