London Jazz Festival makes its way to East London

Carribean jazz: saxophonist and clarinetist Courtney Pine. Photograph: Gary Wallis

The London Jazz Festival returns this month, with East London well represented among the host venues for the nine day event.

This year’s festival concentrates on the past, present and future of jazz, with a day-long birthday celebration for jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter a particular highlight.

Acts on the bill include Snarky Puppy, Sons of Kemet, Nik Baertsch, Phronesis, Jaimeo Brown and Laura Jurd among many others.

The festival has been running since 1992, when it was founded by live international music producers Serious. Now in its 21st year, the festival has created 21 commissions from a dedicated fund, reflecting “the continuing vitality and diversity of jazz with composers at the top of their game”.

Amy Pearce, Associate Director at Serious, says: “There were a lot of conversations about what artists to include on this year’s line-up, but it was ultimately decided by those acts which would be enhanced the most by performing.”

In addition to live jazz performances, the festival will also include premières, talks and family events workshops – which are all part of the festival’s ethos of engaging with its audience and introducing people to jazz music.

“Audiences these days are very interactive – the relationship with the performer and the viewer nowadays is a close one, and we really want to embrace that.

“There are places like London XOYO and the Village Underground, which are not typically jazz venues, but these places are becoming more associated with the genre,” she added.

The London Jazz Festival takes place from 15-24 November