EFG London Jazz Festival is very proud to present its inaugural showcase of artists from Serious’ prestigious Take Five talent development programme – a scheme that supports emerging jazz and improvising musicians through mentorship, residencies, and collaborations. Past participants include Seb Rochford, Shabaka Hutchings, Yazz Ahmed, and Nubya Garcia.

The inaugural Take Five presents features performances by 10 artists from the last two years of Take Five, who Serious have commissioned to create a bespoke video of a performance of some of their newest material which will be broadcast throughout the festival.

During his 7 year career, Samuel Eagles has placed himself in many circles from Bebop to contemporary Jazz and from Afro beat to artistic alternative original music. Samuel is constantly using this wealth of experience to search for new paradigms in his own music which has earned him much critical acclaim nationally and internationally throughout almost a decade.

Born and raised in London, Samuel caught the attention of Saxophonist Mornington Lockett who saw his vast potential and therefor went on to mentor him. Gaining a place at the prestigious Junior Jazz program at The Royal Academy of Music Samuel was under the wing of Nick Smart where his early musical promise was nurtured. Later Eagles was accepted into Trinity College of Music and master Jean Toussaint went on to mentor Samuel long after graduation. In 2017 Eagles performed at The Bucharest International Jazz Festival where he and his band SPIRIT went onto win the festivals prestigious award. In the same year he also won an award in the global ‘7 Virtual Jazz Club’ competing among many heavy weight bands and musicians.