Gigs in London tonight

We all know by now that London’s jazz scene is young, cool, underground and genre-blending. Based at the Truman Brewery with gigs at various nearby venues, the Brick Lane Jazz Festival may be in its early iterations, but it sums up just how exciting our city’s musicians are; in prevous years, the festival hosted pioneering talent such as Moses Boyd and Ezra Collective, so it’s definitely one for finding new talent. The first wave of acts announced for the 2025 edition includes Laraaji, Adi Oasis, Ragz Originale.

In April, a brand new arts festival will takeover the Southbank Centre, bringing together world-class orchestras and some of the most ambitious and exciting artists, performers and creatives currently working in their fields. Some of the highlights of the series include the Chineke! Orchestra and George The Poet joining forces for a night of music, spoken word and poetry tackling subjects of resilience, change and identity; the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Punch Records uniting grime, hip-hop, rap and orchestral music; and Huang Ruo’s ‘City Of Floating Sounds’, which turns the audience into part of a moving orchestra across London.

Put a bit of jazz pizazz into your Friday nights with this concert series, held in a new Battersea venue. World Heart Beat Gardens is an intimate 200-seater concert hall that's been built for optimal acoustics (and nope, it's not outdoors as the name might suggest). It's perfect for filling your ears with the sounds of some jazz greats, from 1920s classics from the Julian Joseph trio to new compositions by Henry Spencer to soulful sounds from Grammy Award-winning tenor sax giant Jean Toussaint.