Jazz breaking news: McCoy Tyner, Steve Coleman And Henry Threadgill Confirmed For London Jazz Festival

Held in association with BBC Radio 3 and sponsored by Jazzwise, the LJF, Britain’s biggest jazz festival, is held over 10 days from 11-20 November and will release tickets for the first round of concerts announced on 10 May at 10am.

First up for the LJF this year is the by-now traditional curtain raiser, Jazz Voice: Celebrating a Century of Song, part of the EFG International Excellence Series. Led by Guy Barker with a line-up of star vocalists and the 40-piece London Jazz Festival Orchestra, the gala concert gets the festival off in some style on 11 November at the Barbican. Also on opening night at the Royal Festival Hall, Zakir Hussain: Masters of Percussion sees the master tabla player joined by sitarist Niladri Kumar and a top line-up of Indian percussionists. Other big names for opening night are the return to the London stage of M-BASE innovator Steve Coleman (below) who plays the Purcell Room, while ECM artist Stephan Micus appears along the South Bank at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

The festival opening weekend also features a big celebration of Impulse Records’ 50th anniversary with the McCoy Tyner Trio featuring José James and Chris Potter, part of the EFG International Excellence Series, in a Barbican concert that revisits Coltrane’s Impulse collaboration with Johnny Hartman on 12 November. The following night there’s a mouth watering double bill at the QEH with the Steve Swallow Quintet featuring Carla Bley, and The Impossible Gentlemen, the new transatlantic supergroup featuring Swallow with Adam Nussbaum, Mike Walker and Gwilym Simcock who feature on the cover of Jazzwise’s June issue.

Other concerts just announced include Michel Portal at the QEH on 14 November; Richard Galliano Strada Quintet’s tribute to Nino Rota (with Dave Douglas and John Surman) at the Royal Festival Hall on 17 November; Roy Haynes’ Fountain of Youth band in a double bill with Peter King on 18 November at the QEH; Abdullah Ibrahim solo in the Wigmore Hall on 18 November; a rare appearance by Henry Threadgill and his group Zooid at the QEH on 19 November; Bill Frisell 858 Quartet at the QEH on 20 November; and Romanian pianist Lucian Ban at the Purcell Room on 20 November.

– Stephen Graham

For more go to www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk To book for Barbican concerts: 020 7638 8891 / www.barbican.org.uk

For the Southbank Centre: 0844 875 0073 / www.southbankcentre.co.uk and for the Wigmore Hall 020 7935 2141 / www.wigmore-hall.org.uk