Late Night Jazz: Take Five Showcase (EFG London Jazz Festival) at Royal Albert Hall

Part of EFG London Jazz Festival, enjoy an evening of music from four musicians from the 2024 Take Five talent development programme: Caius Williams, Claire Victoria Roberts, Helena Kay and Momoko Gill.

The Take Five initiative is aimed at British and UK based composer-performers, and is designed to give some of the UK’s most talented emerging creative jazz musicians the opportunity to take time out to develop their craft, build their careers and get their music out into the world.

Take Five is an annual talent development programme for emerging jazz and improvising musicians/composers produced by Serious, and funded by the PRS Foundation, Help Musicians, Arts Council England, and Serious Trust.

Caius Williams is a musician working mostly within the fields of improvised and experimental music. Working frequently as both a collaborator and a solo artist, Caius has a duo project with Theodora Laird (Crosspiece) alongside playing guitar(s) for Theodora’s project, feeo, a duo with Tara Cunningham, and was recently involved in the live performances of Lifetones: a project led by Charles Bullen’s of This Heat, alongside frequently working with many of London’s notable improvisers.

Claire Victoria Roberts is a composer, vocalist and violinist, blurring the boundaries of jazz, classical and folk genres. The Welsh-born artist draws upon her diverse influences through improvised vocals, Celtic fiddle music, and lyrical jazz and classical styles. Past performances include Manchester jazz festival, Brecon jazz, and Begues jazz (Catalunya). Claire was deemed a "buzzingly-bright contemporary" by Wales Arts Review thanks to her unique fiddle tunes and interpretations of jazz and folk songs alike.

Award-winning tenor saxophonist Helena Kay is quickly becoming renowned as one of the UK’s most creative and virtuosic jazz artists, with two critically acclaimed albums, four UK tours, and performances at the UK’s most esteemed jazz venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The Vortex and the Royal Albert Hall.

Momoko Gill (AKA MettaShiba) is a London-based multi-instrumental composer/producer/songwriter/vocalist whose primary instruments are drumkit and voice. She grew up between Japan, the US and UK and has a mixed (Japanese/British/German) heritage. Momoko works with some of the most exciting and boundary-pushing UK artists including Coby Sey, Matthew Herbert, Alabaster DePlume, Tirzah, Wol (formerly Bellatrix), among many others.