EFG London Jazz Festival reveal more new names for 2025.
Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Promoters Serious have announced more artists for the 2025 EFG London Jazz Festival, among them Bill Frisell, Hermeto Pascoal, Jasmine Myra, Michael Wollny, Marius Neset, Emma-Jean Thackray, Tortoise.
We have received the following press release;
SERIOUS
Announce More Artists For
EFG LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL 2025
New names include Tortoise, Adekunle Gold, The Weather Station, Joan As Police Woman and Bill Frisell Trio
aja monet announced as 2025 Artist in Residence at the Barbican
14-23 November 2025
The global celebration of music, EFG London Jazz Festival, is sharing the next raft of names for its 33rd edition which takes place from 14-23 November. For 10 days and nights musicians from all over the world will come together in London to perform boundary-pushing music that showcases jazz and its influence across different genres and cultures.
EFG London Jazz Festival producers Serious and the Barbican are excited to announce that acclaimed poet, activist and performer aja monet will be the Artist in Residence at the Barbican for the 2025 festival. As part of the residency, aja monet will lead a series of activities, including a live reading and Q&A session, and a workshop with the Barbican Young Poets, offering a unique opportunity for emerging voices to learn from her powerful, politically engaged practice. The residency will culminate in a special performance at the Main Hall on Friday, 14 November, as aja monet will curate a night to perform with special guests to open the festival.
Post-rockers with serious jazz chops, Tortoise recently returned with their first new music in almost a decade via Chicago imprint International Anthem. Formed in 1990 in the Windy City, they were initially hailed as pace-setters of the then-emerging, so-called “post-rock” sound. Releasing just seven albums since then — including classics like 1996’s Millions Now Living Will Never Die, 1998’s TNT, and 2001’s Standards —Tortoise has steadily and intuitively evolved across its life, creating genreless music that is as timeless as it is ahead of the curve. They appear at the Barbican on Saturday, 22 November as part of EFG London Jazz Festival for a rare UK appearance. Opening the night will be LA-based duo of synthesist Jeremiah Chiu and violist Marta Sofia Honer.
Closing the festival at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, 23 November is Adekunle Gold; a Nigerian born and bred singer-songwriter. He gained recognition from his very first single ‘Sade’, a cover of One Direction’s ‘Story Of My Life’ and has now released five albums: ‘Gold’ (debuting at #7 on the Billboard World Albums Chart), ‘About 30’ (shortlisted for the GRAMMY® Best World Album), ‘Afro Pop Vol 1’, ‘Catch Me If You Can’ and ‘Tequila Ever After’ . Adekunle Gold has amassed over 2.5 Billion career streams with hits like ‘Party No Dey Stop’ and ‘High’. For this one-off appearance, Adekunle Gold and his band will be joined by the Guildhall Session Orchestra.
Iconic Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist, Hermeto Pascoal, once dubbed by Miles Davis as “the most impressive musician in the world,” embarks on his final UK show at the age of 88 at the Barbican on Sunday, 16 November. Hermeto Pascoal is globally recognised for pioneering groups like Quarteto Novo and his own Grupo. The current Grupo lineup includes Itiberê Zwarg (bass), Jota P. (saxophones and flutes), Fabio Pascoal (percussion), André Marques (piano), and Ajurinã Zwarg (drums). Alongside bandleader Hermeto Pascoal, their performances are indescribable and unforgettable sensory experiences.
Closing the festival on Sunday, 23 November at the Barbican is a celebration of Japanese Jazz. Akiko Yano will open the event with a solo piano set, followed by a quintet made up of celebrated master musicians rarely seen in the UK; Kosuke Mine (tenor sax), Fumio Itabashi (piano), Takeo Moriyama (drums), Takashi Sugawa (bass) and Miyuki Moriya (alto sax). Expect deep grooves and a musical conversation decades in the making. Much like the vaunted BBE ‘J Jazz’ releases on which many of these artists feature, this is music for serious jazz lovers and curious ears alike.
Saxophonist, composer and band leader, Jasmine Myra, brings an electrifying show to Hackney Church on Tuesday, 18 November as she performs her latest album ‘Rising’ live with strings as a UK exclusive. Elevating, uplifting and beautifully arranged. Jasmine Myra’s sophomore album builds on the success of her breakthrough album ‘Horizons’, released via influential imprint Gondwana, to deliver a major statement from one of UK Jazz’s rising stars.
The Bill Frisell Trio, featuring bassist Thomas Morgan and Rudy Royston on drums, is musically nimble enough to go anywhere with Frisell in the most spontaneous manner. They have a command of the sizable oeuvre of Frisell compositions, as well as the popular, folk and standard songs that Bill enjoys interpreting on an ongoing basis. The trio’s method is interactive, conversational and ready to groove at any moment, yielding fresh and surprising performances at every stop along the way. Their next stop is at Cadogan Hall on 21 Friday, November.
Highly acclaimed American songwriter Joan As Police Woman returns to perform music from across her career alongside music from her latest album Lemons, Limes & Orchids, on Saturday, 15 November at EartH Theatre in Dalston. Made with the late Afrobeat pioneer Tony Allen and multi-disciplinary artist Dave Okumu, the album sonically spans afrobeat, jazz, trip-hop, pop-rock and funk. Over the course of Joan’s illustrious 3-decade career, she’s made more than considerable strides building her pedigree as a live act performing with luminaries like Lou Reed, Damon Albarn, John Cale, Laurie Anderson, Sufjan Stevens, Anohni, Beck, Toshi Reagon and the late Jeff Buckley.
