Zoe Rahman (born 20 January 1971) is an English

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

composer and pianist.

Early life

Rahman was born and brought up in

Chichester Chichester ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in the Chichester District, Chichester district of West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher ...

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, England, by a Bengali father, Mizan Rahman, and an English-Irish mother. Her mother was a doctor who grew up in New Zealand. Rahman describes her childhood as being "completely English" and has described herself as culturally "very English". Her father's family is from

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; , ), List of renamed places in Bangladesh, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital city, capital and list of cities and towns in Bangladesh, largest city of Bangladesh. It is one of the list of largest cities, largest and list o ...

. Her maternal grandmother is from Ireland. Rahman started off playing classical piano when she was about four years old. Her family had a piano that her parents had bought for £10 and Rahman's older sister started to play; her other two siblings and Rahman followed her footsteps. Rahman and her younger brother,

Idris Idris may refer to: People * Idris (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Idris (prophet), Islamic prophet in the Qur'an, traditionally identified with Enoch, an ancestor of Noah in the Bible * Idris ...

, got into listening to jazz when they were teenagers and tried to work out how to play. Rahman had jazz piano lessons with various teachers and found opportunities to gig with other musicians. She studied classical piano at the

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is one of the oldest music schools in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the firs ...

, received a music degree at

St Hugh's College St Hugh's College is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It is located on a site on St Margaret's Road, to the north of the city centre. It was founded in 1886 by Elizabeth Wordsworth as a ...

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

, and won a scholarship to study jazz performance at

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, where she had lessons with pianist

Joanne Brackeen Joanne Brackeen (born Joanne Grogan; July 26, 1938) is an American jazz pianist and music educator. Music career Brackeen was born in Ventura, California, United States, and attended the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music. She was a fan of pop p ...

. While in America she formed her own trio, which featured bassist Joshua Davis and drummer Bob Moses. In 2002, Rahman discovered Bengali music, when her father was hospitalised and she had transferred some of his cassette tapes of 1950s Bengali music to CDs for him to listen to while he recuperated. Rahman became intrigued by the sounds and subsequent trips to Bangladesh allowed Rahman to learn about her background through music.

Later life and career

Radio and television appearances

Rahman has been the featured artist on radio and television programmes such as

Courtney Pine Courtney Pine, (born 18 March 1964) is a British jazz musician, who was the principal founder in the 1980s of the black British band the Jazz Warriors. Although known primarily for his saxophone playing, Pine is a multi-instrumentalist, also ...

's ''Jazz Crusade'' on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

'',

BBC London BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London, Surrey and parts of the surrounding areas of the Home Counties. Its output includes the daily '' BBC London'' news bulletin and w ...

's ''Now's the Time'', Andrea Oliver's '' The Selector'', Northern Broadcasting Internet Radio,

Resonance FM Resonance 104.4 FM is a London based non-profit community radio station specialising in the arts run by the London Musicians' Collective (LMC). The station is staffed by two permanent staff members, including Chief Executive Officer Peter Lance ...

and

Julian Joseph Julian Raphael Nathaniel Joseph OBE (born 11 May 1966) is a British jazz pianist, bandleader, composer, arranger, and broadcaster. He has worked solo, in his big band, trio, quartet, forum project band or electric band. Biography Joseph was bo ...

's Jazz series for

Meridian Television ITV Meridian (previously Meridian Broadcasting) is the holder of the ITV franchise for the South and South East of England. The station was launched at midnight on 1 January 1993, replacing previous broadcaster Television South, and is owned ...

. She has performed live on the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is a British Public broadcasting, public service broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception area, language selection and audience reach. It broadcas ...

and on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

's '' In Tune''.

Recording and performances

In 2001, her debut album '' The Cynic'' was released. In July 2006, her second album ''

Melting Pot A melting pot is a Monoculturalism, monocultural metaphor for a wiktionary:heterogeneous, heterogeneous society becoming more wiktionary:homogeneous, homogeneous, the different elements "melting together" with a common culture; an alternative bei ...

'' was released. ''Melting Pot'' was nominated for the

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

Album of the Year and won Jazz Album of the Year at the

Parliamentary Jazz Awards The Parliamentary Jazz Awards in the United Kingdom are organised by the All Party Parliamentary Jazz Appreciation Group (APPJAG) at the Houses of Parliament in London. The group consists of over a hundred members drawn from across the UK politica ...

in 2006. In September 2008, her third album '' Where Rivers Meet'' was released. In May 2009, her fourth album '' Zoe Rahman Trio: Live'' was released. In January 2012, her fifth album '' Kindred Spirits'' was released. ''Kindred Spirits'' won the Best Jazz Act award at the 2012

MOBO Awards The MOBO Awards (Music of Black Origin, also known as the MOBOs) are an annual British music award presentation honouring achievements in " music of black origin", including hip hop, grime, UK Drill, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, gospel, and Ba ...

. Rahman was sought out by music producer Paul Vlcek to play with

George Mraz George Mraz (born Jiří Mráz; 9 September 1944 – 16 September 2021) was a Czech-born American jazz bassist and alto saxophonist. He was a member of Oscar Peterson's group, and worked with Pepper Adams, Stan Getz, Michel Petrucciani, Stepha ...

. In July 2013, their album ''

Unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

'' was released. Rahman's first solo piano album, ''Dreamland'', was recorded in 2015 and released by Manushi. WiKi CourtneyPine20100611f

Aside from working with her own groups, Rahman continues to perform and record (both in the UK and internationally) with a diverse range of other artists. These have included:

;

Clark Tracey Clark Tracey (born 5 February 1961) is a British jazz drummer, band leader, and composer. Early life Tracey was born in London, England. He first played piano and vibraphone before switching to drums at age 13, studying under Bryan Spring. C ...

's New Quintet; Soothsayers; Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA Orchestra;

Keziah Jones Keziah Jones (born Olufemi Sanyaolu on 10 January 1968) is a Nigerian singer-songwriter and guitarist. He describes his musical style as "Blufunk", which is a fusion between raw blues elements and hard, edgy funk rhythms. Also his Nigerian roo ...

(2003/2004 European tours); David Walcott (2003 Festival, Barbados); Mekaal Hasan (2001 tour, Pakistan). She co-wrote a jazz-based theatre show, ''I'm a Fool to Want You'', about the French writer/musician

Boris Vian Boris Vian (; 10 March 1920 – 23 June 1959) was a French polymath who is primarily remembered for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of th ...

, with ''Told by an Idiot'' Theatre Company (UK / South American tours 2003–2005). Other albums or DVDs that she has appeared on include: Courtney Pine's ''Song (The Ballad Book)'' and ''Europa'';

Reem Kelani Reem Kelani (born 1963) is a British Palestinian musician. She was born in Manchester, England, and was initially influenced by the jazz music her father played on his record player. Her interest in Palestinian music was sparked by the music ...

's ''Sprinting Gazelle''; the

Quintet's ''The Calling'' and ''The Mighty Sa''; Tony Bianco's ''In a Western Sense''; Gary Boyle's ''Games''; Soothsayers' ''Tangled Roots''; Brigitte Escobar's ''Brigitte''; Terry Hall/ Mushtaq's '' The Hour of Two Lights'';

Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian Cevanne Horrocks-Hopayian is a British composer, singer, and harper. She is considered one of today's leading emerging composers. Biography Horrocks-Hopayian was born in Suffolk, England and is of British/Armenian descent. As a child school ...

's ''Big Ears''; and Keziah Jones's ''Live at the

Élysée Montmartre Élysée Montmartre () is a music venue located at 72 Boulevard de Rochechouart, Paris, France. It opened in 1807, burned down in 2011, reopened in 2016, and has a capacity of 1,380 patrons. The nearest métro station is Anvers. Origins The � ...

'' DVD.

Composer

Rahman composed the piano score for the 2020 touring production of ''The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel''.

Tours

Rahman has toured extensively throughout the UK and internationally, including

North Sea Jazz Festival The North Sea Jazz Festival is a festival held annually on the second weekend of July in the Netherlands at the Ahoy venue. The festival moved to Rotterdam in 2006 after the demolition of the Statenhal in The Hague where it was originally held. ...

, Molde Jazz Festival, Palermo Jazz Festival, Algeria's European Cultural Festival,

Cork Jazz Festival The Cork Jazz Festival is an annual music festival held in Cork City, Ireland, in late October. The first festival began on Friday 27 October 1978, and has been held every year (except in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The festival is Ire ...

, Estonia's Nargen Festival, Barbados Jazz Festival and

Rochester International Jazz Festival Established in 2002, the Rochester International Jazz Festival takes place in June of each year in Rochester, New York. It is owned and produced by RIJF, LLC, whose principals are John Nugent, Co-Producer and Artistic Director, and Marc Iacona, ...

. From 2009 to 2012, Rahman toured with

Jerry Dammers Jeremy David Hounsell Dammers GCOT (born 22 May 1955) is a British musician who was a founder, keyboard player and primary songwriter of the Coventry-based ska band the Specials (also known as the Special A.K.A.) and later the Spatial AKA Orch ...

' The Spatial AKA Orchestra, bringing

Sun Ra Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...

to a new audience. She also worked with bands led by bassist

Danny Thompson Daniel Henry Edward Thompson (born 4 April 1939) is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson and John Ma ...

, exploring the legacy of songwriter

Nick Drake Nicholas Rodney Drake (19 June 1948 – 25 November 1974) was an English singer-songwriter and musician. An accomplished acoustic guitarist, Drake signed to Island Records at the age of twenty while still a student at the University of Cambridg ...

; singer

Martha Wainwright Martha Wainwright (born May 8, 1976) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. She has released seven critically-acclaimed studio albums. Wainwright is the daughter of musicians Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and the younger si ...

; and saxophonist

Personal life

Rahman has a son, who was born in 2014.

Reception

Rahman has been described in ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'' as "one of the finest young pianists in Europe" and "a remarkable pianist by any standard".

Awards and nominations

Discography

An asterisk (*) indicates that the year is that of release.

As leader/co-leader

References

External links

* * * *
Zoe Rahman
on BritBangla {{DEFAULTSORT:Rahman, Zoe 1971 births Living people 21st-century English pianists 21st-century English women pianists Alumni of St Hugh's College, Oxford Berklee College of Music alumni English jazz pianists English people of Bangladeshi descent English people of Irish descent Musicians from Chichester Women jazz pianists