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Bella Sarris - Foundation FM Takeover x Sentimental Voices

Pre-order the new album: https://yazz-ahmed.lnk.to/aparadise
Stream/download the single: https://yazz-ahmed.lnk.to/paradisesingle/

British-Bahraini trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed today announces her much-anticipated fourth studio album, A Paradise In The Hold, set for release on 28 February via her new label Night Time Stories. Alongside this announcement, she is releasing the record’s title track, a powerful 10-minute piece inspired by the voyages of Bahraini pearl divers braving the seas to bring home their precious cargo. It blends traditional Bahraini influences with dynamic textures, eerily manipulated field recordings, polyrhythmic clapping and layered instrumentation that crescendos into a euphoric celebration of collective strength. 

On her new single, Yazz offers: “Composition began during experimentation with recordings from a research trip to hear the Pearl Divers of Muharraq in 2014. I processed short fragments of ceremonial sounds and morphed them into an undulating beat emulating the rise and fall, the breathing of the ocean, the creaking of the boat’s timbers.The piece has evolved during live performances into something of an epic, with solos from myself, George Crowley on bass clarinet and Naadia Sheriff on Fender Rhodes. It continues with a darbuka solo by Corrina Silvester, played over an extended vamp with polyrhythmic clapping from the ensemble, before the uplifting coda. I wanted to paint a picture of the joyful celebrations of the collective efforts of the sailors to bring their riches home.”

A Paradise In The Hold is an album of yearning. It’s about Yazz’s dual heritage, drawing on traditional music and folklore as well as her own personal experience as a British-Bahraini woman. A sweeping epic where tradition meets innovation, she melds ancient rhythms with contemporary musicianship. The record is a tribute to the sorrowful songs of Bahrain’s pearl divers, the strength of Arab women, and the celebratory rhythms of women's traditional drumming circles, while also telling the story of Yazz’s own decade-long voyage of self-discovery. 

On the album, Yazz says: “A thread in my work has been searching for, establishing, and now finally embracing and celebrating my cultural identity. I want to change the narrative about Arab women. So often, they are misrepresented as oppressed, but in Bahrain, there are many creative women forging new paths. I hope this album shines a light on that vibrancy and strength.” 

The album also marks Yazz’s first foray into writing lyrics, in both English and Arabic, bringing a new dimension to her expansive sound. The project features an impressive roster of collaborators, including vocalists Natacha Atlas, Brigitte Beraha, and percussionist Corrina Silvester. An Ivor Novello Award-winning composer and one of the most innovative trumpet players of her generation, with A Paradise In The Hold, Yazz Ahmed delivers a groundbreaking fusion of tradition and innovation, creating a contemporary jazz project that is set to make a lasting impact on the genre.

Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise In The Hold

Músico, melómano e interprete caleño, con influencias musicales congeniadas por procesos académicos humanos desarrollados en su localidad y rededores. 

Considero un ritmo, musicalidad genuina y experimental son atisbos a intencionada atencion... 

"Atravesado por la música y los sonidos." 🌹💃

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Juan.DavidLopC