Yazz Ahmed with the Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra: Cambridge Jazz Festival

Playing standards as well as original tunes, join Cambridge University's premiere jazz orchestra with very special guest, British Bahraini trumpet and flugelhorn player, Yazz Ahmed.

 

As a freelance trumpet player, Yazz has recorded, performed and toured with art-rock band These New Puritans as a soloist and member of their septet, and also recorded and performed with Max Romeo, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, the Manic Street Preachers, Swing Out Sister, Twiggy and the Urban Soul Orchestra, as well as featuring on Jools Holland’s show playing alongside New York artist, Joan as Police Woman.

 

​Yazz has also played alongside Toshiko Akiyoshi, Rufus Reid, Kenny Wheeler, Steve Williamson and Sir John Dankworth. She works regularly with the London Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Jamaica and with her own septet, Ahmed Family Hafla.

 

​In 2011, in addition to playing flugelhorn on Radiohead’s album The King of Limbs, Yazz recorded and released her debut album, Finding My Way Home, featuring bass virtuoso Janek Gwizdala and clarinetist Shabaka Hutchings. The album was a collection of original compositions and improvisations, exploring the sounds and rhythms of Yazz’s Arabic heritage, revisiting memories from her early childhood in Bahrain and contrasting them with pieces reflecting the classic British jazz which was her gateway into improvised music.

 

This was followed in 2017 by her critically acclaimed album, La Saboteuse (Naim), which has brought her to the attention of a global audience.