Jacob Collier UK concert hall debut added to EFG London Jazz Festival
Friday, August 7, 2015
Jacob Collier, the Quincy Jones-mentored British vocal/multi-instrumentalist sensation, has been added to this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival and is set to make his UK concert hall debut when he opens for top US trumpeter Terence Blanchard’s E Collective at the Barbican Hall on 20 November.
Collier premiered his extraordinary, technically dazzling solo show in early July at Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, on a double bill with another Jones’ protégé pianist Justin Kauflin. The show brings to life Collier’s renowned YouTube videos with an ingenious and technically innovative combination of live looping as Collier plays multiple instruments, sings sophisticated vocal harmonies and plays drums and percussion – with multiple virtual ‘Jacobs’ filmed and then appearing on a video screen above the stage. Having opened for Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock at this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, this will be the first time UK audiences will get a chance to see and hear this unique show on a large scale.
The addition of this concert follows the announcement last week that legendary New Orleans pianist, composer and arranger Allen Toussaint has also been added to this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, which takes place from 13-22 November at over 50 venues including the capital’s major concert halls and jazz clubs. Toussaint is mired in New Orlean’s musical legacy and has composed such R&B and soul standards as ‘Fortune Teller’, ‘Working In A Coal Mine’ and ‘Southern Nights’. He will be appearing with his quartet at the Barbican on Sunday 15 November with an opening set from Florida-born rising star trumpeter and singer Theo Croker, who has played with Dee Dee Bridgewater and recorded for her label. Also added to the festival is the Leeds-based Submotion Orchestra, who bring a mighty mix of jazz, dub, ambient electronica and soul to the Barbican on the festival’s closing night, Sunday 22 November. Also newly announced are concerts by dynamic US trumpeter Christian Scott who will play Rich Mix on 16 November, while the National Youth Jazz Orchestra also appear at Rich Mix on 15 November for a set that will celebrate their 50th anniversary.
These names join an already big-hitting line-up that includes Cassandra Wilson, Kurt Elling, Maria Schneider Orchestra, Andy Sheppard Quartet, James Farm with Joshua Redman, Miroslav Vitous, Dave Holland, Sons of Kemet, Maceo Parker and many others, with more names to be announced over the coming months.
Jazzwise is media partner of the EFG London Jazz Festival and all tickets and information are available from the official EFG London Jazz festival website.
(Photo by Carl Hyde - Jacob Collier at Ronnie Scott's)