Yazz Ahmed

Following the international success of La Saboteuse and Polyhymnia, the “High Priestess of Psychedelic Arabic Jazz” returns in February 2025 with her fourth studio album on the pioneering label Night Time Stories.

Yazz Ahmed is a British-Bahraini trumpeter and composer who seeks to blur the boundaries between jazz and electronic sound design. Bringing together the sounds of her mixed heritage, she creates intoxicating and fascinating music. In recent years, she has led her various bands in concerts in the UK and abroad, including Algeria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the US, and Canada, and at major festivals such as WOMAD, Love Supreme, NYC Winter Jazz Fest, and Pori Jazz.

His career has been marked by collaborations with artists such as Radiohead, Lee Scratch Perry, Transglobal Underground, Arturo O'Farrill, Natacha Atlas, These New Puritans, and Obongjayar. A Paradise in the Hold is inspired by the folk music of Bahrain, the island of two seas, in which the songs of pearl divers and their songs of nostalgia and loneliness contrast with the celebratory music of traditional female drumming groups that perform at weddings and festivals. Originally a 90-minute suite composed in 2015, Alhaan Al Siduri, the music has evolved over the past decade through concerts with ensembles of various sizes, from solo to symphonic. For this recording, the material has been adapted to feature five guest singers.