Page 144 - FINAL_Guildhall Media Highlights 2019-2020 Coverage Book

2019 has made a series of welcome comeback appearances after years of illness-
imposed seclusion. Williamson appeared with the Orchestra as part of the Guildhall's
Celebrating Coltrane week, which on another evening featured a second Guildhall
graduate, singer Cleveland Watkiss.

Ahmed has been called, with some accuracy, "the high priestess of psychedelic
Arabic jazz." Her music does not so much blur the lines between jazz and electronics
and Middle Eastern music as render those lines irrelevant. She went international in
2017 with her second album, La Saboteuse (Naim), which had a guest appearance
from Shabaka Hutchings, and notched up another winner in 2019
with Polyhymnia (Ropeadope), made with a 26-strong collective lineup including
Sarah Tandy, alto saxophonist Camilla George, tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia,
guitarist Shirley Tetteh and other London luminaries. Both albums are wholly
composed of original pieces.

After two opening numbers from the Jazz Orchestra—Nikki Iles' "Hush" and
Stroman's "Walk Softly"—Ahmed began her set with two pieces from Polyhymnia, a
suite inspired by courageous and influential women. "Ruby Bridges" is dedicated to
the then six-year old girl who in 1960 played an important role in breaking New
Orleans' segregated school system; Federal Marshalls had to protect Bridges from
abusive white nationalists as she entered and left William Frantz Elementary School.
"Barbara" is a salute to the pioneering British female saxophonist Barbara
Thompson. (Thompson, incidentally, has a great sense of humour. From 1967 until
his passing in 2018, she was the wife of Jon Hiseman, leader of the jazz-rock fusion
band Colosseum. An interviewer once observed, "Your husband is a musician, too,
isn't he?" "No, he's a drummer," said Thompson.)

Switching from flugelhorn to trumpet, Ahmed closed the first set with "A Paradise In
The Hold," a tune which draws on the drum music played by women pearl-fishers in
Bahrain. She used samples of that music, and live-looping of her own performance.
A dramatic piece which builds to blazing climax, it lends itself superbly to big-band
orchestration. The second set included two tunes from La Saboteuse: the title track
and "El Emadi." Foremost among several promising soloists in the Orchestra was
electric guitarist Charlie Heywood-Snell, who has a delightfully fluid style. An
altogether excellent evening.

Personnel: Yazz Ahmed: flugelhorn, trumpet, Kaoss Pad; Jess Bullen: alto
saxophone; Michelle Burton: alto saxophone; Flo Pugh: tenor saxophone, flute; Asha
Parkinson: tenor saxophone, bass clarinet; Stefan Zene: baritone saxophone;
George Jefford: trumpet; Marco Natale-Miles: trumpet; Sam Baker: trumpet; Jack
Ross: trumpet; William King: trombone; Joseph Bristow: trombone; Oli Rath:
trombone; Alex Froggatt: bass trombone; Charlie Heywood-Snell: electric guitar;
John Wilson: acoustic piano, electric keyboard; Ed Rice: vibraphone; Giovanni
Cresseri: bass; Callum Smith: drums, percussion; Adam Sikora: drums, percussion;
Scott Stroman: conductor.