Press room

Today (25 March) the Barbican and Associate Producer Serious announce the first wave of Barbican performances for the EFG London Jazz Festival 2026. The first wave introduces adventurous new sounds from Anouar Brahem and a major project marking the centenary of John Coltrane. Now in its 34th year, the annual jazz festival returns to the Barbican from Friday 13 – Sunday 22 November 2026 bringing ten days of headline concerts, intimate club dates, bold new commissions and community events across venues big and small in the capital. Taking over 60+ venues across London, musicians from all over the world will come together to perform boundary-pushing music that showcases jazz, its influence across genres and cultures, and ability to transcend borders and blend musical traditions.

Future announcements over the summer will detail the rest of the programme at the Barbican Hall and Milton Court Concert Hall and the longstanding free-to-attend FreeStage performances in the Barbican’s Level G foyers.

Performances announced today:

• John Coltrane 100, Fri 13 Nov, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm
• Anouar Brahem: After the Last Sky, Sun 15 Nov, Barbican Hall, 7.30pm

Full details for Wave 1 Barbican performances follow below. As more performances and details are announced in later waves, all EFG London Jazz Festival 2026 events at the Barbican can be found here.

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John Coltrane 100
Friday 13 November 2026, 7.30pm
Barbican Hall
Tickets from £32.50 plus booking fee

Coltrane 100 brings together saxophonists Joe Lovano and Melissa Aldana, pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, bassist Linda May Han Oh, and drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts for a collective tribute to the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane, reflecting on his enduring influence across generations, geographies, and musical traditions – 100 years since his birth.

Joe Lovano, a central figure in modern jazz for more than three decades, brings a deep connection to the post-Coltrane saxophone lineage. Melissa Aldana contributes a distinctive contemporary voice. Shaped by close engagement with the jazz canon and a focus on narrative and identity, Nduduzo Makhathini draws on South African musical and spiritual traditions, as well as the legacy of McCoyTyner, to articulate a highly personal pianistic language. Linda May Han Oh adds a globally informed perspective as a bassist whose work spans ensemble writing, film, and collaborative performance. Jeff “Tain” Watts brings decades of experience and rhythmic authority forged alongside many of the defining artists of modern jazz.

Joe Lovano says: “This quintet will honour Coltrane’s compositions as a springboard to explore and express ourselves. We do not seek to recreate, but rather to create in the spirit of Coltrane.”

The Coltrane 100 tour is produced with the approval of Jowcol Music LLC o/b/o Estate of John Coltrane

Presented by Serious
Find out more

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Anouar Brahem – After the Last Sky
Sunday 15 November 2026, 7.30pm
Barbican Hall 
Tickets from £32.50 plus booking fee

Tunisian oud master Anouar Brahem performs his latest ECM release After the Last Sky at the Barbican alongside Anja Lechner on violoncello, Django Bates on piano and Mats Eilertsen on double bass, for a set where Arab classical motifs meet improvisation.

Eight years after Blue Maqams, Brahem returns with a poignant new project, titled after a line of verse by poet Mahmoud Darwish, which asks “Where should the birds fly, after the last sky?”. Graceful chamber pieces for oud, cello, piano and bass subtly address the metaphysical question and its broad resonances in a troubled time. While drawing upon the traditional modes of Arab music, Brahem has consistently sought to engage with the wider world, too, and found inspiration in many sources from different cultures.

It is in this spirit of openness that, to bring this project (both intimate and universal) to life, Brahem gathered an international and intergenerational quartet. Centred around his oud are the refined piano of British musician Django Bates, the powerfully lyrical cello of Anja Lechner, and, especially for this tour, the fluid yet earthy double bass of the great Norwegian master Mats Eilertsen.

The deep mutual listening among the four musicians imbues the programme’s pure melodies, beautifully enhanced by arrangements that emphasize the complementary dialogue between cello and oud, with a profoundly moving emotional and expressive power.

Presented by Serious
Find out more