London Jazz Festival!

Taking place every November, the EFG London Jazz Festival is the capital's biggest pan-city music festival and showcases a mix of world-class talent, new and old from around the world. Highlights of this year's festival include legendary pianist and composer Abdullah Ibrahim at the Royal Festival Hall, American jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Dr John, who is paying tribute to Louis Armstrong at the Barbican. And that's just tomorrow night...

If you're going to an event at this year's festival, here's some of our favourite jazz tracks/albums from 2014 to get you in the mood:

Karen's Choice: 

GoGo Penguin - 'Hopopono' (from 'v2.0')

"I loved their first album 'Fanfares' and they did a great session last year for our Jamie Cullum show on Radio 2. This year's follow up album 'v2.0' has seen them go from strength to strength. I love how you can hear their non-jazz influences coming through, stuff like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. They deserved to win the Mercury!"

Ian's Choice:

Neil Cowley Trio - 'Sparkling' (from 'Touch and Flee')

"Neil Cowley is a musical genius and a strong contender for nicest man in jazz. And his bass-player Rex Horan is undisputed winner of "Best Jazz Beard".  Their album 'Touch and Flee' is superb and my favourite track is 'Sparkling'."

Jim's Choice:

Nat Birchall Quintet - 'Live in Larissa' (2xLP)

"Nat Birchall and band on FIRE in the Duende Jazz Bar in Larissa, Greece. Not just an amazingly warm sounding record full of deep spirit-lifting music, but a beautifully packaged gatefold double LP with lovely artwork too. In years to come, this will be one of those classic records that generations of music lovers keep coming back to. Sounds particularly good on a Sunday night in my kitchen."

Lucy's Choice:

Iron Eye - 'JB Black'

"I went to Swn Festival in Cardiff for the first time this year which was brilliant - so many fantastic small venues and so many great Welsh bands. My favourite thing I saw was a trio called Iron Eye, just alto and tenor saxophones and drums, but they brought so much energy. They reminded me a lot of bands like Melt Yourself Down and Sons of Kemet - never a bad thing in my view. This is from their new EP 'Cardboard Cities'".

Pete's Choice:

Adult Jazz - 'Gist Is'

"My favourite Jazz album over the past year is Gist Is by Adult Jazz. Not strictly jazz as such, but defo some elements in there (and the name fits perfectly), hard to describe, but The Quietus did a pretty good job with this description - "pitched somewhere between experimental folk and jazz-tinged electronic pop played acoustically." The first track I heard was this track 'Am Gone' and I totally loved it straight away, I checked out the rest of the album immediately and have had it on repeat since."

Matt's Choice:

Submotion Orchestra - 'City Lights' 

"I don't think there's any other band out there like Submotion Orchestra, I mean who else could combine dubstep with ska and jazz? Always spell-binding to watch live... if you're going to watch them tonight at KOKO then you're in for a real treat! This track is taken from the brilliant 'Alium' album which came out earlier this year."

Sandie's Choice:

Jamie Cullum - 'Interlude'

"As he is the best jazz artist in the UK, and nicest man, I've picked Jamie's most recent album. I love listening to this album while doing the ironing!"

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