Zoe Rahman & Laura Macdonald
Two of the UK's top voices in contemporary jazz combine to create a rich and uplifting musical tapestry when they perform at Jazz At The Merchants House!
About Zoe Rahman & Laura Macdonald
Zoe Rahman - Piano
Laura MacDonald - Alto Saxophone
Zoe Rahman
“Her sound is drenched with originality and jazz legitimacy….a world class artist, composer and performer… Zoe shines as one of Britain’s most powerful compositional voices and important contemporary artists.” Ivors Academy
Described in The Observer as “a remarkable pianist by any standard”, Zoe Rahman has firmly established herself as one of the brightest stars on the contemporary jazz scene. A vibrant and highly individual pianist/composer, her style is deeply rooted in jazz yet it reflects her classical background, British/Bengali heritage and her very broad musical taste. Known for her powerful technique, wide-ranging imagination and exuberant performance, she has become a highly sought-after musician on the international jazz scene.
Born in Chichester, UK, to a Bengali father and English mother, Zoe studied classical piano at the Royal Academy of Music, took a music degree at Oxford University and then won a scholarship to study jazz performance at Berklee College of Music, Boston, where she studied with the inspirational pianist JoAnne Brackeen.
In July 2023 Zoe released her new album “Colour of Sound”, “the most ambitious, many-hued, uplifting large-ensemble music of her multi-award winning career”.
In 2021 Zoe won the Ivor Novello Impact Award at the Ivors Composer Awards, she won a MOBO Award (best Jazz Act 2012) for her album Kindred Spirits, “a work of breathtaking musical imagination” (Metro) and her second album, Melting Pot, was nominated in 2006 for one of the UK’s most prestigious music awards, the Nationwide Mercury Prize, alongside the likes of Thom Yorke (Radiohead), Arctic Monkeys and Muse. The album also won ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ at the UK’s inaugural Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
Her album, Where Rivers Meet, a stunning collaboration with her brother Idris, explores music from their Bengali heritage. “A wholly original brand of Anglo-Asian music” (Sunday Times). In 2022, the album was included in the allaboutjazz.com ’10 over-looked Classics’ list: “Ten randomly selected albums, recorded in the US and Europe between 1953 and 2021, which show jazz off at its finest”
Zoe has been invited to play at many international jazz festivals and has worked extensively throughout the UK and internationally, including performances in USA, Japan, Germany (NDR), Australia, North Sea Jazz, Kuwait, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Barbados, Romania, Hungary, Ireland, Algeria, Estonia, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka.
Aside from her own projects, Zoe has performed and recorded with many other artists including Courtney Pine, George Mraz, Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra, Danny Thompson, Clark Tracey, Soothsayers, Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Sahana Bajpaie, Issie Barratt’s Interchange, Larry Stabbins, Arnob, Kuljit Bhamra, Reem Kelani, Roland Gift (FYC), Natacha Atlas, Nikki Yeoh, Yoko Ono, Martha Wainwright.
She has been a featured artist on numerous TV and radio programmes and is frequently invited to sit on high-profile panels – most notably, the Mercury Music Prize, BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year, Nottingham International Jazz Piano competition and the Peter Whittingham Jazz award. She shares her passion for music through teaching in a variety of contexts, inspiring musicians of all ages and abilities, and has worked with the National Youth Jazz Collective, National Youth Jazz Orchestra and as Artist in Residence with youth big band “Jazz Vehicle” in Lincoln (2013-2014).
As a composer, other than writing for her own band, she has written in many contexts, including for the “Told by an Idiot” Theatre Company touring shows Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin (2020) and I’m a Fool To Want You (2004) and the UK National Youth Jazz Orchestra. Her composition “Go With The Flow” is on the 2023/2024 ABRSM Classical Piano exam syllabus.
Laura MacDonald
Laura began playing alto saxophone at the age of sixteen at school in Prestwick, Ayrshire. Her progress was swift. Within months she was playing lead alto in the Strathclyde Youth Jazz Orchestra and gaining her first international experience, performing with SYJO at Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland.
In 1995, having attracted the attention of Dean of Students, Larry Bethune, on a visit to Glasgow, Laura was given a full scholarship to Berklee School of Music in Boston. She studied with Bill Pierce, formerly a saxophonist with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and a distinguished teacher, musician and bandleader, and graduated in 1997 having won the school’s annual Excellence in Performance award.
Laura was nominated for the Outstanding Performer prize at GlasgowInternational Jazz Festival in 1996 and became the first winner of the Scottish YoungJazz Musician of the Year award in 1997.
In 1998, Laura became lead alto player in the Scottish National JazzOrchestra, playing the music of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis and Gil Evans and contributing her composition Royal Mile to the orchestra’s The Edinburgh Suite. She also occupied the lead alto chair in an all-starEllington Big Band alongside former Ellington musicians Buster Cooper and Barry Lee Hall in Switzerland in 2000.
She released her first album, Laura, on Spartacus Records in 2000. Recorded in New York with a heavyweight American trio comprising David Budway (piano),James Genus (bass) and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts (drums), it featured Laura’s own compositions alongside well-known pieces by Charles Mingus and Pat Metheny and received very favourable reviews.
Her second album ‘Awakenings’ featured Laura’s International Sextet playing music she composed for the group’s highly successful initial tour in summer 2003.
2005 saw Laura win a ‘Take Five’ initiative award funded by the Jerwood Foundation. Her next project saw her performing a new specially commissioned Octet piece at the London Jazz Festival in November.
2007 saw Laura complete a tour of Sweden and new C.D recording. October was the premier of a new large scale commission for the Martyn Bennett Trust. February 2008 saw the release of Laura Macdonald and Martina Almgren’s new album ‘Open Book’ and 2008 continued to be an important year with tours to Sweden, Germany and a unique performance as one of Ken Peplowski’s All Stars on the ‘Jazz Cruise 08’ in the Caribbean performing with Wycliffe Gordon and Claudio Roditti.
In 2009 Laura was commissioned to write a new sextet suite that was premiered at Islay Jazz Festival. 2010 saw Laura collaborating with composer Tom Bancroft on a large scale piece called ‘Band of Eden’. In 2012 Laura was commissioned by the European Jazz Network to celebrate their 25 year anniversary and 2014 saw Laura commissioned as part of the 20 for 14 Commonweatlth Games and commissioned at London Jazz Festival to write a Duet piece to coincide with the release of her fourth C.D ‘Duets’ with David Berkman.
Collaborations in 2019 include performances with Zoe Rahman and featured artist on up and coming vocalist Luca Manning’s new album as well as performances throughout the U.K and at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Islay Jazz Festivals
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