This year’s Battersea Jazz Festival, 3-12 July, brings national and international names to south London in nine performances. Jim Mullen, appearing with his organ trio, will be perhaps the best known among the British performers, while American singer Gabrielle Stravelli, appearing in a quartet with festival founder and director Hugo Jennings, is noted for her captivating interpretations of the Great American Songbook, and Italian pianist Daniele Gorgone has been heard with such as Jason Marsalis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jesse Davis and Scott Hamilton, reflecting his attachment to swing and blues.
Other local performers include trombonist Christ-Stéphane Boizi, seen here at London’s Ninety One Living Room, saxophonist Allison Neale, celebrating Paul Desmond and Jim Hall with a band featuring Colin Oxley (g), Jeremy Brown (b) and Matt Fishwick (d), and the South London Jazz Orchestra (captured here covering Freddie Hubbard’s modal masterpiece Red Clay), who will play Duke Ellington standards before being joined by a choir to perform Ellington’s Sacred Concerts.
Ahead of the formal programme, Hugo Jennings will lead his big band in a festival launch party at Pizza Express, Dean St, presenting a show intriguingly described as “a combination of 20th century big band repertoire meets arrangements of music from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Oliver! and the Sound of Music”.
Founded by Hugo Jennings in 2022, the Battersea Jazz Festival last year attracted 1500 visitors, and as well as providing first-class jazz entertainment, it makes a donation to charity, with £1 of every ticket sale going to the Lily Foundation, the UK’s leading charity dedicated to fighting mitochondrial disease.
The full roster of performances is:
- June 30th: Launch party: The Hugo Jennings Big Band, Pizza Express Dean Street
- July 3rd: Opening Night feat. Members of the North London Jazz Collective, The Landor Space
- July 4th: Sula, St Mary’s Church
- July 5th: Allison Neale Quartet, St Mary’s Church
- July 5th: Daniele Gorgone Trio, St Mary’s Church
- July 6th: The Duke Ellington Sacred Concerts feat. South London Jazz Orchestra and Large Choir, The Clapham Grand
- July 10th: Jim Mullen Organ Trio, The Landor Space
- July 11th: Gabrielle Stravelli Quartet, World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens
- July 12th: Christ-Stéphane Boizi Sextet, St. George’s Church
Tickets for can be purchased via the festival website for £20 (launch party) and £15 (all other performances) or £18 at the door. For more information on the programme and detailed descriptions of the artists, please click the links above, visit batterseajazzfestival.co.uk or follow @batterseajazzfestival on Instagram or Facebook.
