La Saboteuse Yazz Ahmed

• 1Inhale01:20
• 2Jamil Jamal08:12
• 3Misophonia01:13
• 4The Space Between The Fish and The Moon05:05
• 5La Saboteuse04:32
• 6Al Emadi06:15
• 7Inspiration Expiration01:03
• 8The Lost Pearl07:19
• 9Bloom05:11
• 10Beleille07:22
• 11Whirling00:42
• 12Organ Eternal07:22
• 13Exhale01:25
• Total Runtime57:01

Info for La Saboteuse

Bahraini-British performer, Yazz Ahmed, is transforming what jazz means in 2017. This trumpet and flugelhorn-playing artist has worked with Radiohead and These New Puritans, experiments with electronic effects, and combines sounds from her shared heritage to author a new narrative for the genre. Part of the new wave of artists credited with stirring up the sound, including Kamasi Washington, Yussef Kamaal, Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming, Yazz Ahmed is thrilled by the possibilities of making something new. “I feel like I’m a part of modernising jazz and connecting it with audiences today,” Yazz says. “It’s exciting.”

Her new album ‘La Saboteuse’ is a deep exploration of both her British and Bahraini roots. Ably assisted by musicians including Lewis Wright on vibraphone, MOBO-winning new jazz kingpin Shabaka Hutchings on bass clarinet and Naadia Sherriff on Fender Rhodes keyboard, it’s composed of undulating rhythms, Middle Eastern melody and Yazz’s sonorous trumpet lines. The record sounds like the passage of a desert caravan, bathed in moonlight. The theme of ‘La Saboteuse’ is the sense of self-doubt that Yazz feels when she is creating, personified in a female saboteur, an anti-muse that spurs her into action. “Giving ‘her’ a name has really helped me to identify those negative voices we all get,” she says. “I know what it is and I know how to combat it.”

‘La Saboteuse’ will be released in four chapters incrementally, unravelling the story, before the full version is available. Each chapter has its own cover, with beautiful illustrations by Bristol artist Sophie Bass. “I feel really touched, nobody’s created art from my music before, it’s really special,” Yazz says.

Yazz spent her early childhood in Bahrain, her paternal homeland, before moving to London with her English mother at the age of nine. There, she became fascinated by her grandfather’s trumpet playing, and vowed to learn the instrument herself. “My grandfather, my mum’s dad, was a trumpet player, and I was quite taken by him, inspired. I wanted to learn the trumpet at school.” Jazz became her chosen form of expression, because “I loved the spirit of the music, the freedom. There’s a lot of joy, mystery. I connected with it”. Yazz’s sound is unique. Her take on jazz weaves in Arabic melodies to evocative, cinematic effect. “I love the sounds of Arabic music. The traditional folk singing is so heartfelt, elemental and passionate. I absorbed it as a child, but only in the past few years has it come to the surface in my playing and writing. I want to embrace my culture and my British jazz heritage, the music my grandfather played to me.”

Jazz has traditionally been a male-dominated sphere, though Yazz is challenging that notion. To start with she found it a hindrance, but has been empowered by a new wave of women musicians. “There are more female jazz musicians and attitudes are changing,” she says. “People see that women can play just as well as the men. But there are still areas that haven’t caught up with the rest of society. It’s getting better, but we can do more.”

Future-facing and fascinating, Yazz Ahmed is part of a glimmering new constellation in the jazz firmament. And her next project is destined to take her further into the stars. “I’m planning to write a piece inspired by the ever-changing structures of the universe,” she concludes.

“..Gilles Peterson will be all over this..” - The Quietus

“…let Ahmed take you on a beautiful journey of forward-thinking jazz compositions.” - Twistedsoul

“its potent mix of post-bop lyricism and modern fusion soundscaping makes connections with both head and heart.” - Dave Sumner, Bandcamp

“Even if you’re not familiar or terribly interested in jazz, Ahmed’s music deserves your attention, and she’ll most likely make you second guess your thoughts on jazz.” - Headphone Nation

Yazz Ahmed, trumpet, quarter-tone flugelhorn
Noel Langley, trumpet
Shabaka Hutchings, bass clarinet
Lewis Wright, vibraphone
Naadia Sheriff, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer
Samuel Hällkvist, guitar
Dave Manington, bass
Dudley Phillips,bass
Martin France, drums
Corrina Silvester, percussion

Yazz Ahmed
Through her music, British-Bahraini trumpet player, Yazz Ahmed, seeks to blur the lines between jazz and electronic sound design, bringing together the sounds of her mixed heritage in what has been described as ‘psychedelic Arabic jazz, intoxicating and compelling’.

Over the last decade, Yazz has led her ensembles in performances across the UK & Europe, and further afield in Algeria, Bahrain, Beirut, Kuwait, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, USA & Canada. She has also enchanted audiences at major festivals such as WOMAD, Love Supreme, NYC Winter Jazz Fest & Pori Jazz.

Her career is studded with high profile collaborations, which have seen her record and perform with the likes of Radiohead, Lee Scratch Perry, Transglobal Underground, Arturo O’Farrill, Natacha Atlas, and Obongjayar, including a world tour with These New Puritans.

It was Yazz’s self-released debut album, Finding My Way Home, 2011, which saw her first explorations of Arabic music, introduced her as an innovative performer and composer, and led Jazzwise Magazine to mark her out as ‘one to watch’. However, it was her second album, La Saboteuse, (Naim Records, 2017), which made a global impact, clocking up multiple rave reviews and making many ‘best of 2017’ lists around the world, including Jazz Album of the Year in The Wire magazine, and achieving the number 18 spot in Bandcamp’s top 100 albums (all genres).

