Image: Barbican Centre, London
The Barbican has announced a fresh slate of concerts for the 2026 EFG London Jazz Festival, adding South African vocal group The Joy, disco-jazz cult favourite Asha Puthli, a Church of Sound-curated evening and the Take Five Showcase to the programme. The latest line-up runs from 13 to 22 November and sits within a festival the Barbican describes as bringing musicians from across the globe into the capital.
According to the Barbican’s festival page, EFG London Jazz Festival is presented by its associate producer, Serious, and comprises hundreds of gigs across London. At the Barbican, the series spans concerts in the Hall and Milton Court, performances on the FreeStage and the return of 'Jazz on Screen' in the cinemas. The centre’s announcement places the newly added concerts alongside that broader festival framework rather than as a separate event.
Among the newly highlighted names is The Joy, the South African vocal group whose Barbican appearance is listed for 22 November at 19:30. The festival page says the group “return to the Barbican,” and describes their sound as blending rich Zulu harmonies with contemporary songwriting. Asha Puthli is also on the bill with 'Asha Puthli: The Cosmic Voyager' on 14 November at 19:30, billed as a rare standalone UK concert bringing the artist together with “a vanguard of fellow cross-generational trailblazers” in a genre-defying live celebration.
The Barbican’s announcement also points to a Church of Sound-curated night and the Take Five Showcase, the latter introducing rising artists Marlon Hibbert and David Kayode. On the festival listing, the Church of Sound event appears as 'Church of Sound 10th Birthday | British Jazz Songbook' on 20 November, marking the East London project’s Barbican debut and described as a vivid celebration of British jazz’s past, present and future. The Take Five showcase is scheduled for 21 November at 17:00 and is presented as a platform for two Take Five alumni exploring bold new directions in UK jazz.
The wider festival programme combines live performance with film. Under the 'Jazz on Screen' strand, the Barbican is programming a series of archival and documentary screenings from 14 to 22 November, framed as a tribute to jazz legends and their legacies. The series will mark the centenaries of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, and brings together archival television, experimental film and rare documentaries to explore the relationship between jazz and cinema.
Individual 'Jazz on Screen' events include 'Jazz on Screen: Miles Davis: The Late Show - So Watt Special' on 14 November at 15:30, described as the annual archive event whose centrepiece is a celebration of Miles Davis’ career. 'Jazz on Screen: John Coltrane, Soundtracking Cinema: Blues' follows on 15 November at 14:00, coinciding with the Coltrane centenary, while 'Jazz on Screen: Ascenseur pour l'échafaud' closes the strand on 22 November at 15:20 with Louis Malle’s crime thriller, one of the few films for which Davis composed the score. The Barbican has set the festival across 13–22 November 2026 in London.
