London Jazz Festival continues to reflect the breadth and diversity of the capital with a phenomenal range of concerts taking place all over the city. The world's finest musicians join the Festival for an unbeatable line-up. A mix of premieres, commissions, one-off collaborations, talks, workshops, family events and an exceptional Jazz for Free programme make up London's biggest city-wide music festival and the UK's largest celebration of jazz.

London Jazz Festival

Resounding success for 2011 London Jazz Festival

"London Jazz Festival, that glorious time of year when more live improvised music can be heard in the bars, clubs and concert halls of the capital than the rest of the year put together. " The Independent

"A ramshackle Old Street basement blazing with incandescent noise comes right after an evening of elegant grand-piano jazz around the corner at the Barbican. Such behaviour is par for the course at the 30-gigs-per-night London jazz festival. It's like iPod-shuffling with live music, only governed by the nimbleness of your legs rather than your thumbs." The Guardian

The resounding success of this year's London Jazz Festival, produced by Serious, in association with BBC Radio 3 was reflected by busy shows, delighted artists, happy audiences and a multitude of 4 and 5 star reviews.

For the past 10 days the spirit of jazz has permeated the capital, which has welcomed a multitude of world-class artists with open arms. International stars and fresh new talent from the UK's own burgeoning scene have performed across London in a variety of venues ranging from the concert hall to club.

The Festival has presented performances from over 700 artists, totalling 280 gigs across 62 performance spaces and over 600 hours of music. Free events accounted for around quarter of the total programme, enabling huge numbers to enjoy the outstanding selection of events on offer.

Southbank Centre, Barbican and Kings Place drew sell-out audiences across the 10 days. Clubs also experienced fantastic turn-outs.

Festival on the Move provided a number of Festival highlights including Arun Ghosh, Swedish folk-jazz singer Emilia Mårtensson and the world’s smallest brass band from the Netherlands, De Jongens Driest.

Commissions, collaborations, premieres and residencies are at the heart of the Festival. This year specially conceived events included the opening night celebration Jazz Voice*, conducted and arranged by Guy Barker, and hosted by comedienne Victoria Wood, as part of the EFG International Excellence Series. This year the concert was broadcast live for the first time on BBC Radio 3.

"It would be difficult to imagine a more impressive curtain-raiser to the London Jazz Festival than Jazz Voice, and this year's vintage was the finest yet." The Arts Desk

The Festival marked a number of significant anniversaries. In celebration of what would have been Louis Armstrong's 110th birthday, the Festival hosted the European premiere of Louis - a new silent film, directed by Dan Pritzker, which offered a Charlie Chaplin-inspired re-imagining of a young Louis Armstrong, with a score performed live to picture.

"Wynton Marsalis's live score, played by a storming group of his long-time associates and local players, and the awesome classical pianist Cecile Licad, rightly had the crowd cheering as the credits rolled." **** Guardian

This Festival looked to the roots of jazz and American music, through concerts from Bill Frisell, the Soul Rebels Brass Band, Regina Carter and four sold-out shows at the Royal Festival Hall from Alison Krauss & Union Station*:

“Top-class musicianship, Krauss and Union Station put on one of the most quietly accomplished performances.” ***** The Telegraph

European pianists of extreme talent appeared throughout the Festival; Stefano Bollani in duet with Martial Solal*, Marcin Wasilewski, Jef Neve, [em] and Rusconi, to name but a few:

“Piano duos are rare in contemporary jazz but the unlikely pairing of a dashing young Italian discovery and wise old French-Algerian master worked a treat here. Their mutual respect was there for all to see.” Evening Standard

Hot on the heels of the sold-out Bad Plus residency last year, the Festival returned to Kings Place with performances from multiple artists; Nik Bartsch, Gretchen Parlato, Robert Glasper, Beats & Pieces and Fringe Magnetic.

The Festival once again tipped its hat to the masters of the music. This year’s list of jazz luminaries included McCoy Tyner, Archie Shepp and Roy Haynes, plus Ornette Coleman and Hermeto Pascoal, who played to packed houses at the Royal Festival Hall and Barbican last night, bringing the Festival to a triumphant close.

This year's programme featured a number of international partnerships including a programme of French and Icelandic music, plus a strong Scottish strand on the Festival’s closing weekend. The British Council’s support enabled more international festival organisations and producers to visit the London Jazz Festival than ever before, to see and hear the extraordinarily diverse range of British jazz at close quarters, and encourage the international mobility of music worldwide. The PRS for Music Foundation and Musicians’ Union underpinned British work across the Festival.

The Festival took jazz to Shoreditch, with performances from former EST linchpin Magnus Ostrom and trioVD at The CAMP, Robert Glasper Experiment at a packed out XOYO.

"There aren't too many pianists who excite jazz aficionados and hip-hop fans in equal measure. Robert Glasper is perhaps the prime example of this blurring at the edges." The Arts Desk

Clubs like Ronnie Scott's, Dean Street Pizza Express, the 606 and The Vortex remained integral to the Festival programme, as did venues that appear less frequently in London jazz gig guides, such as Bishopsgate Institute, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Academy of Arts and Blackheath Halls.

The Festival opened its doors on the music with its far-reaching Learning & Participation programme, working with musicians who are exceptional performers and dedicated music educators. Highlights included a Freestage performance by the East London Creative Jazz Orchestra - the culmination of two days of workshops with Gretchen Parlato in partnership with Barbican Creative Learning, - Soweto Kinch working with young musicians from Bromley MyTime’s ArtsTrain, Nik Bartsch leading a workshop with students of Trinity Laban, following his performance at Kings Place and Phronesis collaborating with musicians from Soundbank in partnership with Southbank Centre.

A number of aspiring jazz journalists learnt tricks of the trade on The Write Stuff course – now in its ninth year - in partnership with Jazzwise Magazine. Serious’ consortium for 17-25 year olds, Young & Serious, curated a Freestage concert at Southbank Centre, and were active commentators/reviewers of performances throughout the Festival.

Through its subsidised ticket programme, the New Audiences initiative gave the opportunity to over 200 young people from schools and community groups across London to enjoy concerts by the Soul Rebels Brass Band and the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra.
For Festival goers more generally there were plenty of opportunities to get more involved and learn about the music, from the popular free pre-concert talk series, Hear Me Talkin’ To Ya, through to workshops and masterclasses with artists including Chris Potter, Robert Glasper, Arun Ghosh and Gwyneth Herbert. For the early starters, the Festival’s Jazz For Toddlers series returned once again, with a string of sold-out improvisation workshops for 2-5 year olds, led by Abram Wilson. Stu Brown provided entertainment for the whole family with his special afternoon matinee.

Thanks to the ongoing partnership with BBC Radio 3, the Festival reaches national and world-wide audiences through over 40 hours of exclusive concert broadcasts on air and through expanded online activity that enables audiences to interact with the Festival, live and direct. The Festival extends its warm thanks to its many partners and supporters, without whom the event would not be possible, including Arts Council England, EFG International, DECCA, British Council, Jazzwise and Havana Club.