If you want to ... see a legend perform in a legendary venue
Go to Camden's reborn Roundhouse on November 11 to hear the ageless Herbie Hancock - the cross-genre piano king of funk, techno, dancefloor grooving and hair-raisingly innovative jazz improvisation. In 2005, Hancock brought over an experimental quartet including the kora-like sound of West African guitarist Lionel Louke, who will be present for this gig. Forty years ago, Miles Davis let Hancock invent his own way of collaborating on the fly, and Hancock does the same now for a new generation of jazz eclecticists. And if you like piano jazz from unfamiliar angles, check out Swiss pianist/composer Nik Bartsch's ethereal "Zen-funk" (James Brown, John Cage and Japanese music are some of his sources), paired with former Brand New Heavies and EST-influenced rising star Neil Cowley on the festival's opening night (Purcell Room, November 10).
If you want to ... explore the outer edges of jazz
Hear the extraordinary Sainkho Namchylak (Cargo, November 14), the mountain-chanter from Tuva in Siberia. She can sing with operatic purity, plummet into an overtone-laden world like a distant didgeridoo, creak like a chain straining on a winch or flutter like a songbird. Namchylak appears here with the Moscow Composers Orchestra. The band features leading figures from the jazz avant-garde that resisted the former Soviet Union's cultural pressures for years, including Ukrainian saxophonist Anatoly Vapirov. Vapirov was once consigned to Siberia for his views, but he tirelessly pursued his vision of a mix of American free-jazz and local folk influences from Russia, Ukraine and Latvia. Another angle is provided by Portuguese vocalist Maria Joao (Purcell Room, November 15), who pulls together her own jazz, classical and local folk materials on a frontier-crossing gig that also includes American and Korean musicians.
If you want to ... have a party
Take your jazz-agnostic partner and friends to see the Spanish Harlem Orchestra during their four-night stint at Camden's Jazz Cafe (November 13, 14, 15). Led by arranger-pianist Oscar Hernandez, this little big band pumps out non-stop salsa, with a sharp five-piece brass section and three elegant singers. With new arrangements of classics and exhilarating originals, the SHO celebrate the importance of Harlem's Nuyorican melting pot. Wearing their jazz virtuosity lightly, their true purpose is to get every limb moving to a relentless and sensual pulse. Other feel-good events include Aventuras at the Spitz (November 17), a Latin-themed project from the Jazz Jamaica pianist Alex Wilson; Dennis Rollins's righteously funky Badbone & Co at the Jazz Cafe (November 12); and, with a more spiritual, meditative twist, South African jazz guru Abdullah Ibrahim at the South Bank (Queen Elizabeth Hall, November 13).
If you want to ... see two stars who sound fresh despite a combined age of 152
Check out American sax hero Wayne Shorter's opening-night gig with British piano giant Stan Tracey (Barbican, November 10). Shorter is the kind of jazz improviser who can be recognised from a handful of notes - his phrasing laconically clipped, his sound a little melancholy, his solos full of unexpected turns. Shorter was central to one of Miles Davis's greatest bands in the mid-1960s, but was even more influential, with pianist Joe Zawinul, in the ground-breaking fusion ensemble Weather Report. In his current quartet, Shorter is playing as well as at any time in his life. So is Tracey, who was unveiling his own personal departures from the traditions of Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington back in the late 1950s, and has made an incalculable contribution to the self-belief and independence of UK jazz. Nearing 80, Tracey still performs with flinty, sardonic relish, bending the anticipated direction of almost every phrase he plays.
If you want to ... discover why funk needs jazz, and vice versa
Beat a path to the Spitz for the hip, dancefloor-friendly New Cool Collective (November 15). Whatever the Mobo Awards organisers say, the fundamentals of jazz are entwined in dance, funk, blues, soul and rap. NCC, led by Dutch saxophonist Benjamin Herman, grew from a DJ project into a cracking live band, whose engaging tunes and grooves still leave plenty of space for improvisation, including the startlingly good guitarist Anton Goudsmit. You can hear Herman play more straight-ahead repertoire with Tracey and Guy Barker during their stint at Pizza Express (November 11-14). Also rooted in club culture, with a cooler take on jazz, is Italian DJ Nicola Conte (Jazz Cafe, November 10). Soweto Kinch and Abram Wilson (Queen Elizabeth Hall, November 19) forge very original links between New Orleans and contemporary Britain - between hip-hop and bebop.
