We’re delighted to present a very special EFG London Jazz Festival double bill featuring visionary group أحمد [Ahmed], made up of four of Europe’s preeminent improvising voices (Pat Thomas, Joel Grip, Antonin Gerbal and Seymour Wright) paying homage to Arabic jazz legend Ahmed-Abdul Malik, and the contemporary/experimental vocalist, movement artist and composer Elaine Mitchener, who’ll be joined by bassist/producer Neil Charles.

Across their releases Wood Blues (Astral Spirits, 2024), Giant Beauty (Fönstret, 2024), Nights on Saturn (Communication) (Astral Spirits, 2022), Super Majnoon (East Meets West) (Otoroku, 2019), and New Jazz Imagination (Umlaut, 2017), أحمد [Ahmed] work and rework the music of the late Ahmed Abdul-Malik to create stamping, swinging, relentlessly propulsive music, where profundity and physicality root right back to ecstatic feeling.

Abdul-Malik was a NYC bassist, oudist, composer, educator and philosopher who fused aspects of American, Arabic and East African thought, ethics, meanings and beliefs in open and experimental ways to make vital, forward leaning jazz. أحمد [Ahmed] reimagine the notes of Malik as they push for new ground. Melodies respirate, swell, escalate and combust in a driving jazz which yes is technical, yes is accomplished, but ultimately just foot-to-the-floor swings.

Elaine Mitchener 

Elaine Mitchener is a British Afro-Caribbean vocalist, movement artist and composer working between contemporary/experimental new music, free improvisation and visual art. A veteran of vocal expression in the global Black Avant Garde, traversing free improvisation, cross-disciplinary music theatre and contemporary composition with clarity and joy.

Neil Charles 

Neil Charles is one of the most in-demand musicians on the scene, with a huge array of credits to his name, including Jack DeJohnette, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Mingus Big Band, Jose James, Jerry Dammers, Courtney Pine, and Terence Blanchard. His own projects have included Zed U, with Shabaka Hutchings and Tom Skinner, and the more recent ensemble Dark Days, dealing with the work of James Baldwin. Most recently, he has been heard across the international scene with Gabriels. As well as being known as a bass player with a huge sound and immaculate sense of time, he is equally renowned as a producer, going by the alias Ben Marc.

Presented in association with Cafe Oto.

This event will last approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, including an interval.