Classical and Jazz: Preview - London Jazz Festival from November 11-20
Published: 29 September, 2011
by SEBASTIAN TAYLOR
ANNIVERSARIES galore are being celebrated at the 10th London Jazz Festival (LJF) in November, involving 280 concerts spread over 10 days in more than 50 venues.
Undoubtedly a key LJF highlight will be the celebration of Louis Armstrong’s 110th birthday with the screening of a silent film, Louis, about New Orleans, accompanied by an ensemble led by Wynston Marsalis playing music newly written by Marsalis.
Anniversaries of three other trumpeters are also being marked.
The actual birthday of Buck Clayton on November 12, 1911, is being celebrated exactly 100 years later by the Buck Clayton Legacy Band plus films and audio clips of Count Basie’s star trumpeter, arranger and bandleader.
Equally enthralling will be a concert to mark the 100th birthday of Royal Eldridge together with the 30th anniversary of the death of Charlie Shavers, two of the most exciting trumpet players of the swing era.
Famously, Eldridge and Shavers went head-to-head on The Trumpet Battle, an LP recorded in 1952, and the splendid recording will be recreated by fiery trumpet pyrotechnics at the concert.
More than a dozen jazz musicians will be playing at concerts during the festival to mark the 50th year of the iconic record label, Impulse!
Three US musicians – pianist McCoy Tyner, singer Jose James and saxophonist Chris Potter – will revisit the classic John Coltrane/Johnny Harman collaboration in 1963.
Other musicians giving Impulse! birthday concerts include Archie Shepp, Joachim Kuhn, Steve Coleman, Bill Frisell and Abdullah Ibrahim.
Opening the festival on Friday November 11 is Jazz Voice, celebrating a century of songs at the Barbican.
Other festival venues include Charlie Wright’s, The Forge, Green Man, Green Note, Jazz Café, The Oxford, Lauderdale House, Union Chapel and Wigmore Hall
• The London Jazz Festival runs from November 11-20. See www.londonjazzfestival.org.uk for full details.