Sam Lee and the Unthanks: A Time and a Place

Sam Lee joins the Unthanks for an evening of “musical meditations on the first world war”. There have been a batch of musical projects related to the war, but this adventurous concert promises old and new songs including material inspired by research into stories from the conflict, treated with harmony vocals, settings for strings and brass, and visual effects from Matthew J Watkins, who worked with Gorillaz. Robin Denselow
Birmingham Town Hall, Birmingham, 17 September, then touring

Sahara Soul

Last year’s memorable event concentrated on Mali, then a country in turmoil. This time, the range is broader with an emphasis on female singers and further reminders of the problems of the region. Aziza Brahim is a Saharawi, born in a refugee camp in Algeria, and uses her songs to highlight this forgotten dispute. She is joined by the fine Mauritanian singer Noura Mint Seymali, the Malian band Tartit, and Nabil Baly Othmani from Algeria. RD
Barbican, London EC2, 27 September

Abdullah Ibrahim

Some of the most widely loved and enduring jazz themes composed outside the US in the past half-century have been forged at the piano keyboard of Cape Town-born Ibrahim, the great soloist/composer inspired by South African church themes, classical music and the jazz of Ellington and Monk. Ibrahim was a co-founder (with Hugh Masekela and others) of the first bebop-devoted black jazz group to record during the apartheid era, and his work still celebrates the sounds of townships dances, swing and hymn harmonies with which he began. Nowadays, though, he connects them in more meditative and patiently poetic ways. John Fordham Royal Festival Hall, London SE1, 15 November, then touring.

Snarky Puppy

Snarky Puppy have more than 18,000 Twitter followers and are widely hailed as the best thing to happen to the popular perception of jazz in years. The globetrotting American jazz-funk collective has achieved almost all of this success while applying its own industry-avoiding efforts. Returning to the UK for one of the EFG London Jazz Festival’s highlight shows, Snarky now bring their infectious mix of soul-horn hooks, riotous percussion, Latin grooves and improv to the Roundhouse, a recognition of how fast they have grown their British fanbase in recent years. JF
Roundhouse, London NW1, 18 November.