Yazz Ahmed to release fourth studio album ‘A Paradise In The Hold’ in early 2025

British-Bahraini trumpeter and composer Yazz Ahmed has announced her much-anticipated fourth studio album, A Paradise In The Hold, will be release on 28 February via her new label Night Time Stories. Alongside this announcement, she is releasing the record’s title track, a powerful 10-minute piece inspired by the voyages of Bahraini pearl divers braving the seas to bring home their precious cargo. It blends traditional Bahraini influences with dynamic textures, eerily manipulated field recordings, polyrhythmic clapping and layered instrumentation that crescendos into a euphoric celebration of collective strength.

Speaking about the new single, Yazz explained: “Composition began during experimentation with recordings from a research trip to hear the Pearl Divers of Muharraq in 2014. I processed short fragments of ceremonial sounds and morphed them into an undulating beat emulating the rise and fall, the breathing of the ocean, the creaking of the boat’s timbers. The piece has evolved during live performances into something of an epic, with solos from myself, George Crowley on bass clarinet and Naadia Sheriff on Fender Rhodes. It continues with a darbuka solo by Corrina Silvester, played over an extended vamp with polyrhythmic clapping from the ensemble, before the uplifting coda. I wanted to paint a picture of the joyful celebrations of the collective efforts of the sailors to bring their riches home.”

A Paradise In The Hold is inspired by Ahmed’s dual heritage, drawing on traditional music and folklore as well as her own personal experience as a British-Bahraini woman. Combining tradition and innovation, she melds ancient rhythms with contemporary musicianship and production sounds. The record is a tribute to the sorrowful songs of Bahrain’s pearl divers, the strength of Arab women, and the celebratory rhythms of women's traditional drumming circles, while also telling the story of Yazz’s own decade-long voyage of self-discovery.

On the album, Yazz says: “A thread in my work has been searching for, establishing, and now finally embracing and celebrating my cultural identity. I want to change the narrative about Arab women. So often, they are misrepresented as oppressed, but in Bahrain, there are many creative women forging new paths. I hope this album shines a light on that vibrancy and strength.”

See the visualiser for ‘A Paradise In The Hold’ below and Yazz Ahmed will be part of a special edition of George Nelson’s Moment’s Notice which closes out the EFG London Jazz Festival on Sunday 24 November at Union Chapel on a bill featuring a unique line up of Courtney Pine, Farida Amadou, Femi Koleoso, and Petter Eldh - for tickets visit efglondonjazzfestival.org.uk