Emma-Jean Thackray is an English musician and DJ, described by The

Guardian Guardian usually refers to: * Legal guardian, a person with the authority and duty to care for the interests of another * ''The Guardian'', a British daily newspaper (The) Guardian(s) may also refer to: Places * Guardian, West Virginia, Unit ...

as a 'musical polymath'. She was born and brought up in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, and is now based in

south London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...

. She is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and vocalist. She has directed the

London Symphony Orchestra The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...

and performed at

Glastonbury Glastonbury ( , ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than across the River ...

, won the Jazz FM public vote for act of the Year in 2021, and the following year won their Album of the Year awards for her debut album ‘Yellow'. She played every instrument, wrote every song and recorded each aspect of the music on her 2025 album ' Weirdo', apart from cameo appearances by

Reggie Watts Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, musician, beatboxer, and actor. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. He refers to himself as a "disinfo ...

and

Kassa Overall Kassa Purush Overall (born 9 October 1982) is an American jazz drummer, producer, rapper and bandleader. History He was born and raised in Seattle, and attended Garfield High School, where several notable musicians have also attended includi ...

. She is signed to

Gilles Peterson Gilles Jérôme Moehrle MBE (; born 28 September 1964), better known as Gilles Peterson (), is a broadcaster, DJ, record label and festival owner. He is renowned for his genre-defying approach to music with jazz at its core. From this base he ...

’s Brownswood label and

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 1923 as the Parloph ...

Early life

Thackray grew up in a working-class family and has spoken openly about growing up in a low income household. She began playing the cornet in primary school, using an instrument her parents bought from a second-hand music shop. By her teens, she was playing Principal Cornet and Trumpet in several brass bands in Yorkshire. She studied jazz performance at the

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama () is a conservatoire located in Cardiff, Wales. It has three theatres: the Richard Burton Theatre, the Bute Theatre, and the Caird Studio. It also includes one concert hall, the Dora Stoutzker Hall, and ...

under British jazz pianist and composer

Keith Tippett Keith Graham Tippetts (25 August 1947 – 14 June 2020), known professionally as Keith Tippett, was a British jazz pianist and composer. According to AllMusic, Tippett's career "...spanned jazz-rock, progressive rock, improvised and contemporar ...

. After her studies at the college, she took a Masters in

orchestral jazz Orchestral jazz or symphonic jazz is a form of jazz that developed in New York City in the 1920s. Early innovators of the genre, such as Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, include some of the most highly regarded musicians, composers, and arr ...

composition at

Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music, dance, and musical theatre conservatoire based in South East London. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. Trini ...

under composers Issie Barratt and

Errollyn Wallen Errollyn Wallen (born 10 April 1958) is a Belize-born British composer and musician, who moved as a child with her family to London, England. Wallen was appointed Master of the King's Music in 2024 by King Charles III, in his first appointment ...

Music career

In 2016, Thackray self-released her debut EP Walrus. The same year, she was selected as a participant on the

Red Bull Music Academy The Red Bull Music Academy (RBMA) is a world-traveling series of music workshops and festivals that was founded in 1998 by Red Bull GmbH. The main five-week event is held in a different city each year. The public portion of its program is a festiv ...

. She wrote and played all the music on ''Ley Lines'' (2018), which was released by Vinyl Factory, as well as recording, producing and mixing the release. The following year her collaboration with drummer

Makaya McCraven Makaya McCraven (born October 19, 1983) is an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Life and career McCraven was born in Paris, France, to jazz drummer and Hungarian singer Ágnes Zsigmondi (of the band Kolind, and from the age of three was r ...

, "Too Shy" / "Run Dem" was released on Chicago label International Anthem. In September 2019 she was asked by

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

to arrange a cover of

Dua Lipa Dua Lipa ( ; born22 August 1995) is an English and Albanian singer, songwriter and actress. List of awards and nominations received by Dua Lipa, Her accolades include seven Brit Awards and three Grammy Awards. Lipa worked as a model before v ...

's ''New Rules'' with all sounds made by brass instruments and car horns, as a trailer for the Greg James Breakfast Show. In 2020, Thackray started self-releasing her own music under the label name Movementt, in collaboration with

Warp Records Warp Records is a British independent record label that specialises in Electronic music, electronic, indie rock and experimental music. It was founded in Sheffield in 1989 by Steve Beckett, Robert Mitchell and Robert Gordon. It has released recor ...

. The label's first release was her solo EP ''Rain Dance'', followed by reissues of her 2016 EP ''Walrus'' and 2018 EP ''Ley Lines''. Also in 2020, Thackray released an EP, Um Yang, with Night Dreamer Records. In June 2021 Thackray made her first appearance on

Jools Holland Julian Miles Holland (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and has worked with many artists including Marc Almond, Jayne County, To ...

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matte ...

show '' Later... With Jools Holland'' performing "Say Something". Later the same year she was signed by

Warner Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalog consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 150,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

. In July 2021, Thackray self-released ''Yellow'', her debut album. The album reached No. 1 in the UK Jazz Albums Chart, and No. 3 in the

UK Independent Albums Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the r ...

