Celebrating Mingus

Backed by the full forces of the BBC Concert Orchestra, Barker’s 16-piece New Jazz Orchestra gives voice to Mingus’ pioneering musical imagination, which reshaped the sound of the 20th century. The evening begins with a journey through Mingus’ musical influences, featuring jazz, funk, and R&B saxophonist, Lakecia Benjamin. In 2020 she was awarded the title of Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association; The New Yorker comments that her playing is ‘sprinkled with the rich flavours of funk and soul’. Together with the orchestra, she performs music by the titan of big band music, Duke Ellington, the mighty Jelly Roll Morton and more. Trumpeter, composer and bandleader Guy Barker has hosted some of London’s most spectacular jazz events and his musical arrangements are enduringly popular with audiences.