If you want to ... hear the man who was in on Birth of the Cool with Miles Davis
Listen to that subtlest of alto saxophonists, Lee Konitz (Wigmore Hall, November 13), whose elegantly vaporous music the American jazz critic Gary Giddins once likened to the sound of someone "thinking out loud". Konitz emerged during the 1940s, the era of Charlie Parker's bebop revolution, when jazz was played with a fierce urgency and notes showered listeners like hailstones. Like Miles Davis, Konitz sought a more reflective approach. At this year's Cheltenham Jazz Festival, he won some of the loudest applause for the quietest of unamplified gigs. A measured, Cool School-influenced European angle can also be heard from the alto saxophonists Ingrid Laubrock (Spitz, November 10) and Martin Speake (Pizza Express, November 10), with Speake particularly displaying contemporary takes on the Konitz tradition.
If you want to ... join the dots between Tom Waits and free jazz
Go to the gig by Marc Ribot's Spiritual Unity (November 10, Festival Hall), a tribute to the trail-blazing saxophonist Albert Ayler (1936-1970). Ribot's thick and satisfyingly abrasive guitar made a huge contribution to Waits's "outsider" credibility on albums such as Swordfishtrombones and Rain Dogs. For this gig, Ribot teams up with trumpeter Roy Campbell, drummer Chad Taylor and bassist Henry Grimes. There will be a screening of the documentary My Name Is Albert Ayler at the Purcell Room (November 11), introduced by Grimes, who played on many of Ayler's recordings. If you want to hear contemporary saxophone-playing pushed right to the edge, check out Evan Parker (Queen Elizabeth Hall, November 17). Ribot's trio, Ceramic Dog, plays at the Front Room (November 17), and on the following night with members of London Sinfonietta and young musicians.
If you want to ... hear where jazz intersects with classical
Go to Harvey Brough's Requiem in Blue at St Barnabas Church in Dalston (November 12). This big work, scored for large forces plus jazz-world specialists, has received dozens of performances in the past few years in a climate where many composers struggle to get past the premiere. Brough's work - dedicated to his elder brother, who died in a motorcycle accident - is direct and unsentimental, employing the Latin mass, folk song, adult choir and children's chorus. Brough says the work incorporates "my whole musical life to date", with early music instruments (such as the theorbo) alongside singer Natacha Atlas and flugelhorn ace Gerard Presencer. Equally ambitious is Guy Barker and Rob Ryan's film-noir take on Mozart's Magic Flute, dZf, previewed at BBC Studios Maida Vale on November 18. (Free tickets from BBC Radio 3 Audience Line, 08700 100 300).
If you want to ... hear a genuine innovator
Catch Norwegian singer Solveig Slettahjell and her Slow Motion Quintet at Pizza Express Jazz Club (November 17). Slettahjell has made a huge impact on the jazz scene in a short time: her three albums reveal an approach that links the musical depths of the great American songbook to the intimate confrontations of indie songwriters. Her band represents the cream of Norway's fertile musical community, including Morten Qvenild (of Susanna and The Magical Orchestra) on piano, but the result is like no other band today. Other singers with a creative twist on jazz vocals include MySpace diva Estelle Kokot (Octave, November 17), Ian Shaw (Vortex, November 11) and superb Irish singer Christine Tobin (November 12 & 17), whose new group features Austrian bassist Peter Herbert.
If you want to ... catch the hot new talent
Go to hear jazz, contemporary-classical and avant-pop saxophonist Finn Peters with the gifted trumpeter Tom Arthurs (Spitz, November 13), the newcomer who has won comparisons with the great Kenny Wheeler over the past year. At Fulham's 606 Club (November 14) you can catch fast-rising young pianist Benet McLean with the powerful but all-too-rarely-heard UK saxophonist Steve Williamson. McLean has a piano technique that seems to bring Art Tatum's music into the 21st century, drawing on classical music, postbop, hip-hop and beyond. The Eclectica night at Dalston's New Vortex (November 16) will feature dolorous post-rockers Monroe Transfer, Leeds-based improv and guitar-effects band Inertia Trio and Acoustic Ladyland drum visionary Seb Rochford's venture with songwriter and electronics-explorer Leafcutter John.
· The London jazz festival runs from November 10 to 19. Details: londonjazzfestival.org.uk
