London Jazz Festival, Various venues

‘Hey, I made it’: Sonny Rollins at the Barbican

The final weekend of London’s 10-day jazz festival sheltered in the warm embrace of Sonny Rollins, whose Saturday gig at the Barbican celebrated the US saxophonist’s 80th birthday. At the end of his set, he thanked the old Ronnie Scott’s club for having faith in him back in the 1960s. “Hey, I made it,” he remarked, with some understatement.

Rollins had just delivered an epic set, brimful of ideas and compassion. He has an otherworldly knack of engaging each audience member in an intimate conversation. And with two percussionists and only a guitar as a front-line foil, there was no space for him to rest on his laurels.

He opened with a modal canter and followed with a calypso. There were loping grooves, drawn-out trade-offs and two warmly romantic ballads – a stunning, obliquely stated “Sentimental Mood” ended in a cadenza of Ellingtonian references. Rollins’ thematic material is simple enough, and well marked by the constant background chatter of his band. But he investigates every nook and cranny, weaving round the melody, darting into abstraction and delivering low-note grumbles to make your toes curl. Each musician got a chance to shine, each long solo impelling Rollins into fresh bursts of creative energy. The ovation was immediate and joyous. (

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Tickets for the Rollins gig sold out in days. But there was no shortage of alternatives – 18, to be precise – and among them was the final night of Bad Plus’s three-day Kings Place residency. On Friday the alt-rock-minded trio reprised tracks from last year’s For All I Care. The heavily signposted tricks and fancy arrangements didn’t allow the music to breathe, and I longed for some of the out-and-out improv others bring to similar material. An on-point drum solo and a sparse ballad showcasing guest vocalist Wendy Lewis didn’t compensate for the band’s pallid rendition of “Blue Velvet”. (

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The previous evening, Chucho Valdés had reprised the Afro-Cuban narrative of the recent Chucho’s Steps at the Barbican. Three percussionists created a lattice of rhythms, the arrangements were beautifully crafted and the half-chanted vocals of percussionist Dreiser Durruthy Bambolé revealed deep African roots. But the horns were workmanlike, and the musical fireworks came largely from Valdes. His percussive slant on modal jazz is breathtaking. The exception was Bambolé, who oozed stage presence throughout, erupting into a show-stealing, rubber-legged, head-spin-and-twist dance routine. Coupled with Lebanese trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf’s sultry first-set fusion of Arabic scales and contemporary beats, a workaday gig became memorable. (

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The last words of the festival – which this year sold more tickets than ever – went to south London-born guitarist, jazz-provocateur and humanist funeral officiant Billy Jenkins, whose dry one-liners and fall-off-a-stool clowning are founded on canny timing, solid technique and a love of jazz. His end-of-festival Purcell Room gig first showcased the gritty organ blues, pyrotechnic guitar and music-hall antics of his Trio Blues Suburbia, with guest saxophonist Iain Ballamy as straight-man and nimble-fingered foil.

The second half saw the 19-piece BBC Big Band playing Ballamy’s lovingly crafted arrangements of Jenkins classics. There was still slapstick – squabbling saxophonists pitching in for a solo spot – but the serious intent remained, and the delicate solo piano introducing the brass subtleties of “Bhopal” was a highlight. The encore, a dark-edged singalong of “What a Wonderful World”, captured the rooted-in-reality Jenkins ethos. Enjoy the moment, because you never know what lurks round the corner. (

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For details of London Jazz Festival broadcasts, see bbc.co.uk/radio3