On Friday, 21 November at EartH Theatre in Dalston is The Weather Station, the project of Toronto based songwriter Tamara Lindeman, who will perform alongside a hand-picked string quartet from London in a one-off performance created exclusively for the festival. It promises to be a very special evening with music from her latest album Humanhood, acclaimed breakthrough Ignorance and much more beyond.
Ana Carla Maza is the new voice of Cuba - an emblem of the excellence and innovation of the emerging Cuban generation. With her unique blend of cello virtuosity, soulful vocals, and magnetic stage presence, she has become one of the most prominent Cuban singer-composers on the international scene. Accompanied by Milly Perez on piano and keyboards and Jay Kalo on drums and percussion, Ana Carla Maza returns to perform at Cadogan Hall as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival on Thursday, 20 November.
Pianist Michael Wollny and his trio with bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Eric Schaefer perform at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Sunday, 16 November. The three players are united by a musical vocabulary which is more or less inexhaustible, an outstanding sensitivity in their interplay and the ability to create new music of tremendous tension and dynamism in the moment. Opening is multi-award-winning British saxophonist and composer Emma Rawicz’s thrilling new project INKYRA.
After their performance at last year’s festival, Herbert & Momoko are back with their biggest show yet at Village Underground on Sunday, 23 November. A one-off live show from electronic music legend Matthew Herbert and Momoko Gill, it will be the first time to catch them live following their debut album ‘Clay’ which is coming out via Strut in June.
Known for his ecstatic compositional style, Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset takes a defiantly maximalist approach, placing his spontaneous horn playing alongside lush orchestral arrangements that sound like they’ve been written in watercolour. In this special concert for the festival at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on Thursday, 20 November, his relentless improvisations are accompanied by the pulse and precision of the London Sinfonietta.
Yorkshire’s Emma-Jean Thackray is at the forefront of a dance floor-adjacent take on jazz that is both addictive and endlessly inviting. She returned recently with her new album ‘Weirdo’ and will perform at KOKO in Camden on Thursday, 20 November as part of the festival.
EFG London Jazz Festival is a place to explore music and to celebrate the legacy and the future of an inspiring musical universe.
Serious would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to all of their partners, particularly the extended support of title sponsor EFG, which helps to support the breadth and diversity of the festival. The EFG London Jazz Festival is made possible thanks to the support of many key sponsors and funders, including Arts Council England, Serious Trust, BBC Radio 3, Champagne Thienot, Jazzwise Magazine and Jazz FM UK.
Hiromi’s Sonicwonder and Japanese Jazz are presented in partnership with the Japan Foundation. EFG London Jazz Festival would like to extend thanks to the DAIWA Foundation for their additional support to the Japanese Jazz event.
EFG London Jazz Festival Shows
12 - 14 Nov - aja monet (Artist in Residence) - Barbican
14 Nov - Jazz Voice - Royal Festival Hall
15 Nov - Joan As Police Woman - EartH Theatre
15 Nov - We Exist! The Dee Dee Bridgewater Quartet - Barbican
15 Nov - Tanita Tikaram - Royal Festival Hall
15 Nov - Chris Thile - Queen Elizabeth Hall
15 Nov - Kurt Elling and The Yellowjackets Celebrate Weather Report - Cadogan Hall
16 Nov - Hermeto Pascoal & Grupo - Barbican
16 Nov - Michael Wollny Trio + Emma Rawicz INKYRA - Queen Elizabeth Hall
16 Nov - Bilal - Village Underground
18 Nov - Jasmine Myra with Strings - Hackney Church
19 Nov - Makaya McCraven - KOKO
19 Nov - Rita Payés - Union Chapel
20 Nov - Ana Carla Maza - Cadogan Hall
20 Nov - Emma-Jean Thackray - KOKO
20 Nov - London Sinfonietta with Marius Neset - Queen Elizabeth Hall
20 Nov - Fergus McCreadie + Laura Jurd - Union Chapel
20 Nov - GeeJay - Islington Assembly Hall
21 Nov - The Weather Station with Strings - EartH Theatre
21 Nov - Bill Frisell Trio - Cadogan Hall
21 Nov - Hiromi’s Sonicwonder - Barbican
22 Nov - Tortoise + Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer - Barbican
22 Nov - Tune-Yards - Royal Festival Hall
23 Nov - Adekunle Gold with Guildhall Session Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall
23 Nov - Japanese Jazz - Barbican
23 Nov - Swingin’ With Strings - Cadogan Hall
23 Nov - Herbert & Momoko - Village Underground
Praise for 2024 edition
“beautifully curated” - The Guardian, ★★★★★
“The incredible musical jamboree of the EFG London Jazz Festival is our yearly reminder that the jazz scene has never been more various” - The Telegraph, ★★★★★
“exceptional” - The Times, ★★★★
“November can be a month to hunker down for the onset of winter and its weather, and where better to do that than in one of the myriad venues across the capital” - The Arts Desk, ★★★★
“there’s a noticeable buzz amongst the crowd amassing” - Clash
Serious is one of the UK’s leading producers of live jazz, international and new music through concerts, festivals, tours, digital shows, talent development schemes, learning and participation programmes, and bespoke events for all.
EFG International is a global private banking group offering private banking and asset management services and is headquartered in Zurich. EFG International’s group of private banking businesses operates in around 40 locations worldwide. Its registered shares (EFGN) are listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.