Soweto Kinch Trio
July 4, 2026 @ 21:30 August 13, 2027 @ 23:30
Soweto Kinch, alto sax, aerophone, vocals; James Owston, double bass; Louis Hamilton-Foad, drums
(GB)
The musical – and inevitably socio-critical ideas of British jazz authority, saxophonist, MC and composer Soweto Kinch take shape in a wide range of forms: hip-hop battles, BBC radio broadcasts, theatrical performances, small-group jazz improvisations, and ambitious symphonic orchestrations. His recent large-scale opus with the London Symphony Orchestra forms a trilogy: The Black Peril (2019), White Juju (2022), and its final instalment, Soundtrack to the Apocalypse, premiered this year at the Barbican Centre.
The apocalypse, in his vision, is not so ominous and ultimate, since he connects it to the Ancient Greek meaning, which is revelation or disclosure, adding that it is revealing “not just what’s wrong, but what might still be possible”.
Kinch’s projects are conceptual contemplations in which the openness of jazz meets classical composition, while rap becomes a kind of libretto for sonic experiments that can make you dance as well. Because of his musical breadth, Amy Winehouse counted him among the musicians she wished to collaborate with.
Surrounded by art from an early age – his late father, Don Kinch, was a renowned playwright and theatre director, Soweto Kinch, who also studied Modern History at Oxford, has long believed that art can change how people see the world. He often imagines alternative worlds: sometimes in a spiritual Afro-futurist vein, and sometimes quite concretely – as a “Jazz Planet”, where swinging would be a government law; office culture would include regular breaks to listen to bass solos; and the most prestigious social event would be a jam session.
Through albums such as The New Emancipation (2010) and The Legend of Mike Smith (2013), he explores themes of identity, social mobility, and structural inequality in contemporary Britain.
At Ljubljana Jazz Festival, he will distil his expansive body of work, including the core of the forementioned trilogy, into the trio format, which remains the setting that allows him most creative freedom.