London Jazz Festival Announces Complete Line-Up
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
While the streets of Camden outside were awash with what at times seemed like biblical rain, a veritable deluge of jazz, fittingly, was announced inside the Forge on Delancey Street last night as the complete line-up for this year’s London Jazz Festival, which runs from 13-22 November, was unveiled.
BBC Radio 3 controller Roger Wright told the packed room that the station’s longstanding partnership with organisers Serious was more than just a contract with more programming than ever before on the network. Later following a speech by the Arts Council’s Denys Baptiste, the LJF’s Claire Whitaker spoke of an increase in the free-entry concert element of the programming this year, up some 30 per cent on last year. Concert and club highlights at the festival sponsored by Jazzwise day-by-day include:
Friday 13 November: John Scofield’s Piety Street Band plus Dennis Rollins’ Velocity Trio (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Bobby Hutcherson Quartet (Ronnie Scott’s).
Saturday 14 November: Sonny Rollins (Barbican - see video below), Tomasz Stanko Quintet (QEH), Kurt Elling (Pizza Express Jazz Club), Zoe Rahman (Red Hedgehog).
Sunday 15 November: Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Lenny White (Barbican), Robert Glasper and Bilal plus Stonephace (QEH), Gretchen Parlato (Pizza Express Jazz Club).
Monday 16 November: Branford Marsalis Quartet plus Robert Mitchell 3io (QEH), Marcus Roberts Trio (Wigmore Hall), Miguel Zenon (Ronnie Scott’s).
Tuesday 17 November: Carla Bley And The Lost Chords (QEH), Jim Hart’s Gemini (Vortex), Femi Temowo (606), Regina Carter (Ronnie Scott’s).
Wednesday 18 November: Blind Boys of Alabama plus Allen Toussaint (Barbican), John Surman (QEH), Stefano Bollani (Kings Place).
Thursday 19 November: Bill Frisell, Mike Gibbs and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (Barbican), Cleveland Watkiss At 50 (QEH), Nigel Kennedy (606), Joel Harrison (Vortex), Get The Blessing (Jazz Café).
Friday 20 November: Dave Holland Overtone Quartet (QEH), Madeleine Peyroux plus Gerald Clayton Trio (Royal Festival Hall), Charlie Hunter (Ronnie Scott’s), Polar Bear plus Zed-U and Troyka (Jazz Café), Led Bib (Vortex).
Saturday 21 November: Cleo Laine and John Dankworth (RFH), Tord Gustavsen Ensemble plus Jason Yarde and Andrew McCormack (QEH), Empirical (The Forge), Paula Rae Gibson midnight show (Vortex).
Sunday 22 November Marcus Miller Tutu Revisited featuring Christian Scott (Barbican), Tortoise (RFH), Roy Nathanson’s Sotto Voce featuring Napoleon Maddox (Vortex) and Julia Biel (Pizza Express Jazz Club)
For more go to londonjazzfestival.org.uk
Check out this clip of the amazing Sonny Rollins