The EFG London Jazz Festival has been produced by live entertainment company Serious since 1992 and the 2024 edition was as impressive as ever. Here are nine of the highlights, plus a heads up of where you can see these brilliant musicians again in the coming months. 1.
Persian Jazz Night, Rich Mix A sheer delight of the festival was an evening of jazz from Iran by the superb Arshid Azarine trio, followed by the Karaj Collective. Iranian-born Arshid Azarine is a brilliant pianist who expertly combines Persian traditional music and jazz, with some French classical influences. He was joined by the equally wonderful Habib Meftah on percussion and vocals and Hervé de Ratuld on bass.
Upcoming gigs for the trio include the Le Melville in Paris, on 9 January and 13 February 2025. Also a treat was hearing Kurdish singer Sahar Zibaei who joined the Karaj Collective. The band: guitarist Pouya Mahmoodi, percussionist Ali Nourbakhsh and bassist Saleh Zarei Lal Abadi presented new compositions, improvisation and original fusion music, combining Persian traditional music with jazz and blues.
2.Robert Glasper, Koko Blue Note Records’ artist Robert Glasper is a jazz pianist with a knack for mellow, harmonically complex compositions that also reveal a subtle hip-hop influence. The Houston native regularly tops Billboard ’s Jazz Albums chart with his highly collaborative recordings so it’s no surprise that this was one of the most highly anticipated gigs of the festival.
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