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The Evolution of UK Jazz – 20 Years On  

Wednesday 19 November 2025, 7.30pm

Barbican Hall

Tickets from £20 plus booking fee 

Barbican Associate Producer Serious celebrates 20 years of its pioneering talent development programme Take Five, with a special one-night-only concert in the Barbican Hall - presented as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival 2025. Showcasing the influence and legacy of Take Five, the evening will include new commissions, collaborations and premieres from some of the UK’s most exciting jazz artists. 

The performance will premiere brand new compositions by jazz musician Shabaka, joined by alto saxophonist Camilla George, both of whom are celebrated alumni of the programme and instrumental in shaping the sound of contemporary British Jazz. These boundary-pushing artists will perform alongside an all-star ensemble of previous Take Five artists, under the musical direction of acclaimed composer and saxophonist Jason Yarde. The evening will also include a specially selected piece by renowned saxophonist and composer John Surman, who served as the programme’s Musical Director from 2005 to 2017. 

With more guests to be announced, the evening opens with Poesis — a newly commissioned work and unique collaboration exploring interconnection, borders and language as thresholds. Featuring live soundscapes, reimagining of traditional folk songs, improvised melodies, and manipulated voices, the performance blurs lines between past and present, place and perception, featuring artists from recent cohorts of Take Five including Lulu Manning, Xhosa Cole, Claire Victoria Roberts and Connor McAuley.  

A key moment in this year’s EFG London Jazz Festival, this Take Five celebration at the Barbican is a true milestone and opportunity for fans to witness the very best of UK Jazz, as generations of artists take to the stage in the Hall. 

This concert is presented by Serious in partnership with the Barbican, with support from Arts Council England, PRS Foundation, and Cockayne Grants for the Arts, through the Serious Trust. 

ABOUT TAKE FIVE: 

The Take Five initiative is aimed at British and UK based composer-performers and is designed to give some of the UK’s most talented emerging creative jazz musicians the opportunity to take time out to develop their craft, build their careers and get their music out into the world.  Since launching, the programme has supported over 160 artists, many of whom have gone on to define modern UK jazz, including Moses Boyd, Emma-Jean Thackray, Soweto Kinch, Nubya Garcia, Yazz Ahmed, Seb Rochford, Sarathy Korwar, and Abel Selaocoe. 
 
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Dirty Three 
Monday 8 December 2025, 8pm 
Barbican Hall 
Tickets from £25 plus booking fee 

Dirty Three return to Europe with their first tour for 12 years. In a rare live performance in London, Dirty Three bring their unmistakable sound — at once raw, lyrical and unpredictable — to the Barbican Hall this December.  

Formed in Melbourne in the early 1992, the trio of Warren Ellis (violin), Mick Turner (guitar), and Jim White (drums) have spent over three decades developing a distinctive sound that is mostly instrumental and driven by feeling. Drawing on rock, folk, jazz and improvisation, their music moves between restraint and intensity, creating shifting, emotionally charged landscapes. 

Following the release of Love Changes Everything (Bella Union,2024) - their first album in over a decade — Dirty Three return to the stage with the same restless energy and collaborative instinct that has long defined their work. 

"It’s impossible to find flaw with the performance, though its x factor is something collectively felt. A kind of accruing, song by fiery song, of irrefutable proof as to how truly great this band is."  

- Sydney Opera House performance review in The Guardian 

Produced by the Barbican 

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SUPPORT ACTS ANNOUCED: 

Whatever The Weather – Loraine James  

+ Lucinda Chua 

Saturday 6 September 2025, 7.30pm  

Milton Court Concert Hall  

Tickets from £20 plus booking fee  

Visionary London producer Loraine James presents a rare live performance under her ambient-leaning alias, Whatever The Weather— as she brings her deeply introspective soundscapes to Milton Court Concert Hall this autumn.    

Support comes from South London-based singer, songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Lucinda Chua. 

Produced by the Barbican in association with Bird on the Wire  

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The Divine Comedy: Rainy Sunday Afternoon 

+ Studio Electrophonique 

Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 October 2025, 7.30pm 

Barbican Hall 

From £25, plus booking fee 

The Divine Comedy return to the Barbican in support of their forthcoming orchestral pop album, Rainy Sunday Afternoon (Divine Comedy Records, due for release 19th September 2025). Returning for the first time since their five-night retrospective in 2022, Neil Hannon and band will perform tracks from their first studio album in over six years across two consecutive nights in the Barbican Hall on 11 & 12 October 2025. 

Support on both nights comes from Studio Electrophonique, the recording alias of James Leesley. 

Produced by Barbican 

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