Yazz Ahmed: A Paradise In The Hold

Yazz Ahmed's music has focused on combining her love of jazz with her Bahrani heritage since her first recording in 2011, and with her release, A Paradise in the Hold (Night Time Stories, 2025), she adds a new component: voice. With lyrics in both English and Arabic, Ahmed uses stories and music from her childhood in Bahrain as the seed for this collection of songs, originating about a decade ago when she traveled back to Bahrain to complete a commissioned work, "Alhaan Al Siduri."

Ahmed uses the voices as additional instruments in the mix, sometimes using two vocalists at once singing different phrases (whether singing lyrics or wordlessly), adding to the textures of the songs. The vocalists—Natacha Atlas, Brigitte Beraha, Randolph Matthews, Alba Nacinovich and Jason Singh—do an outstanding job with the material, but Atlas especially stands out on the tunes she is featured on, having an achingly beautiful, expressive voice. Her vocal on the opening number "She Stands on the Shore," weaving between Samy Bishai's violin and Ahmed's flugelhorn, sets the mood for the album.

A host of additional colors are added to the palettes of the songs, including bass clarinet by George Crowley, vibraphone and marimba by Ralph Wyld, Fender Rhodes keyboards by Naadia Sheriff and Alcyona Mick, percussion by Corrina Silvester and various electronic programming. Crowley and Wyld especially shine on the title track, the album's one instrumental, accenting and echoing Ahmed's superb solo. The percussionists, together with Dudley Phillips on bass and Martin France on drums, create strong rhythms and shifting tempos on which the other musicians can engage. Altogether, it creates a rich sound that allows the vocals and Ahmed's crystal-clear sound on trumpet and flugelhorn to float above. Ahmed, working with co-producer Noel Langley, layers the various instruments and voices to create lush soundscapes to tell her narratives, incorporating Arabic scales and phrasing with traditional jazz elements.

Known as one of the finest young trumpeters on the British jazz scene, Ahmed has demonstrated her prowess as a composer as well. She notes on her website, "It's another step in my evolution of making music." It is a step well worth taking with her.