THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The EFG London Jazz Festival is 10 days of heaven for aficionados of ‘America’s only true art form’. Comprising live performances, unique collaborations, old friends, established stars, new discoveries and exclusive new commissions,
The festival runs from November 10 to 19, 2023. Celebrating its 31st anniversary, it takes place in more than 70 storied London venues from large concert halls such as the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall to smaller but equally famous jazz clubs like Ronnie Scott's, the Pizza Express Jazz Club and the Vortex, as well as newer. Newer venues such as World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens, next door to the US Embassy in Nine Elms.
The closing event of this year’s festival features the music of English composer Will Todd. The concert will include Todd’s arrangement of ‘Amazing Grace’, which was performed at President Obama's Inauguration Day prayer service in 2013 and in the BBC’s Nelson Mandela Thanksgiving Service. Also featured will be Todd’s Mass in Blue - a groundbreaking upbeat jazz setting of the Catholic Latin Mass which is credited with bringing jazz to choirs - and the shorter Jazz Missa Brevis.
Performing it will be the highly regarded Civil Service Choir who will be joined by a cast of top jazz musicians. Among them are Italian soprano Francesca Confortini, pianist Rob Barron, Tommy Andrews on saxophone, and the Tom Green Jazz Orchestra. Will Todd himself will appear, talking about his music. An accomplished pianist, Todd also performs regularly with others in his own works. His work may also be familiar from the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, seen by a TV audience of 45 million.
