John Scofield, John Surman and Tomasz Stanko Added To London Jazz Festival
Monday, June 1, 2009
Leading US guitarist John Scofield and the Piety Street band, reeds player and composer John Surman celebrating his 65th birthday in a special concert, and trumpeter Tomasz Stanko’s Nordic Quintet making its London debut, have been added to the London Jazz Festival programme.
They join legendary saxophonist Sonny Rollins, who has been announced as the first headlining name for this year’s LJF. The festival takes place from 13-22 November and is held in association with BBC Radio 3 and sponsored by Jazzwise.
Now in its seventeenth year, the festival wraps itself around the capital with major concerts at the Southbank, Barbican and Kings Place concert halls and a wide range of festival gigs at Ronnie Scott’s club, the Pizza Express Jazz Club, 606 club, the Vortex and many other clubs and performance spaces. The Sonny Rollins concert, tickets for which have gone on sale, is at the Barbican on 14 November, and is part of the EFG International Excellence Series featuring concert performances by some of jazz’s greatest names.
Also among the early bookings for the festival are concerts by Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen, composer/pianist Carla Bley at the Southbank Centre, Bill Frisell and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican and Italian pianist Stefano Bollani curating a residency at Kings Place. For more go to www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk