Maria Schneider Orchestra, Cadogan Hall

Maria Schneider is the most talented jazz composer of her generation. Working with her dedicated orchestra, she consistently explores the further reaches of sound, while never loosing track of accessibility.

This year, as a highlight of the EFG London Jazz Festival, she will bring her ensemble to Cadogan Hall. The British pianist Liam Noble, whose new album Room Somewhere re-conceives pieces by figures as varied as Joe Zawinul, Gilliam Welch and Edward Elgar, will provide support.

Originally from Minnesota, Schneider studied with Gil Evans and Bob Brookmeyer before founding her orchestra in Greenwich Village. Since then, she has successively expanded and refined her sound. Two of her albums, Concert in the Garden (2004) and Winter Morning Walks (2013), won Grammys, and the just-released The Thompson Fields looks to do the same trick.

Schneider’s work often breaks the confines of the genre, drawing on the multi-faceted layering of classical music while never forgetting her bandleader predecessors. She often works on a gigantic canvas, creating evocations of nature and the American countryside. The results are richly expressive, and often have a sensuous at odds with the more metallic palette of many of her contemporaries.