celebration of the historic Congo Square site in New Orleans – the only location in America where African slaves were allowed to perform music from their motherland.

This concert brings together the compositions of Wynton Marsalis and Ghanaian drum master Yacub Addy in a skillful combination of traditional African music with big band jazz.

A breathtaking concert piece traversing jazz history, from spirituals to hard-bop, first performed to celebrate the bi-centenary of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York.

The UK wide expression of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s acclaimed Essentially Ellington High School Big Band programme.

Eleven youth jazz orchestras from across the UK will take on and learn traditional big band charts by the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mary Lou Williams and Dizzy Gillespie. They will receive on-site visits and workshops delivered by teams of UK and US jazz musicians, culminating in a full day of performances in the Barbican Hall on Sat 14 Jul.

In 2010 the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra made a historic visit to Havana, Cuba where they collaborated and performed with many Cuban artists. This special concert revisits this landmark occasion by exploring the connections between the American jazz big band tradition and Afro-Cuban jazz.

The JLCO with Wynton Marsalis are joined for the concert by critically acclaimed Cuban percussionist Pedrito Martinez plus Ariacne Trujillo, and Jhair Sala.

The unmissable UK premiere performance of Wynton Marsalis’ symphonic meditation on the evolution of swing, Swing Symphony (Symphony No 3). The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis share the stage with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the award-winning Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle.

The first half of the programme features the London Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninov’s dramatic Symphonic Dances – written in the US in 1940 yet infused with nostalgia for his Russian homeland.