Yazz Ahmed A Paradise In The Hold

British-Bahraini trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed announces her fourth album, A Paradise In The Hold.

After the international recognition of La Saboteuse and Polyhymnia, “The High Priestess of Psychedelic Arabic Jazz” is back with her 4th studio album, on the groundbreaking label Night Time Stories.

British-Bahraini trumpeter Yazz Ahmed's music blurs the boundaries between jazz and electronic sound design, bringing together the sounds of her mixed heritage in what has been described as “intoxicating and compelling”.

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

Her career is littered 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, where the melancholic work songs of the pearl divers are contrasted with the celebratory music of the female drum groups, which 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 scoured local bookstores for wedding song lyrics and poems.

In addition to the musicians of my Hafla band, who expand the tonal palette of the ensemble, there are five vocalists, Brigitte Beraha, Natacha Atlas, Randolph Matthews, Alba Nacinovich and Jason Singh. The texts they sing contain fragments of traditional Bahraini songs and thoughts from my own daydreams, musings about my distant childhood home.”