The improvisers
If jazz were recognised as just an attitude to music-making and not a style, then all the knee-jerk comments about whether it's in, out, young, old, accessible, insular, still hip or long dead would stop. The classical musicologist ET Ferand wrote in 1961: "There is scarcely a single musical technique or form of composition that did not originate in improvisatory practice." They call Sonny Rollins (Barbican, Nov 24) "the greatest living improviser", and if that's a big shout, it often makes sense in the face of the torrent of fresh melody that pours from his tenor sax when the mood is on him.
But if Rollins appears constantly to be editing a deluge of fragments of old and new songs as he goes, Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek (Barbican, Nov 18) can seem enraptured by the tone-colours of a single note. Garbarek brings a post-Coltrane sensibility to everything from medieval plainsong to Norwegian folk-melody, Indian music, and even a left-field kind of funk. The British sax star John Surman shares Garbarek's broad tastes and subtle restraint, and his work with the Trans4mation String Quartet (Wigmore Hall, Nov 24) shows how creatively classical techniques nowadays meet jazz-improv skills halfway. And though Charles Gayle (Baltic Restaurant, Southwark, Nov 18) might seem to represent another sax species, this US free-jazz legend's roots are in revolutionaries like the late Albert Ayler and John Coltrane.
Improvising pianists play a big part in this year's festival, with French-Serbian pianist Bojan Z (Pizza Express, Dean Street, Nov 18-19) splicing the jazz of Ornette Coleman into Balkan and eastern influences. Italian Stefano Bollani (Barbican, Nov 21) is a comprehensively endowed, surreally witty pianist who appears with his homeland's biggest trumpet legend, Enrico Rava, and opposite Tord Gustavsen, the Jan Garbarek of world-jazz piano. Brad Mehldau's former teacher Fred Hersch (LSO St Luke's, Nov 22), plays piano-trio reinterpretations of Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and Thelonious Monk among others, but a rigorous musical intelligence and a treasure-house of references makes all his backward glances new. The same goes for the legendary, and still trenchantly robust UK octogenarian Stan Tracey (Museum of Garden History, Nov 16; Bulls Head, Barnes, Nov 24), whose mix of bullying, jackhammer chords and rugged, Duke Ellington-ish lyricism is one of the most instantly recognisable sounds in contemporary music.
John Fordham
The singers
A few hardcore jazzers might consider some of the 2007 festival's vocal artists peripheral to the tradition, but almost all of the performers connect with it deep down. The four-time Mobo-winning British R&B singer Jamelia leads a glittering tribute to the late Ella Fitzgerald (We All Love Ella, Royal Festival Hall, Nov 16), with those subtle and versatile Brits Claire Martin, Juliet Roberts and Ian Shaw on the bill, plus the operatic but subversive New Yorker Lea DeLaria, the imperious Lizz Wright, and more. Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évora (RFH, Nov 17) eloquently mingles African music and the yearning ballad traditions of Portuguese fado, and Liane Carroll (Royal Opera House, Nov 18; 606 Club, Chelsea, Nov 22) the nuances of a balladeer and the blues power of a bar-room entertainer. And Carol Grimes (Lauderdale House, Highgate, Nov 22), a maverick UK star for 30 years, explores her jazz and blues origins with an incandescent piano trio.
JF
The composers
There may still be a few jazz purists to whom composers are anathema, but the rest of us thank the creative individuals who provide such great springboards for improvisers to jump off. And give us a few tunes to whistle, too. John Dankworth (LSO St Luke's, Nov 18) has been a key player for more than half a century, not just for his own back catalogue, but for his encouragement of fellow composers such as Kenny Wheeler, Mike Gibbs and Daryl Runswick. Plenty of young composers make contributions to this year's festival, including the guys in Empirical and the Portico Quartet, but one of the more unusual projects is Siobhan Lamb's Meditations - Love, Loss, Hope, Peace, written for a large, eclectic ensemble led by Gerard Presencer (St Cyprian's, Marylebone, Nov 17).
If you have six hours to spare, you can hear the complete works of Thelonious Monk, one of the greatest composers ever, courtesy of Tony Kofi and Jonathan Gee's Monk Liberation Front (Queen Elizabeth Hall, Nov 25). The Britten Sinfonia celebrate Monk's near-contemporaries at the same venue with In the Spirit of Gil and Miles (Nov 24) and 1960s Blue Note survivor Charles Tolliver is one of the festival's great coups (QEH, November 19). There's also contemporary banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck paired with pianist Chick Corea, composer of some of the most enchanting tunes in the jazz catalogue. The saddest event, but possibly the most exhilarating, too, will be the final night's Joe Zawinul - A Tribute With the BBC Big Band, planned as a collaboration until the great man's unexpected demise in September (Barbican, Nov 25). The BBC band will play Vince Mendoza's arrangements of Zawinul's Weather Report compositions, with longtime Zawinul associate Victor Bailey on bass and Django Bates in the hot seat vacated by Joe.
John L Walters
The outsiders
The festival has always had a deft touch when it comes to programming artists who are not strictly jazz. Trumpeter Jon Hassell emerged from the cradle of minimalism (Terry Riley's In C) and ambient music (alongside Brian Eno) to develop what he calls "fourth world music".
On Nov 17, Jon Hassell and Maarifa Street bring their dense yet finely nuanced sound textures to the QEH. Brazilian singer-songwriter Joyce is another non-jazz musician with a fanatical following among both jazz and world music fans (Jazz Cafe, Nov 17). The most out-and-out feelgood gig is likely to be that of Orchestra Baobab, the Senegalese band who reformed after a lengthy layoff. Veteran drummer Steve Reid continues to be a bit of an outsider, collaborating with electronica whizz Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) for a gig opposite the massive Heritage Orchestra (Barbican, Nov 20). Peter Vermeersch's wild and crazy Flat Earth Society rip up the Southbank Centre that same night at the Purcell Room. Other less predictable events include the decidedly unjazzy Tuxedo Moon, brilliant improv bassist-composer Simon H Fell with the Offshoot (Vortex, Nov 22), and Hih, the new project from Monica Vasconcelos (Vortex, Nov 23), which includes a few songs co-written with Robert Wyatt. Barry Adamson (QEH, Nov 20-21), the ex-Magazine/Bad Seeds bassist known for his atmospheric album projects, is a provocative choice for Artist in Residence - his trademark fake jazz, imaginary soundtracks and low-rent mood music, stylishly presented, will make a refreshing change from all that authenticity.
JLW
ˇ The London jazz festival runs between November 16 and 25. Details:
londonjazzfestival.org.uk.
ˇ Fraud play the Vortex on November 21, Acoustic Ladyland play the Luminaire on November 22, Led Bib play the Luminaire on November 23 and Gutbucket play the Southbank Centre on November 25.