London Jazz Award nomination Guy Barker: '.. he is a serious force to be reckoned with, and what he has put together is all together mind-blowing stuff.'

This year’s London Jazz festival launched in spectacular fashion with “Jazz Voice” a 42 piece orchestra, with no fewer than nineteen arrangements both scored and conducted by legendary Jazz Brit, Guy Barker. Amongst the artists featured were Grammy-nominated Gregory Porter, The Noisettes’ Shingai Shoniwa and TV star, Michelle Dockery.

London Jazz review on Jazz Voice  ”Internationally renowned trumpeter and composer, Guy Barker, conducted this mammoth show and had scored all nineteen arrangements for the forty-two-piece orchestra... This was a first class production by Serious. The diversity of acts was testament to the fact that pretty much ‘anything goes’ in jazz today and meant that there really was something for everyone. Guy Barker’s accomplishment cannot be overstated, he is a serious force to be reckoned with, and what he has put together is all together mind-blowing stuff.”

But Chiswick-born Barker is down to earth. Writing for the Guardian, Guy says of the whole musical affair, “it's all just dots on paper until the orchestra brings it to life, until I'm on the podium seeing the camaraderie of the singers in the wings, applauding each other as they come offstage. Naturally, those are the best moments of all.” Photo Richard Kaby