The full line-up has been announced for the 42nd Hong Kong Arts Festival, which runs from February 18 to March 22 next year, and includes four very different jazz artists.
None can really be called mainstream, but I suppose guitarist John McLaughlin comes closest. The young rebels who made their names playing rock-influenced fusion in the early 1970s are now jazz's elder statesmen. By the time he appears on March 14 with his latest band, The 4th Dimension, McLaughlin will be 72.
He has some history with the festival, having appeared in 1996 with Free Spirits, in 1997 with Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia, and most recently in 2008 with the Five Peace Band he co-led with Chick Corea.
He formed The 4th Dimension in 2007 with drummer and keyboardist Gary Husband, drummer Mark Mondesir, and bassist Hadrien Feraud. Mondesir has since been replaced by Ranjit Barot and Feraud by Etienne M'Bappe.
McLaughlin made his reputation playing fast and furious electric fusion guitar with Miles Davis and with his own Mahavishnu Orchestra, before turning his attention to the acoustic guitar with the Indian-influenced band Shakti, and later an all-guitar trio with de Lucia and Larry Coryell, and subsequently Di Meola.
He has not abandoned the electric guitar, however, and the music he now makes with The 4th Dimension will make perfect sense to fans of his early-1970s playing.
Meanwhile, on reviewing Madeleine Peyroux's Standing on the Rooftop in 2011, I wrote it would be nice to have the opportunity to hear that repertoire live, so I'm grateful to the Arts Festival organisers for making that possible.