Counterpoint at Tate Modern celebrates a new wave of London's jazz musicians

The newly launched Counterpoint series at Tate Modern takes place next week. The monthly art and music event is held in the Tate Modern Blavatnik building and showcases the talents of London’s emerging and thriving jazz scene. Musicians are challenged to apply their improvisation skills to their record collections, with two artists selecting records back to back each night.

Each event will celebrate some of the visual artists connected to this upsurge of diaspora-centred talent. The next night takes place on July 5 and will feature the work of Plantain Papers, and Ben Connors, while the last event featured work from Kimberley Crofts, a poster titled London Jazz Family Tree.

The event is a new step in merging underground music culture and art in the Tate Modern space and takes the Tate Late series of events into a new jazz direction.

Counterpoint is curated by journalist and broadcaster Emma Warren, who says, “These new generation musicians play at a ridiculously sophisticated level. They bring with them a powerful culture of improvisation and collaboration and now we’ll get to see how they apply their improv skills behind the decks.”

The next event takes place on July 5 and will feature music from Ezra Collective member Joe Armon-Jones band Sampha-collaborator Kwake Bass.