Joshua Redman, Emma Rawicz and Nikki Iles among this year’s highlights at “richly layered” EFG London Jazz Festival

There are very few festivals on the planet as action-packed as the EFG London Jazz Festival (LJF). The sheer amount of geographically dispersed, city-wide venues involved, from major concert halls through to musician-run nights, means making some tough choices about what to see. It’s a festival that makes you feel you could be missing out because you can’t be in two or more places at the same time.

As this year’s 31st edition was getting underway with its glitzy opening gala Jazz Voice at the Barbican, so too a less common artistic alliance between jazz and dance was taking place just a stone’s throw away at Shoreditch Town Hall. The Covid-delayed premiere of Gary Crosby’s Nu Civilization Orchestra’s recreation of Charles Mingus’ momentous album The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady was originally intended by the composer as an extended work for ballet. Hence bandleader-pianist Peter Edwards, who’d transcribed the entire work, had the good idea to join forces with contemporary dance troupe Clod Ensemble. The solo and ensemble mix (as directed by Mingus via the titles) of improv and choreography proved an expressive limb-contorting spectacle, lending itself well to the graceful rhythmic propulsion of Mingus’ masterpiece. But it was let down by a crowd-pleasing ‘immersive’ element in which punters were invited to dance with the pros. All well and good but not when it’s at the expense of the main event with the orchestra at times relegated to the role of functional dance-band; that aside a few individual contributions particularly from the young altoist Donovan Haffner managed to stand out.

Over at the Barbican Freestage, the Melbourne Jazz Festival hosted bands that highlighted the diversity of the scene from down under: trio Brekky Boy echoed bands such as Tigran’s trio and Rymden and whipped up a hip hop-induced storm amid a cool jazztronica-like ambience, while Zela Margasson trio’s low-key, more traditional yet Armenian folk-influenced setup, was also impressive. On the Irish jazz Freestage, the fine RBG Trio featured saxophonist Meilana Gillard’s no-nonsense tough tenor horn.

Makaya McCraven and band - Photo courtesy Roger Thomas

On the big stage the innovative young Chicagoan drummer-of-the-moment Makaya McCraven’s group had hired the London Contemporary Orchestra for a rereading of In These Times. The one-dimensional Kamasi Washington-ish wide-screen string arrangements however seemed to tame rather than inspire the band’s instinct although McCraven’s imposing killer grooves and Joel Ross’ energetic vibes solos still had moments to savour. On the other hand over in Soho at Pizza Express Jazz Club, the superb veteran drummer Billy Drummond’s trio played a cracking set entirely free of gimmicks. Though firmly tied to the jazz lineage, they demonstrated how ‘invention’ isn’t just something contemporary trendsetters do. Leader Drummond paid tribute to recently departed ex-employer Carla Bley with a soulful rendition of her ‘Valse Sinistre’ and the outstanding Immanuel Wilkins pianist Micah Thomas and bassist John Hebert’s solos were loaded with unexpected twists and turns.

Joshua Redman, in a UK live premiere of Where are We (his No.1 Jazzwise Album of 2023), wrapped his curling, singing sax lines around a seductive vocal by Gabrielle Cavassa – think Betty Carter crossed with Bobbie Gentry – on the Barbican stage. Although his rookie touring quartet was just that, the singer and saxman’s exquisite rapport proved mesmerising. Opening at Cadogan Hall for trumpeter Avishai Cohen, the excellent Devon-born saxophonist Emma Rawicz’s quartet engaged with fiery latin post-bop/fusion styles even if microphones weren’t close enough to reveal her full-bodied sound. Cohen, who led last year’s successful Festival concert homage to Tomasz Stanko, borrowed a piece of the Polish maestro’s dark soul and mixed in some Ravel and Radiohead too, in an impromptu set of originals with compelling narratives rehearsed for the first time only the day before.

At the same venue, a contrastingly restful-sounding quartet the French-Malian quartet Sissoko, Segal, Peirani and Parisien were all-seated as they performed virtuosic folk-dance-like instrumentals that dazzled for sheer musicianship, but considering the high-level of personnel, fell short on sophisticated jazz dialogue. For all his MacArthurs and compositional accolades to date, Tyshawn Sorey and his trio’s genre-ripping take on the modern jazz songbook proved one of the festival’s highlights at Kings Place. Radical yet not abstracted from traditional sources, Sorey needed just the most basic of kits to register some breath-taking beat sonics while another unique voice, the equally phenomenal pianist Aaron Diehl looked to Ahmad Jamal for inspiration and at times seemed to inconceivably join the worlds of Cecil Taylor and Oscar Peterson.

Following the postponement of his 85th birthday concert last year the legendary ex-Miles Davis Quintet bassist Ron Carter’s Foursight Quartet, made it back with a vengeance. Immaculately garbed in MJQ-type attire, they hail from a bygone era in which jazz was steeped in cool transparency and elegance and although this time some of the chamber jazz delicacy was partially obscured by bad microphone placements. The Miles thread continued with a reimagining of Bitches Brew by London Brew. While guitarist Dave Okumu, dual drummers and bassist Tom Herbert laid on some serious Bitches-type grooves, much was lost in a fog of analogue keys ambience and Theon Cross’ over-large tuba sound, with little sign of the legendary album’s collective improv spirit and a miscast sax star Nubya Garcia soloing in another jazz stratosphere.

London Brew - Photo by Mark Allen

There was no escaping the Miles connection on the last night either, as the recently departed Wayne Shorter’s Symphonic Music was celebrated in a concert designed by the man himself for what would have been his 90th birthday. A daring set as only ‘Mr Gone’ would have had it, the Philharmonia Orchestra led by Clark Rundell performed the less obvious compositions from Shorter’s post-1980’s discography and two extended choral orchestral suites: Iphigenia and Gaia with Esperanza Spalding on vocals. Ex-quartet members John Patitucci and Danilo Pérez were present and other stellar guests – Terri Lyne Carrington and Ravi Coltrane. That such a high-calibre quartet felt underused was a source of frustration. For much of the evening though, we heard a commanding set of shape-shifting symphonic pieces with Shorter’s enigmatic yet strong melodic signature in evidence, sometimes sounding like they could have been soundtracks to one of Shorter’s beloved sci-fi movies. Earlier in the evening, the unassuming British pianist-composer Nikki Iles at the Cadogan Hall, revealed her discerning craftsmanship and flair for orchestral writing for Germany’s NDR Bigband, at the end of her 2023 stint as their composer-in-residence. As with her primary role models Duke, Gil and Mike Gibbs, Iles’ sinuous, kaleidoscopic arrangements drew the best from the soloists, including Brits among them trumpeter Percy Pursglove and a seldom heard alto-blowing Julian Siegel. The event’s richly-layered programming ensured there was more than one way for this year’s London Jazz Festival to end on a high note.