The lovely Cherise Adams-Burnett interviewed at the EFG London Jazz Festival launch at the May Fair Hotel, London on September 17th 2018.
The EFG London Jazz Festival opens on 16 November with its signature glittering gala performance, Jazz Voice, where Guy Barker’s 42-piece orchestra teams up with some of today’s most individual vocalists in a spectacular celebration of song, hosted by Jumoké Fashola. This year’s line-up includes Laila Biali, Allan Harris, Deva Mahal, Anthony Strong, Zara McFarlane and Lisa Stansfield, with further names to be announced.
Jazz giants this year include Archie Shepp and Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya and there is a special concert, The Boy’s Doin’ It, in celebration of the life and music of Hugh Masekela. The list of international stars continues with Bill Frisell, Lea DeLaria, Madeleine Peyroux, Dave Douglas, Avishai Cohen, Myra Melford, Bugge Wesseltoft, Kandace Springs, Ethan Iverson, Melody Gardot, Tord Gustavsen, Youn Sun Nah and a rare opportunity to see Hollywood star Jeff Goldblum on piano, with his band, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra.
Concerts created for the festival include Windrush: A Celebration, presented by poet/musician Anthony Joseph. featuring Mighty Sparrow, Calypso Rose and Brother Resistance and Orphy Robinson’s Astral Weeks, featuring Zara McFarlane and Sarah Jane Morris, a reinterpretation of Van Morrison’s seminal album of 50 years ago.
There is much within the festival that reflects the global language of jazz and music that reacts to our changing world: Iraqi/American trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s Rivers of Sound Orchestra comes to the UK for the first time, exploring the juncture between jazz and the Middle East; Ian Shaw’s concert with the Citizens of the World Choir brings together a group of refugees, asylum seekers and campaigners.
British talent is celebrated: saxophonist and leading force in the new wave of UK jazz, Nubya Garcia, performs a double headliner with drummer Makaya McCraven, a key new figure in the Chicago jazz scene and rising stars, Camilla George and Sarah Tandy, perform together and, for a perfect showcase of the next generation of British jazz, the festival will host the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2018 Final.
The EFG London Jazz Festival brings together musicians from across the planet, aiming to promote the love of jazz and reach as wide an audience as possible. This inclusivity is reflected in the Festival’s digital marketing with #WeAreJazz, which allows festival-goers to follow news and share memories, promoting diversity and the engagement with jazz by the broadest of audiences.
Now in its 26th year it remains the capital’s largest city-wide festival, with over 2,000 artists in more than 325 performances in concert halls, clubs, at family events, free concerts, films and talks, in over 70 venues across London.
