London Jazz Festival

The London Jazz Festival is the capital's biggest pan-city music festival, taking place annually in November. The Festival has long been acclaimed for showcasing a heady mix of talent from around the world. Widely acknowledged for delivering world-class artists and emerging stars, the Festival continues to take jazz to a massive audience, in one of UK's landmark music events.

Events include:

Jazz On 3 Launch
9 November, Ronnie Scott's
Jazz on 3's Jez Nelson hosts a live broadcast from Ronnie Scott's, featuring interviews and short sets from Festival artists.

Jazz Voice: Celebrating A Century Of Song
9 November, Barbican
Featuring Imelda May, Patti Austin, Juliet Roberts, Brendan Reilly, Claire Martin, Gwyneth Herbet, Junior Giscombe, Natalie Duncan and Patti Austin.
The Festival's signature opening-night gala returns once again with its epoch-spanning celebration of singing and song. The list of past guests stretches from Georgie Fame, Natalie Merchant, Kurt Elling and Sheila Jordan, through to singer-of-the moment Gregory Porter and pop figures Paloma Faith and The Noisettes' Shingai Shoniwa. Arranged, scored and conducted by Guy Barker, this year's extravaganza will see a brand new clutch of singers and a 40-piece orchestra mark the major anniversaries, birthdays and milestones that link the decades stretching back from 2012.

Melody Gardot + Luisa Sobral
10 November, Barbican
Melody Gardot has mastered the art of capturing mood and emotion. Her hauntingly smooth voice, drenched in the mellow blues, shows an expressive candor reminiscent of greats like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and Nina Simone. Building on the success of her two best-selling albums Worrisome Heart and My One And Only Thrill, Gardot performs from her new album The Absence at this year's Festival, weaving a seductive sound of her own.

Jazz For Toddlers With Orphy Robinson
14 November, Artsdepot
To prove you are never too young to give jazz a try, join vibraphonist Orphy Robinson and early years specialist Hopal Romans at our Jazz for Toddlers workshops for 2–5 year olds, who must be accompanied by parents/carers. Expect lots of fun, music and movement, plus some ideas to take away with you and try at home.

Brad Mehldau Trio
14 November, Barbican
Performing internationally since the mid-1990s, Mehldau is renowned for his distinctive combination of jazz standards and originals with compositions by Nirvana, Radiohead and Nick Drake. He's worked with everyone from Willie Nelson to Charlie Haden, and is a renowned solo performer, but is perhaps at his finest when leading his trio, featuring Jeff Ballard and Larry Grenadier. They return to the Festival performing from their latest Nonesuch album Where Do You Start.

Sonny Rollins
16 November, Barbican
He'd worked with Miles Davis and Bud Powell before he turned 20. And, with Coleman Hawkins as his idol and Thelonious Monk as his mentor, Theodore Walter, Rollins went on to establish himself as one of the finest tenor saxophone players of all time. A near-legendary performance at the 2010 London Jazz Festival proved that he still plays with the imagination and vitality that helped turn jazz on its head in the 1950s and 1960s.

See official website for the full schedule.