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Yazz Ahmed

A Paradise In The Hold
  • Thu 8 May ’25
    20:30
    de Doelen
    Eduard Flipse Zaal (zitplaatsen met vrije stoelkeuze)
    tickets

  • €3 or €1,5 service costs excluded per per ticket. Read more about the service charge here.

British-Bahraini trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed announces her fourth album, A Paradise In The Hold, out 28 Feb 2025 via Night Time Stories. "Psychedelic Arabic jazz, intoxicating and compelling."

Following the international acclaim of La Saboteuse and Polyhymnia, “The High Priestess of Psychedelic Arabic Jazz” is back with her 4th studio album in February 2025, on pioneering label Night Time Stories.

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, which has been described as "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, with the likes of Radiohead, Lee Scratch Perry, Transglobal Underground, Arturo O’Farrill, Natacha Atlas, These New Puritans, and Obongjayar.

 


"My fourth album is inspired by the unique secular folk music of my native Bahrain, in which the melancholic work songs of the pearl divers, are contrasted by the celebratory music of the women’s drumming groups, who traditionally play at weddings and festivals.

The creative process began with a research trip, where I attended a private concert given by the Pearl Divers of Muharraq, my hometown, and trawled the local bookshops, looking for wedding song lyrics and poems, and enjoyed the rare treat of my grandfather singing me songs from his own wedding day.

Joining the musicians from my Hafla band, expanding the tonal palate of the ensemble, are five vocalists, Brigitte Beraha, Natacha Atlas, Randolph Matthews, Alba Nacinovich and Jason Singh. The lyrics they sing include fragments of traditional Bahraini songs and thoughts from my own daydreams, musings on my far away childhood home."