Emma Rawicz (pronounced Rah’-veech) is an high-flying tenor and soprano saxophonist based in London. To give a sense of her accelerating maturity and popularity, she won the prestigious UK Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Newcomer in 2022 and for Best Instrumentalist just two years later. Her playing combines impressive technical command with natural musicality, and compositions that shift between lyrical passages, probing grooves and modern harmonic twists. Rawicz tours prodigiously and is at home in a live setting (read the review Emma Rawicz At Roscommon Arts Centre. Listen to the opener “A Wide, Wide Sea” from this Transition Festival performance in the Netherlands. Rawicz builds intensity without simply turning up the volume, while pianist Ivo Neame, bassist Kevin Glasgow and drummer Asaf Sirkis continually reshape the music underneath her. The three-piece set also includes “The Oak Tree” (at 08:18) and “Rebecca” (15:16).

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