The British Council continued its partnership with the London Jazz Festival for a sixth successive year, bringing an international delegation to the UK for a specially programmed showcase of UK jazz.

The delegation brought together a variety of jazz professionals from a wide range of countries including Brazil, Jordan, South Africa, Malaysia and Myanmar (Burma). Delegates got the chance to see live performances from the best of UK jazz, such as the acclaimed Neil Cowley Trio, multi-instrumentalist and composer John Surman, and the Mercury nominated Leeds group Roller Trio.

Whilst at the UK’s largest jazz festival, delegates also attended a range of professional networking opportunities to create new links and strengthen existing relationships with the UK jazz scene and international music sector.

As a result of our on-going work with the jazz sector, we have a number of exciting projects.

• Empirical Trio, a group featuring Nathaniel Facey on the alto saxophone, Shaney Forbes on drums and Tom Farmer on double bass, will be performing and giving workshops as part of the European Music Festival 2012 in Vietnam on 28 November 2012. Tickets are free of charge and can be reserved and collected (full details can be obtained through this link).

• Byron Wallen, a London-based brass musician and widely recognised as a seminal figure in world jazz, will be playing live at the Bogobiri House in Lagos on Sunday 2 December 2012.