This year, Pelin Opcin, the director of the EFG London Jazz Festival is in upbeat mood. After two years when she and her team have made every effort to keep the festival running, 2022 sees a return to the size and scale of the event as it was up until 2019.

It stretches across London, taking in the big venues of the South Bank, the Barbican, and Cadogan Hall, as well as Kings Place, together with an array of clubs and smaller locations that do not just include obvious names like Ronnie Scott’s, the Pizza Express chain and the Jazz Café, but Karamel 22 in the Wood Green/Hornsey area, the Woolwich Works, London Grand Junction in Paddington and the Jazz Café Posk in Ravenscourt Park, not to mention that old faithful, the Bull’s Head in Barnes. And it has an amazing array of talent, from young names playing their first festival gigs to a remarkable roster of international stars.

“This has been a big beast to organise,” says Pelin. “It’s an over-arching plan, not focusing on just one corner of jazz and improvised music, but also seeing where these relate to other musical forms. Traditionally, this festival has always had a big palette, both in terms of variety and size, and we’re glad to be back to that this year.”

Ron Carter will be appearing on Sunday, 13 November at Cadogan Hall

Big names

Immediately obvious is the sizeable number of big names on the bill, but Pelin says there’s a strong reason for this, over and above the fact that many international artists were unable to tour at the time of the attenuated online 2020 festival, or the larger but not-quite-back-to-normal 2021 edition. “This November’s festival is our 30th birthday, so it’s quite a special thing for us. I’m particularly humbled that so many of our great talents have chosen to come back to London, but underlying it is a synergy with celebrating their birthdays! So we have Ron Carter marking his 85th, and so too is Mike Gibbs. Chucho Valdes is 80, and in a special event Marcin Wasilewski and the BBC Concert Orchestra will be celebrating what would have been Tomasz Stańko’s 80th as well. This is also quite a significant year for Jan Garbarek as he is 75! When it comes to anniversaries, though, the other thing we are marking is the centenary of Charles Mingus. The Nu Civilisation Orchestra will be celebrating that, including his collaboration with Joni Mitchell, and the same night in the QEH foyer, we’ll have a screening of a dance film based on Black Saint and The Sinner Lady. But I guess overall the thing we’re most celebrating is being back to a full programme, and judging by the advance sales, full audiences as well. Yet we’ve also learned a lot from the last few years and we’ll be hosting online events from some of the smaller clubs too.”

The Big Swing ft. Emma Smith, Georgina Jackson & Vula Malinga: Friday, 18 November at Cadogan Hall

Raise your voice

I was struck by the number of singers in the programme, starting on the first night with the venerable Sheila Jordan, followed in short order by trumpeter-vocalist Andrea Motis, young singer-songwriter Rosie Frater-Taylor, Norma Winstone with the Small Print trio, Kurt Elling, Diane Reeves, Melody Gardot and our national treasure Elaine Delmar, not to mention the annual Jazz Voice spectacular. "You're right," agrees Pelin, "I think it is an amazing lineup of vocalists and we're not just dealing with interpreters of standards or singer-songwriters, but we’ll have a range of singers with global roots. One thing we like to do with the festival is create strands where we can point audiences who opt for one event to similar or contrasting concerts that they might enjoy, so we have a strong vocal strand. One concert I’m particularly proud of is the Big Swing, featuring Emma Smith and Georgina Jackson with Vula Malinga. They’ll be fronting a 17-piece big band mostly made up of female musicians, and their approach to the American songbook will be a bit tongue in cheek – songs by men, sung by women!"

Rymden will be appearing on 12 November at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

Scandinavian jazz

This year’s programme has a very strong Scandinavian strand. We’d already mentioned Jan Garbarek, but there’ll be concerts (among others) from Tord Gustavsen, Rymden, Jasper Høiby and Daniel Herskedal. “I think that for years the Scandinavian musicians have been taking our art form to a new level,” says Pelin. “The musicians you’ve mentioned have a distinct musical language, and that also goes for musicians like Norwegian born Ellen Andrea Wang, the singer-bassist who’s playing the opening set for Tord. This music must have a place in our programme, and there are more Scandinavian musicians on the bill such as bassist Petter Eldh, who’ll be playing with, among others, Kit Downes.”

The Scandinavian focus doesn’t detract from the fact that this year’s festival has looked right across the UK for a variety of home-grown talents.

The UK jazz scene

“There are many Scottish players,” agrees Pelin, “of whom Fergus McReadie is already a national treasure! And with Calum Gourlay’s big band and Helena Kay’s Kim Trio, we’re definitely focusing on that, but equally we’ve collaborated with Jazz North and among the free stage sets in the Clore Ballroom at the Festival Hall there’ll be a Northern Jazz showcase.”

Having looked at some of the specific elements of the festival, I wondered what Pelin was most proud of in the 2022 edition. She was quick to respond: “It’s the balance between the icons and the new talents. We need the next generation to be heard, but we also want them to enjoy each other’s company. And I also think we have many mini-festivals within the overall umbrella. So, for example the Chicago scene is important. We’ll have the first appearance in London for a decade by Henry Threadgill. And alongside him is Anthony Braxton with his new acoustic group. That same day we’re expecting young London musicians to respond to their music on the free stages at the Barbican. And linking the generations is percussionist Kahil El’Zabar, a Chicagoan for sure, but here working with two generations of Don Cherry’s family. And we’ll also be having similar focuses on West African music and on Afro-Cuban jazz. So, for the free stages before Chucho Valdes’ show, we’re hosting other musicians from that heritage. One thing we gathered from our audience feedback from the 2021 festival is that listeners missed the Latin jazz that had so often been part of earlier editions of the event. So we listened to that request and acted to make sure there is Latin music on the programme in a variety of settings.

“One thing I’m particularly pleased to present is a connection between British artists and Turkish musicians, including the ‘Female Voices of Turkey’. But most of all it’s Air Anatolia, exploring Anatolian psychedelia. So founding members of that scene, Yasin Veyasin, Tolga Böyük and Al McSween will be getting together with players like Yazz Ahmed. "This is shared history, and it’s great to bring legendary members of the 1960s Anatolian scene to work here with UK players, and create something completely new.”

The EFG London Jazz Festival runs from 11 to 20 November, for the full programme and tickets visit www.efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk