Pre-order the new album on CD and limited edition vinyl (with a signed booklet): yazz-ahmed.lnk.to/aparadise

Yazz Ahmed, hailed as one of the most influential trumpet players of her generation. An Ivor Novello award winning composer who makes sweeping epics that are rich with storytelling, depicting evocative ancient worlds and mythological muses. With her fourth studio album, A Paradise in the Hold, the British-Bahrani musician dives even deeper into her dual heritage and has come up with a treasure trove that draws on traditional music and stories from her childhood home. Ahmed writes for the voice for the first time, with lyrics inspired by Bahraini wedding poems and the yearning songs of the pearl divers. Deeply textural, expansive and full of potent performances, the album charts the heroic voyages of the jewel-hunters of yore, who sailed home through rough seas with precious cargo, and Ahmed’s own voyage of self-discovery over the past decade.  

“A thread in my work has been searching for, establishing and, now, finally embracing and celebrating my cultural identity,” she says. Whereas she explored Arabian music more generally with her earlier material, this release is more explicitly linked to her homeland. “If my first album, 2011’s Finding My Way Home, represents the first steps on this path then with A Paradise In The Hold, I’ve arrived at a deeper understanding of how my British and Bahraini heritage can co-exist, in personal as well as musical terms.” 

Notably, Ahmed hadn’t written for the voice until now. For A Paradise In The Hold, she penned lyrics in English, which she then translated to Arabic, or, on ‘Though My Eyes Go To Sleep My Heart Does Not Forget You’, adapted the words from a pearl divers’ standard. She worked with a range of impressive singers to bring her vision to life: Brigitte Beraha, Natacha Atlas, Randolph Matthews and Alba Nacinovich. The voice of her father, meanwhile, can be heard on standout track ‘Into The Night’, which lands you in the centre of a percussive hubbub and which Ahmed intended as a celebration of female independence. “He was trying to conduct the recording session in the family house,” she says of her dad. “Everyone was gathered in the sitting room and I recorded some of the ululations and clapping that you can hear in the track. I’m so glad I got to have my family on the album.” 

The collaborators on the album in particular, percussionist Corrina Silvester and the greatly missed giant of the jazz world and Yazz’s dear friend, drummer, Martin France, helped Ahmed to strengthen the connection between the two worlds; A Paradise In The Hold is a bold fusion that reveals its riches more with each rewarding listen. “It’s another step in my evolution of making music,” says Ahmed. “There’s so much beauty in Bahraini music. I hope this album gives people a flavour of how vibrant its culture is.”

Yazz Ahmed - A Paradise In The Hold

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.

Night Time Stories is the sister label of Late Night Tales for original artist releases. The label hosts a family of artists connected by a common thread of authenticity. Releases have featured the likes of Khruangbin, Garden City Movement, Sasha’s ‘Scene Delete’, Rae & Christian and Chaouche.