Yazz Ahmed | Artist
Yazz Ahmed is a British-Bahraini trumpeter, flugelhornist and composer born 1983 in London. Her music mixes Arabic and Western influences. She seeks to blur the lines between global jazz traditions and electronic sound design in a style she once described as "psychedelic Arabic jazz." She has worked with Toshiko Akiyoshi, Arturo O’Farrill, Ash Walker, the London Jazz Orchestra, and also recorded and performed with Radiohead, Lee Perry, ABC, Swing Out Sister, Joan as Police Woman, Tarek Yamani and Amel Zen, and the band These New Puritans. Born in London to a British mother and a Bahraini father, Ahmed spent her childhood in Bahrain before returning to London at the age of nine. She started playing the trumpet at an early age, encouraged by her maternal grandfather Terry Brown, a jazz trumpet player. She completed a master's degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. During her year as a composer at the LSO Soundhub, she had a quarter-tone flugelhorn specially made, allowing her to use scales specific to Arabic music. She was then commissioned by Tomorrow's Warriors, with support from the Women Make Music Foundation, to write a suite about "Powerful and Inspirational Women". In 2017, her album La Saboteuse earned her international acclaim. It was named Jazz Album of the Year by The Wire, and ranked 18th in Bandcamp's Top 100 Albums across all genres. In October of 2019, Ahmed released the studio recording Polyhymnia that featured musical tributes to storied women throughout history: Rosa Parks, Malala Yousafzai, Ruby Bridges, and Barbara Thompson. Its first single, "Lahan al-Mansour," was inspired by and dedicated to Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia's first female film director. Ahmed won the 2020 Ivor Novello Award for her album's achievement. To-date, the artist's discography extends to four studio LPs, one live album, three EPs and more than a half dozen singles. Standouts include La saboteuse (2017), Polyhymnia (2017), A Paradise in the Hold (2025), and the live album When We Were Live (2020). In 2014 Ahmed undertook a research trip to Bahrain after winning a Jazzlines Fellowship. There, she trawled book shops looking for poems and lyrical inspiration, many came from wedding songs. Deepening her connection to the tradition, her grandfather even sang some songs from his own wedding day. Simultaneously, she became fascinated by the celebratory music of Bahraini women's drumming circles and the manner in which they contrasted the work songs of the pearl divers. Ahmed has also collaborated with UK based electronic DJs such as Hector Plimmer, DJ Khalab, and Blacksea Não Maya.
Artist Website: yazzahmed.com
Featured Albums: Yazz Ahmed
Related Artists: Yazz Ahmed Quintet, The Spike Orchestra
