The Liverpool International Jazz Festival is coming back with a bang after a Covid-forced hiatus.
And with an eclectic mix of performers from across the globe, organisers say it’s the most multicultural year the event has ever seen.
The Liverpool International Jazz Festival (LIJF), organised and hosted by Liverpool Hope University, runs from Thursday 24th February to Sunday 27th February 2022.
The global pandemic meant the Festival wasn’t able to run in 2021.
But having first launched in 2013, the Jazz Festival has played host to some of the genre’s leading lights, including Courtney Pine, Denys Baptiste, Roller Trio, Impossible Gentlemen, Kit Downes, Led Bib, Philip Catherine, GoGo Penguin, Troyka, Neil Cowley Trio, and Dennis Rollins’ Velocity Trio.
One of this year’s Festival highlights - and perhaps the most accessible show for non-jazz aficionados - will see the Camilla George Band take to the stage on Saturday 26th Feb.
It’ll see Nigeria-born saxophonist Camilla George leading a funky, joyous celebration of the fusion between African and Western music.
And Festival organiser Neil Campbell, Venue Manager for Hope’s acclaimed Creative Campus, says audiences are in for a ethnically-diverse, mind-blowing treat.
He says: “We want to showcase innovative, instrumental jazz which crosses genre boundaries - but we also want to celebrate jazz that’s really accessible to audiences who might be new to this type of music.
“We’ve always tried to have a really international perspective to the artists we invite.
“And this year - more than any other year - the line-up for our long weekend is really diverse.
“That has almost happened accidentally. We’ve simply tried to pick the cream of the crop - and it just so happens that the most exciting performers in jazz right now come from a range of different cultural backgrounds.”
Tickets for the Liverpool International Jazz Festival are on sale now via Ticket Quarter or through the Capstone Theatre website.
Individual show tickets are priced from £15, while you can enjoy a full weekend pass for just £50 - which Festival organisers suggest might be the perfect Christmas stocking filler!
Meanwhile you can also get involved in various after parties and alternative gigs - which link to Liverpool’s grassroots jazz scene - after each performance throughout the festival. Details of those events will be announced nearer the time.
For the full festival line-up, keep reading:
DUOLOGY
Thursday, 24 February 2022, 7.30pm
Admission: £15
Tim Garland - saxophone
Jason Rebello - piano
Check them out on YouTube here.
Award-winning saxophonist Tim Garland has recorded and performed with scores of legendary jazz musicians including Chick Corea, Ronnie Scott, Ralph Towner, John Dankworth and Bill Bruford.
Keyboardist Jason Rebello’s work has traversed the worlds of jazz and rock music. His 1990 debut album A Clearer View was produced by saxophonist Wayne Shorter (Miles Davis/Weather Report) and he has since gone on to record and perform live with artists including Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and Chaka Kahn. His most notable and enduring collaborations have been with Sting and Jeff Beck. In over thirty years of friendship both artists have toured, shared and recorded music which has spurred their artistic growth as separate artists and as band members. Now they feel the time is right to focus this long-honed rapport in a series of duet recordings entitled DUOLOGY.
JOHN LAW’S CONGREGATION
Friday, 25 February 2022, 7.30pm
Admission: £15
John Law - piano, keyboards, electronics
James Mainwaring - saxophones, guitar, electronics
Ashley John Long - bass
Dave Hamblett - drums
Check them out on YouTube here
Combining intricate yet strong, highly melodic acoustic instrumental compositions accompanied by subtle, electronic ambient textures, John Law’s music treads a path between contemporary jazz, rock and his original classical background, to produce highly visual music, almost filmscapes, each one in its own particular emotional sound world.
John Law, 2020 winner of the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists, brings together, in his Congregation three outstanding young musicians from the world of contemporary jazz, each of them highly skilled in many musical genres.
