Serious

Last night two Serious artists, Jason Yarde and John Surman, gained recognition at the 2009 British Composer Awards in a ceremony hosted by BASCA (British Academy of Songwriters, Composer and Authors) at the Law Society London.

The event gave special focus to the new Award for Contemporary Jazz Composition which was won by composer/saxophonist Yarde for his BBC Prom commission, Rhythm and Other Fascinations. The judges hailed his work as “innovative, accomplished and entertaining” achieving that difficult double act of looking back in homage to a bye-gone era and at the same time achieving a contemporary vision. The advent of Jazz as a new awards category was also celebrated by Scottish Jazz Quartet, Brass Jaw, who were here in London just a week ago performing a marathon of gigs across the capital as part of the London Jazz Festival’s Festival on the Move. Last night’s performance included two new works commissioned by BBC Radio 3 from jazz legend John Surman, especially for the occasion. John Surman, who recently celebrated his 65^th birthday with the London Jazz Festival, was at the Awards to acknowledge the two world premieres.

Read the full press release here

The awards will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Performance on 3 on Wednesday 2 December at 7pm.

It was great to see this year's London Jazz Festival identity, created by London-based IWANT design, getting recognition in the design world.

Digital Arts Online

Under Consideration

Visit IWANT's flickr stream to see the full set of designs including the print process.

Find out what Brass Jaw have been up to at the Festival on the BBC Radio 3 blog, where you can also see the latest happenings across the Festival...

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The line-up for Cleveland Watkiss' 50th birthday bash at the Queen Elizabeth Hall has been announced..

You can catch all of the following on stage with Cleveland on Thursday 19 November: 

Alan Weekes, Alex Wilson, Bonnie Greer, Brian Edwards, Byron Wallen, Derek Richards, DJ Le Rouge, Gene Calderazzo, Goldie, Heidi Vogel, Jason Rebello, Jean Toussaint, Kenrick Rowe, Larry Bartley, Mark Hodsgon, Mark Mondesir, Martin Speake, Nikki Yeoh, Orphy Robinson, Shaney Forbes, Sheila Jordan, Simon Purcell, Steve Sidwell, Talvin Singh, Trevor Watkis, Tunde Jegede, Vayu Naidu, plus more special guests appearing on the night.

For more info

The Festival has teamed up with Dorset Cereals to offer you the chance to win tickets to a range of concerts, including Naturally 7, Cleo Laine & John Dankworth, Cleveland Watkiss and John Hegley & The Popticians.

Spin to win - to find out more visit Dorset Cereals

Great review by John Fordham in The Guardian for Stefano Bollani's latest ECM release, Stone in the Water.

Don't miss the charismatic Italian piano maestro live at Kings Place next month as part of the London Jazz Festival. He'll be playing a four-night residency, which kicks off on Wednesday 18 November with the trio that features on Stone in the Water.

Welcome to the Serious blog and our new website - we hope you like it. We’ll be writing our blog roughly every week, giving you the latest news from Serious towers, including the inside info on what is going on in our world.

Don't forget to take a look at our new London Jazz Festival site, if you haven't already, which also launched recently.