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London Jazz Festival

Venue: Multiple
Town: London
Date: 13-22/11/14
Website: http://www.efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk/

You need only look at the programme to see that the EFG London Jazz Festival is not only one of the major events of the international Jazz calendar, but is one of the most diverse and engaging,. Ranging from major concerts at the Southbank Centre and at the Barbican, and club gigs at the Vortex, Ronnie Scott's, Pizza Express and many other venues, to free concerts, films, workshops, talks and discussions, there was more than enough for every taste and every pocket! Indeed, the avid jazz fan had to work hard to catch even a fraction of what was on offer; talk about spoilt for choice! With the active participation of Serious, Jazzwise Magazine and a range of other sponsors, jazz is being brought to a wide public, and especially to many young musicians. Add to that commissioning no less than 21 new jazz pieces to be premiered at the Festival, and it is clear that this is an event with its eye on the future of jazz, and on the cultivation of new generations of players and audiences. At the same time, the Festival was happy to celebrate the heritage of jazz in all its colours - in particular, Hard Bop and Soul Jazz at the Celebrating 75 years of Blue Note concert, and the celebration of John Stevens work as a UK pioneer of Free Jazz, both on Saturday 22nd November. Jazz as a global phenomenon was also recognised, with a series of events recording 20 Years of Freedom in South Africa through the music of Abdullah Ibrahim, the Blue Notes and Bheki Mseleku.

Here are just a few highlights:

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Snarky Puppy = Fun + k

There can be no greater symbol of the health of jazz in modern culture than the word-of-mouth success of the American funk/jazz/fusion collective Snarky Puppy. To sell out the Roundhouse a month in advance, to an audience of overwhelmingly under-40's, is a phenomenon for a jazz group. When a spare ticket was posted on e-bay days before the gig, there were a reported 1000 bids! All this for a band virtually unknown in Europe four years ago, with no backing of major promotional budgets, big record deals, and, indeed, then playing to quite modest audiences back home.

The lucky ones present at the Roundhouse on Tuesday 18th November knew they were in for a treat - and weren't disappointed:

For once, the warm-up band were just that; Banda Magda started proceedings with a determination to grab the audience's attention and get everyone moving. Fronted by Greek-born singer and accordionist Magda Giannikou, the band included some of her regular band and most of Snarky Puppy. By her second song, Magda had the crowd clapping and singing along to her catchy mix of latino rhythms and French lyrics; not bad for a Greek resident of New York! But that is all part of the Snarky Family - Banda Magda feature on two tracks of their last album, the Grammy-winning Family Dinner Vol. 1 - and underlines the group's ethos of collaboration, education and fostering global talent.

Snarky themselves roared on stage with a stomping version of Binky which kicked off an almost 2 hour romp of high energy funk, soul and jazz. From the start, the grooves were tight, the brass ensemble work crisp and emaculate, and the solos both inventive and exhilarating.

Second tune in, bassist and lead man Michael League introduced "the nearest we get to a ballad", Kite from the latest album We Like it Here - warning that, after that, they were going to play fast and loud and "make your ears bleed"! Certainly the solos on Kite were superb; Maz Maher's flugelhorn playing was beautifully soulful. But from then on, as promised, it was full-tilt boogie, with a set mainly featuring tunes from the current album. Chris McQueen's guitar featured on a couple of numbers, showing his ability to mix wailing rock style with subtle shades and improvisational fluency. His high-intensity playing, underscored by Snarky's thundering rhythm section helped to maintain energy levels throughout. Maz Maher and fellow trumpets Jay Jennings and Justin Stanton, plus sax-/flute-player Chris Bullock also injected further fuel into the mix with strong section playing, whilst adding great blowing solos, together with moments of latino bounce and occasional lyrical calm. Stanton also played mean keyboards, including a fiery synth solo on Lingus (as good as Cory Henry's solo on the album and DVD).

Two other stand-outs of the gig were the percussions section Nate Werth and Marcelo Woloski, and particularly drummer Larnell Lewis, who not only set a thunderous rhythm on the up-tempo numbers, but also showed great empathy in complementing each other. Their solos were tremendous - catch Larnell playing drums with his hand behind his back! - but when all three soloed together it was magic; like Santana's Soul Sacrifice on speed! Final mention should be made of lone Brit, Bill Laurance, whose keyboard skills are phenomenal - his piano solos were nothing short of virtuoso, ranging from classical to latin jazz in one continuous cascade of ideas.

No wonder the crowd called the band back for encores! And no wonder Snarky Puppy continue to sell out gigs in the UK.

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