James Mainwaring, from Mercury Prize jazz winners and European Jazz Competition finalists Roller Trio, plays both saxophone and guitar, and adds occasional subtle electronic textures to the music. Philharmonic Young Composer Ashley John Long is one of the most in-demand young bass players in the UK; alongside his varied work in jazz, from mainstream to freely improvised avant-garde playing, he is also a classical virtuoso, playing in many contemporary and baroque ensembles and is widely known as a contemporary classical composer. Drummer Dave Hamblett is the most in-demand and sought-after jazz drummer in the UK, a subtle powerhouse behind countless live British bands and recordings.
“One of the UK’s most imaginative and versatile pianists” - International Piano Magazine.
“So full of joy that it can renew your faith not just in jazz, but music itself.” - Phil Johnson,
Independent on Sunday 2011.
MILAPFEST AND LIJF PRESENTS ZOE AND IDRIS RAHMAN WITH SOHINI ALAM
Saturday, 26 February 2022, 2pm
Admission: £15
Zoe Rahman - piano
Sohini Alam - singer
Idris Rahman - clarinet/saxophone
Check out Zoe Rahman on YouTube here
Milapfest and LIJF presents a special collaboration between a jazz pianist/composer Zoe Rahman, her brother, Idris Rahman, on clarinet and British Bengali vocalist Sohini Alam, marking 50 years since the independence of Bangladesh.
Alongside new arrangements of music by Nazrul and Tagore, the musicians will also be performing music from Zoe’s Where Rivers Meet album, described in The Sunday Times as “a wholly original brand of Anglo-Asian music”.
A remarkable pianist by any standard” - The Observer (on Zoe Rahman)
“(Idris) Rahman is a revelation - a saxophonist of fascinating creative resource, capable of both raw power and involved delicacy” - The Wire
CAMILLA GEORGE BAND
Saturday, 26 February 2022, 7.30pm
Admission: £15
Camilla George - alto sax
Daniel Casimir - bass (upright and electric)
Sarah Tandy - piano and keys
Rod Youngs - drums
Check out Camilla George on YouTube here.
Born in Eket, Nigeria, Camilla George has been interested in music from an early age and particularly in the fusion of African and Western music. She grew up listening to Fela Kuti alongside Jackie McLean and Charlie Parker. She began playing the saxophone when she was 11 years old when she won a music contest and as a result won saxophone lessons.
Following studies in Jazz Performance at Trinity College of Music in 2014 she formed her own critically acclaimed band showcasing the stars of the new UK Jazz Scene and recorded three highly acclaimed albums including her debut, Isang, its follow up, The People Could Fly and her latest, Ibio Ibio, which is a tribute to Camilla’s tribe the Ibibio people of South Eastern Coastal Nigeria.
XHOSA COLE TRIO
Sunday, 27 February 2022, 7.30pm
Admission: £15
Xhosa Cole - saxophone
James Owston - bass
Jim Bashford - drums
Check out Xhosa Cole on YouTube here
Winner of the 2018 BBC Young Jazz Musician of the year, Xhosa Cole is an embodiment of the success of numerous community arts programmes in Birmingham including the Midland Youth Jazz Orchestra, Jazzlines Ensemble and Birmingham Music Service. Having grown up in Handsworth and first played the Tenor at Andy Hamilton’s Ladywood Community Music School, he’s now among a long legacy of Birmingham Saxophonists including Soweto Kinch and Shabaka Hutchings. Xhosa has performed twice at the BBC Proms, Composed music for the Ripieno Players, a Birmingham Based String Orchestra, recorded saxophone for Mahalia’s debut album Love and Compromise, completed a 22 date UK tour, all along side his studies as a scholar at Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Xhosa Also received the Parliamentary Jazz Award for ‘Best Newcomer’ in 2019 and Jazz FM’s ‘Breakthrough act of the Year’.
** Hope students and staff can attend the Festival - barring the Saxophone Day on Sun 27th Feb - for free! Free tickets are limited, so book early to avoid disappointment. The maximum number of free tickets per person is two tickets, and students and staff can bring with them a guest who does not need to be a Hope student or staff member. When booking at TicketQuarter add in the discount code hopefree to book your free tickets.