Page 142 - Guildhall School Media Highlights Coverage Book - 2019-2020
P. 142
30 November 2019
Yazz Ahmed & The Guildhall Jazz
Orchestra
By CHRIS MAY
Yazz Ahmed / The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra / Scott Stroman
Milton Court Concert Hall
Yazz Ahmed & The Guildhall Jazz Orchestra
London
Performances by student orchestras rarely qualify as must-see events. Audiences
tend to be composed of fellow students and friends and family members and the
music does not always measure up to the volume of applause. But pick your gig
carefully and you can strike gold. In London, a good bet, always, are performances
by the Guildhall School of Music & Drama's Jazz Orchestra. Not only does
director Scott Stroman front talented, well-rehearsed lineups, he also books guest
soloists from amongst the Guildhall's roll call of star alumni. This includes key stylists
on London's happening woke jazz scene such as reed player Shabaka Hutchings,
singer Zara McFarlane, keyboardist Sarah Tandy and tonight's guest, the British-
Bahraini trumpeter and flugelhornist Yazz Ahmed. It does not hurt that the
Orchestra's performances are given in the Guildhall's well appointed Milton Court
Concert Hall.
The bar was set high for Ahmed following a memorable performance in the summer
by saxophonist Steve Williamson, a trailblazer for the new London scene who in
