Edward Bhesania reports on the concert of Pigbag, Sakamoto, Gershwin, Komeda and Nigel Kennedy himself at London’s Cadogan Hall on 18 November 2025, part of the EFG London Jazz Festival
As this gig reminded us, Nigel Kennedy has long since strayed from the bad boy of classical music into a realm where rock and punk mix with jazz, Bach and his own works.
Along with his band – guitar, bass, cello (all acoustic and electric) and drums – he opened with a version of punk/dance band Pigbag’s Papa’s Got a Brand New Pigbag with the first of his Hendrix-like solos.
The next track, ‘something by my second-favourite composer, a guy called Nigel Kennedy’, felt longer than its 10 minutes, being mostly based on basic four-chord patterns, but it offered a structural link to Bach’s Chaconne in D minor, played with a great sense of melodic line and rhythmic momentum, and with no hint of physical strain.
Kennedy showed himself a respectable jazz pianist in pieces by Ryuichi Sakamoto and in The Man I Love, the first item in a magical Gershwin medley. An excerpt from a film score by Krzysztof Komeda pre-echoed the Eastern European influence in what Kennedy called Csárdás, which began as Monti’s stomping classical-folk hybrid but ranged through the theme to the TV-Western Bonanza by way of Grappelli and a range of other jazz solos.
Add in the affable banter and it amounted to a party in the violinist’s own image. The taste may be open to question, but there’s no doubting Kennedy’s chops or his dedication to playing.
EDWARD BHESANIA
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