Canary Wharf Jazz Festival 2014

London’s largest free jazz festival returns to Canary Wharf this August for three days of superb live music, as yet another fantastic line-up gets ready to take to the stage in one of London’s most striking settings, Canada Square Park. Now in its eighth year and firmly established as an important fixture on the UK’s jazz festival scene, the 2014 programme features headliners, the Andy Sheppard Quartet, Ciyo Brown’s – The Motown Sound and the Riot Jazz Brass Band.

The festival opens on the evening of Friday 15 August with one of the UK’s most internationally revered singers, ESKA who, before releasing her first solo EP, the stunningly original Gatekeeper at the end of last year, had built a reputation as a writer and performer via her collaborations with established musical legends, including Grace Jones and Bobby McFerrin. Friday evening’s headliners, Riot Jazz Brass Band will get the audience to their feet as this 9-piece band featuring trumpets, trombones, a Sousaphone, drums and an MC play their uniquely twisted mix of funk, soul, hip-hop and aggressive jazz.

Saturday’s programme opens with a set from the European buzz of 2013, Manchester’s GoGo Penguin. This brilliant, young piano trio’s skittering backbeats, telepathic interplay combined with a penchant for anthemic melody all make for a sound that is completely their own. Next is Zara McFarlane, whose 2011 debut album, Until Tomorrow, attracted rave reviews and a MOBO award nomination, heralding a major new talent in the world of British jazz. The atmospheric, beat driven sounds of composer/producer Joe Acheson’s Hidden Orchestra will follow, featuring special guest Phil Cardwell on trumpet. Hidden Orchestra’s music has been broadcast all over the world and been widely used on television, on everything from mainstream dramas through to Heston Blumenthal’s cookery shows and Match of the Day.
Saturday’s headline act, Ciyo Brown’s – The Motown Sound, featuring Gwyn Jay Allen and special guest James Morton on alto sax, will be a must-see for all fans of the ‘Motor City’ sound. Under the musical directorship of award-winning guitarist and composer, Ciyo Brown, the 9-pice band of musicians and singers promise to bring skill, drive and passion to the classic hits of the Motown era.

Sunday’s proceedings will start with the heavy, new funk sounds of Nostalgia 77 (aka Benedic Lamdin), whose superb fifth studio album, A Journey Too Far was released to great acclaim earlier this year. The Mercury Award-nominated and category-defying Polar Bear, led by drummer Sebastian Rochford follow. Polar Bear’s stellar line up features saxophonists Pete Wareham and Mark Lockheart, Tom Herbert on bass and electronic wizard/guitarist, Leafcutter John. The penultimate performance of this year’s festival will come from all-star band, Yiddish Twist Orchestra whose delirious mix of West Indian Calypso, mambo, surf guitar, classic Yiddish songs and English Beat rhythms pays homage to Willy Bergman, the unjustly forgotten bandleader of 1950s London who started ‘der shvitz’, later crossing the Atlantic, in diluted form, to become ‘the twist’.

The 2014 Canary Wharf Jazz Festival will close with a performance from the Andy Sheppard Quartet. One of Britain’s foremost tenor and soprano saxophonists, Andy Sheppard is a successful recording artist, bandleader and composer. He has recorded numerous albums and has worked with an astonishing range of musical partners, including the three great post-war bandleaders, Carla Bley, George Russell and Gil Evans in addition to running a vast range of his own bands and projects, including the spectacular Saxophone Massive, a project for 200 saxophonists of all ages and abilities.