London jazz festival – review

Various venues

The fight through teeming crowds to get to Herbie Hancock's Royal Festival Hall show suggested that the 2010 London jazz festival was breaking all records – until I pondered whether the Lord Mayor's South Bank fireworks might have a bearing on it. Just the same, the improbably 70-year-old Hancock unleashed his own fireworks in a two-and-a-half-hour single set on Saturday.

Hancock brought a sextet to cover a world-pop repertoire that had been created on his Imagine Project album by dozens of musicians in several countries. But his violinist-vocalist Kristina Train, soul singer and keyboardist Greg Phillinganes, and guitarist Lionel Loueke generally made a better and jazzier job of this radio-friendly material than the more illustrious performers did on the record. By unleashing some blazing piano improvisations, the maestro also rammed home the idea that he wouldn't surrender his relish for cliff-hanging surprises, either – and he casually slid in timeless hits such as Watermelon Man and Cantaloupe Island, as well.

Hancock's first improvisation swelled from a choppy electric piano intro to a tumultuous exchange with drummer Trevor Lawrence Jr, the second was mischievously slipped between a lyrical, synth-aided account of 'Round Midnight for Loueke's guitar and a medley of The Times They Are a-Changin' and Sam Cooke's A Change Is Gonna Come; Train lent a whimsical, country-inflected ambiguity to the first, and Phillinganes a sermonising incandescence to the latter. 

The previous night at the Barbican, Guy Barker arranged and directed operations for nine very different singers – from the 16-year-old rising star Nikki Yanofsky to the 67-year-old Georgie Fame – for the festival-fanfare Jazz Voice. Surprise guest Paloma Faith, a gifted reinventer of classic torch-songs, was the most theatrically charismatic presence of the night, the subtle, focused and flawlessly musical Gretchen Parlato the most original, and Noel McKoy, China Moses and expat American Charlie Wood the most convincing soul singers.

Fame's bebop soliloquy on Everything Happens to Me, and an Alan Barnes tour de force on Artie Shaw's 1940 clarinet concerto made the buffs whoop, but Barker's bespoke band played with their usual assurance, even if Motown soul grooves still slightly fox them. A late-night live radio broadcast from Ronnie Scott's also featured Gretchen Parlato, but was dominated by the breathtaking rhythmic hipness of saxophonist Chris Potter's band, and the solo-sax acrobatics of Colin Stetson, who managed to make abrasive free-improv effects and warped pop-song melodies meet.

Jazz Voice is on Performance on 3 at 7pm on 15 November. Jazz on 3 from Ronnie Scott's is at bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00vrbbw.

Contributor

John Fordham

The GuardianTramp

Related Content

Article image
London jazz festival: Jazz Voice – review

Featuring artists not normally thought of as jazzy, this inspiring night saw a quiveringly spiritual Imelda May and a smash performance from Boy George, writes Caroline Sullivan

Caroline Sullivan

12, Nov, 2012 @1:40 PM

Article image
Hugh Masekela/EFG London Jazz festival – review

The opening day of the London jazz festival saw Hugh Masekela turn his personal jazz story into a universal one at an entrancing show, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

17, Nov, 2013 @5:31 PM

Article image
London jazz festival: Ambrose Akinmusire/Robert Glasper – review

At Ronnie Scott's the phenomenal young trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire unleashed a torrent of jazz that sounded like a fanfare for the whole 10-day extravaganza, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

11, Nov, 2012 @5:38 PM

Article image
Garbarek/Hilliard/Marsalis/Ibrahim review – jazz masters shine
Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble were energising, Branford Marsalis came out swinging and South Africa’s Abdullah Ibrahim delivered echoes of Duke Ellington, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

16, Nov, 2014 @1:23 PM

Article image
London jazz festival review – a dazzling display all across the musical spectrum
The opening weekend of the festival featured a virtuosic set from Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau, an audiovisual tribute to comics by Art Spiegelman and Silent Six, plus the poised 13-year-old piano prodigy Joey Alexander

John Fordham

13, Nov, 2016 @3:38 PM

Article image
Sir John Dankworth & Dame Cleo Laine/London Jazz festival | Jazz review
Various venues
A convalescing John Dankworth managed one moving tune from his wheelchair, while his family members stylishly held the fort, writes John Fordham

John Fordham

22, Nov, 2009 @9:45 PM

Article image
London jazz festival 2012: from Herbie Hancock and Esperanza Spalding to John Paul Jones – what to see

The London jazz festival starts on Friday 9 November, and here are our critics' picks of what to see – plus suggestions from performers including Robert Glasper and Gwyneth Herbert

John Fordham, John L Walters, John Lewis

07, Nov, 2012 @12:56 PM

Jazz Voice – review
Jazz Voice was a mainstream affair that gave priority to 100 years of classic songcraft, writes Caroline Sullivan

Caroline Sullivan

13, Nov, 2011 @5:31 PM

Article image
Musical bliss: the London jazz festival pays tribute to Alice and John Coltrane
Ten years after her death, the LJF climaxed with concerts recreating the ecstatic devotional music heard in Alice Coltrane’s ashram, and the cosmic free jazz of her saxophonist husband

John Lewis

19, Nov, 2017 @3:48 PM

Article image
Herbie Hancock – review

Watching Herbie Hancock tinker around on stage for two hours is still an utter delight, writes John Lewis

John Lewis

13, Nov, 2012 @1:35 PM