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One of London’s most exciting venues, Kings Place, presents an inspired jazz season, developing and growing its already significant presence as a major jazz venue in the capital.
Known as ‘the cultural pulse of Kings Cross’, Kings Place opened in 2008 as a much needed cultural hub, developed to support the arts in its entirety including office spaces, galleries and of course live performance spaces. Their mission statement is clear ‘Kings Place is a world-class home for audiences and artists to feel, think and connect.’
Programming a wide range of genres and disciplines, it is exciting to see Kings Place investing not only in jazz but importantly the future of jazz. This seasons programme has just opened with Scotland’s Matt Carmichael performing with the Kings Place Jazz Orchestra, considered a “a distinctive new voice in a crowded scene”, (BBC Music magazine) and demonstrates their commitment to platforming exciting new jazz voices.
Leading the way for the jazz programming is Hannah Hutton who has already made her mark having been in the role for just under two years. Hannah also plays an important role with the Kings Place Jazz Orchestra (KPJO), founded by Artistic Director Sam McShane, composer Callum Au and Hannah, the team are truly passionate about investing in the future of jazz, which also includes platforms which support new musicians with a range of initiatives including new writing and inspired collaborations. This space is important.
Hannah Hutton by Robert Crowley
I have been working with Callum for about five years and we always had this ambition to start a jazz orchestra that was resident somewhere separate from his own original projects. We met with Sam McShane and we all shared ideas and Kings Place were looking to really invest in jazz more and really loved the idea. We started working together on it very quickly and it moved from an idea to, we have a show!
Despite programming jazz at Kings Place, for nearly 20 years, they have never had a dedicated jazz programmer, so creating this role and appointing Hannah is significant and as Hannah explains:
‘It’s a real moment. We’re trying to really celebrate the art form and invest and it was clear that our audiences are really engaged in jazz. The timing of the jazz orchestra aligned really well and was a great foundation to base this new era of jazz at King’s Place. It adds a real direction. We also have our new ‘Kings Place Belong’ which ties in with a lot of the things already happening in our community work, but with a real structure to it and an umbrella. Rachel (Naylor) our folk programmer and community producer has been able to see all the work together. So now we’ve got an infrastructure for not just the jazz shows, but the education and community work too. That’s why we’re seeing a lot of success with it because it’s works at every level.’
With Rachel Naylor at the helm, the new Kings Place ‘Belong’ programme is a space created for children and young people across the Islington Community to support emerging talent. This is one of many projects and partnerships across the Kings Place organisation, with artist Director Sam McShane leading the way. Hannah explains that
Vital Spark
‘Sam’s put a lot of trust in me, which has been amazing. She’s an inspiring person to work with as an artistic director because she’s really open minded. Sam programmed our classical music which is her background, but she’s enthusiastic about what we’re doing in jazz and the investment and cares about the artists. A 420 capacity hall is not a small place to trial so it was a real investment from Kings Place and it seems so far to be to be working!
It is more than working, with the first shows in the hall selling out and audiences come flocking to the range of programmes – especially jazz. The inspired programming and range of genres also presents a multitude of experiences for a really diverse audience and many elements are considered within this to make jazz accessible to everyone.
Ambrose Akinmusire by Michael Wilson
‘The Kings Place audience is really mixed and growing and we’re seeing so many new faces through the door and that’s really encouraging. When I look around at the jazz orchestra audiences, it’s not like an audience I’ve seen before for a big band. Most of our jazz orchestra shows are at 4:00 PM on a Sunday, which is a very intentional decision. Our open rehearsals are at 11 AM so that families and young children can come and be there for free. At the last one, we had a lovely family, and the child was deciding whether they wanted to learn French horn or trumpet and they had never been in a space where they could look up close and hear the music that they might like to play. One of our trumpet players, came and spoke with the child and showed him the trumpet, let him touch it and spoke with him one-on-one. This is really, important because that’s how people can see themselves in those spaces.
Emma Rawicz by Monika S Jakubowska
The Autumn/Winter season at Kings Place has some incredible artists from across the globe with some new works including Mercury Prize-shortlisted pianist Fergus McCreadie presenting the London premiere of Flight Pass – ‘a bold new commission co-created with Chamber Music Scotland and Kings Place, fusing jazz improvisation with the textures and storytelling of Scottish folk music’.
In partnership with Edition Records, bassist and composer Dave Holland will be presenting a new project celebrating unheard music of Kenny Wheeler with Norma Winstone and the London Vocal Project. The season also includes Ambrose Akinmusire Quartet, Emma Rawicz’s CLOUDWALKER featuring Philip Dizack, Beyond Category & Jeru The Damaja: Honouring Duke Ellington, Kaidi Akinnibi x Mackwood, DREAMSCAPES, Jonny Mansfield Quartet featuring Emmanuel Michael, the Polish Jazz Festival, and the closing concert of London Piano Festival with pianist, composer and original Snarky Puppy member Bill Laurance. Highly recommend!
Full programme and tickets here
Photos provided by Baxter PR
Last modified: September 24, 2026
