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Zoe Rahman
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.
Her second album, "Melting Pot", was nominated in 2006 for one of the UK’s most prestigious music awards, the Nationwide Mercury Prize and it also won ‘Jazz Album of the Year’ at the UK’s first Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
Since then, she has recorded two more critically acclaimed albums. "Live" showcases her superb trio, American drummer Gene Calderazzo and British bass player Oli Hayhurst, as well as featuring the hauntingly beautiful playing of her brother, clarinetist Idris Rahman. Her fourth album, "Where Rivers Meet", is a stunning collaboration with her brother Idris, exploring music from their Bengali heritage. Originally they toured this project in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as a duo but for the album they teamed up with Zoe’s trio as well as Dhaka-based vocal stars Arnob and Gaurob, violinist Samy Bishai and percussionist Kuljit Bhamra to produce “a wholly original brand of Anglo-Asian music” (Sunday Times).
Zoe has toured extensively throughout the UK and internationally, including, most recently: North Sea Jazz Festival; Molde Jazz Festival; Palermo Jazz Festival; Algeria’s European Cultural Festival; Cork Jazz Festival; Estonia’s Nargen Festival; Barbados Jazz Festival among many others.
She has been featured on numerous TV and radio programmes, including BBC2’s Jools Holland, BBC4’s Women in Jazz and ‘Way To Blue’, BBC2’s Desi DNA, Channel S, Bangla TV, Meridian TV, BBC Radio 4 (Front Row, Loose Ends, Woman’s Hour), BBC Radio 2 (Jools Holland, Courtney Pine, Charles Hazlewood), BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction, World on 3).
Aside from her own groups, she has worked with a diverse range of other artists, including: Courtney Pine; Jerry Dammers’ Spatial AKA Orchestra; Soothsayers, Clark Tracey; Martha Wainwright; Danny Thompson; Tony Bianco; Tom Bancroft’s ‘Band of Eden’; Steve Williamson; James Carter; Keziah Jones, Bob Moses among many others.
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Zoe Rahman, Jason Adasiewicz, Vilhelm Bromander
by Ludovico Granvassu
Zoe Rahman opens the show with the beautiful writing and arrangements of her latest album, followed by two remarkable recent releases by Jason Adasiewicz. At the end of the set the compelling music of Vilhelm Bromander.Happy listening!Playlist Ben Allison Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & Pyeng Threadgill)" 0:00 Zoe Rahman For Love" Colour of Sound (Manushi) 0:16 Host talks 6:33 Jason Adasiewicz River Blindness" Roy's World (Corbett vs. Dempsey) 8:15 Jason Adasiewicz The Waltz" Roscoe ...
read moreZoe Rahman: Colour of Sound
by Neil Duggan
If you have shown your virtuosity on the piano in a variety of live and studio recordings, been recognized as one of the leading lights in contemporary British jazz and won multiple awards, what do you do next? In Zoe Rahman's case, more of the same but expanded and magnified. Most often heard in a trio format, Rahman has assembled seven trusted musicians to create an uplifting album, The Colour of Sound. Perhaps resulting from her background in ...
read moreCourtney Pine: Spirituality
by Chris May
In the 1980s, as a co-founder of the band Jazz Warriors and with his debut album Journey To The Urge Within (Island, 1986), reed player Courtney Pine inspired a generation young black British musicians, and not a few white ones, too. On Spirituality, Pine teams up with pianist Zoe Rahman, herself an influential figure, for a reprise of their album Song (The Ballad Book) (Destin-E, 2015). Both albums feature Pine on bass clarinet and Rahman in a ...
read moreZoe Rahman: Kindred Spirits
by Chris May
Zoe RahmanKindred SpiritsManushi Records2012 Holy soul food, Batman! It feels good to listen to a musician who plays from the heart rather than the brain. Not that British pianist Zoe Rahman is deficient in the grey stuff or technique. She studied music at Oxford University, the Royal Academy of Music and Berklee; once, twice, three times an alumnus. But when Rahman is seated at the keyboard, and her band kicks in, ...
read moreZoe Rahman Trio: Live with special guest Idris Rahman
by Chris May
Zoe Rahman was most recently heard on disc, as leader, with the enchanting Where Rivers Meet (Manushi, 2008), in which the British-born pianist explored her Bengali father's musical heritage. The core band for that album included Zoe's clarinetist brother, Idris, and her regular bassist Oli Hayhurst and drummer Gene Calderazzo, an American who's long been resident in London. The same quartet is featured on Live with special guest Idris Rahman, with Idris guesting on two tracks.
Live was ...
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