“This is enchanting, late-night music that floats on the liminal space between dreams and reality. And for sheer, unconquered beauty, there are few albums of any genre that reach these heady heights. Ahmed, in diving deep within herself, comes back up for air with a mysterious, wondrous artefact humming in her hands,”the2010s.net

In between releasing Finding My Way Home and La Saboteuse, Yazz received support from Jazzlines at Town Hall Symphony Hall Birmingham, to write her suite, Alhaan al Siduri, premiered in October 2015 at CBSO Centre, Birmingham. This music is influenced by Yazz’s Bahraini roots, drawing from the folk music of the Bahraini pearl divers and traditional wedding songs sung by the women drumming groups. The second performance of this suite marked Yazz’s debut in her paternal homeland, at the Bahrain International Music Festival, 2016.

During 2016, Yazz was accepted on the LSO Soundhub composer scheme, giving her the opportunity to explore writing music for her newly developed quarter-tone flugelhorn. This unique instrument enabled her to get closer to the spiritual nature of the ‘blue notes’ in Arabic music, deeply infusing her sound with that of her heritage.

In 2018 Yazz received two commissions with a cosmic theme. The Planets 2018, a work created especially for a tour of planetariums, is a celebration of the centenary of Holst’s suite and modern astronomy. Commissioned by the Ligeti Quartet, Yazz’s composition Saturn was featured and performed around the UK that October.Yazz was later commissioned by the Open University to write a solo piece inspired by the moon, Earth’s Reflection was performed at the OU Moon Night in December 2018.

Illustrating her growing fascination with electronic music, La Saboteuse Remixed, (Naim, 2018) features collaborations with three of Europe’s eminent electronic DJ’s – Hector Plimmer, DJ Khalab and Blacksea Não Maya. Four of the pieces from the original album have been reimagined, taking her music to a new realm.

June 2019 saw the coda to La Saboteuse revealed: A Shoal of Souls (IXCHEL Records). Composed as a reaction to Sophie Bass’s striking artwork for La Saboteuse, the piece, commissioned by the EFG London Jazz Festival, is dedicated to the thousands of lives lost in recent years by those attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea in search of a better future. A Shoal of Souls was also featured as the soundtrack to an Apple iPhone 11 advertising campaign.

Yazz’s 2019 album, Polyhymnia, (Ropeadope Records) built on her growing reputation as a notable composer with a strong individual voice, a figure at the heart of the exciting UK scene. Evolving from a performance on International Women’s Day in 2015, commissioned by Tomorrow’s Warriors, the music takes the form of a suite written in celebration of courageous and inspiring women and features an extended ensemble of 25 musicians.

“Rich, powerful, colourful, exciting, and highly evocative. Ahmed’s most ambitious and most successful work to date has the feel of a ‘major statement’ about it.” –thejazzmann.com

The album was also picked up by Apple and has been highlighted in their 2020 Apple Music advertising campaigns.

In January 2020 Downbeat Magazine named Yazz as one of 25 artists set to shape the future of jazz over the next decade.

At the 2020 Jazz FM Awards, Polyhymnia was voted Album of The Year, with Yazz also winning UK Jazz Act of the Year.

The year culminated with the receipt of the highly prestigious Ivor Novello Award for Innovation.

During the pandemic, Yazz composed and recorded music for American streaming channel, Adult Swim, the Festival of New Trumpet Music – New York, and a sound installation commission by WOMAD to accompany Luke Jerram’s, Museum Of The Moon sculpture. She also performed ‘isolated sessions’ for the Boiler Room and streaming gigs for WOW! Istanbul, the Jazzed app, The EFG London Jazz Festival, Sage Gateshead and Tim Garland’s Spring Encounters series.

In November 2020 Yazz released Polyhymnia Remixed, teaming up with fast-rising underground producers, DJ Plead, Asmara and Surly. The EP expands on the themes of Polyhymnia, reflecting on the important stories of the women it celebrates, told by other voices, with a fresh perspective.

2021 saw the release of Solo 7”s Vol.1, a single featuring two tracks recorded at home, inspired by Yazz’s experience of performing solo sets during the pandemic.

As live work returned in 2021, she began performing again on the continent, but the year culminated in a spectacular collaboration with Yazz’s quintet and the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, performing new orchestrations of her works as part of the EFG London Jazz Festival for BBC Radio 3.

In 2022, Yazz was commissioned by Blue Note Records to arrange and record a track for the second Blue Note Re:imagined series. Yazz’s Turkish-proggy-jazz take on Chick Corea’s It, which featured his long-time collaborator, Tim Garland, on bass clarinet.

In December 2022, Yazz curated an evening at the Barbican Hall, London, where she shared the stage withlegendary Lebanese oudist, Rabih Abou-Khalil (whose album Blue Camel was a seminal influence on Yazz) and Emel – the avant-garde Tunisian-American singer and producer, whose soaring voice was a soundtrack to the Arab Spring and who has long been crafting a unique sonic universe, crushing stereotypes and forging a path all her own.

“I hope that through my music I can bring people together, building bridges between cultures, and changing perceptions about women in jazz and people of Middle Eastern heritage”

This album contains no booklet.