. Four-track improvised EP ''Talking Therapy'' by Talking Therapy Ensemble was released on Movementt in February 2022. The ensemble recorded at

Abbey Road Studios Abbey Road Studios (formerly EMI Recording Studios) is a music recording studio at 3 Abbey Road, London, Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of ...

as part of Abbey Road Amplify x Pitchfork London Sessions. In 2025 Thackray released second album Weirdo, which Thackray self-produced, self-performed and self-mixed. Discussing her vocal technique with 15Questions.net she said: “I want to be able to control every single aspect; that's how you master your voice.”

Other artforms

Thackray is also a DJ and has been booked to play records at festivals including

and BBC6Music Festival. She hosted a monthly show on

Worldwide FM Worldwide FM is a Freeform radio, freeform internet radio service that highlights "underground music, culture and stories from around the globe." Founded in 2016 by DJ Gilles Peterson, longtime host of the BBC Radio program ''Worldwide'', the pla ...

between October 2018 and October 2022. The show was nominated for a Best Radio Show at DJ Magazine's Best of British awards 2022. As well as covering for

Mary Anne Hobbs Mary Anne Hobbs (born 16 May 1964) is an English DJ and music journalist from Lancashire, England. She currently hosts on BBC Radio 6 Music. She is also a performer and curator of live events. In 2024 she created a ground-breaking collaboration ...

6Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It primarily plays a wide range of alternative music, from established and emerging artists and bands. In 2002 it was the first national music radio station t ...

and

Soweto Kinch Soweto Kinch (born 10 January 1978) is a British jazz saxophonist and rapper. Biography Born in 1978 in London, England, to a Barbadian father, playwright Don Kinch, and British-Jamaican actress Yvette Harris, Soweto Kinch began playing ...

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 ...

, she hosted occasional shows on NTS and multiple residencies on Jazz FM. She currently has a monthly residency on Tokyo station

J-Wave J-Wave is an commercial radio station based in Tokyo, Japan, broadcasting on 81.3 FM from the Tokyo Skytree to the Tokyo area. J-Wave airs mostly music, including J-pop, C-pop, and Western music, covering a wide range of formats. The station i ...

. In 2022, Emma-Jean scored the soundtrack to a short film, Erax, for Netflix dir. Hebru Brantley

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Yellow'' (2021, Movementt) * '' Weirdo'' (2025, Brownswood /

)

Extended plays

* ''Walrus'' (2016, Movementt) * ''Ley Lines'' (2018,

The Vinyl Factory The Vinyl Factory is a music company based in London. It includes a record label, vinyl pressing plant, and a venue space. It also publishes ''Fact'' magazine and owns Phonica Records store. Overview The Vinyl Factory began as a pressing plan ...

/ Movementt) * ''Um Yang'' 음 양 (2020, Night Dreamer) * ''Rain Dance'' (2020, Movementt)

Personal life

Emma-Jean Thackray is a

Taoist Taoism or Daoism (, ) is a diverse philosophical and religious tradition indigenous to China, emphasizing harmony with the Tao ( zh, p=dào, w=tao4). With a range of meaning in Chinese philosophy, translations of Tao include 'way', 'road', ...

and regularly releases music inspired by her practice. A lifelong fan of

Leeds United FC Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

,Thackray has appeared on

TalkSport Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

, and came second in the Predictions League for

Chris Sutton Christopher Roy Sutton (born 10 March 1973) is an English former professional football player and manager. He later became a pundit, commentator and presenter of football coverage on television and radio. Sutton played from 1991 to 2007 for No ...

's weekly football feature on the BBC. In March 2025 she won

One Football OneFootball is a German platform-based football media company. The OneFootball app features live-scores, statistics and news from 200 leagues in 12 different languages covered by a newsroom located in Berlin. In 2019, OneFootball partnered up wi ...

's AI vs Humans Predictions feature. In January 2023 her long-term partner died suddenly from natural causes. “The album is about survival,” she told The Guardian of Weirdo, the album she made in the aftermath of this bereavement. “If I hadn't made this record, I would not be here". Emma-Jean Thackray is

autistic Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing di ...

and has

ADHD Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation that are excessive and pervasive, impairing in multiple ...

and has spoken openly about her mental health struggles. She is a vegan.

Awards and recognition

{, class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" , - ! scope="col" , Award ! scope="col" , Year ! scope="col" , Nominee(s) ! scope="col" , Category ! scope="col" , Result ! scope="col" class="unsortable", , - !scope="row",

Jazz FM Awards Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African Americans, 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, s ...

, 2022 , ''Yellow'' , Album Of The Year , , , - !scope="row",

AIM Independent Music Awards The AIM Independent Music Awards, hosted by the Association of Independent Music (commonly abbreviated to AIM), began in 2011. It is established through a collection of independent record labels and providing service and support to independent and ...

, 2022 , ''Yellow'' , Best Independent Album , , , - !scope="row", DJ Mag Best of British Awards , 2022 , Radio Show on ''Worldwide FM'' , Best Radio Show , , , - !scope="row",

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 ...

, 2021 , Herself , Best Jazz Act , , , - !scope="row",

, 2021 , Herself , Act Of The Year , , , - !scope="row",

, 2019 , Herself , Breakthrough Artist , ,

References

External links

Official website of Emma-Jean Thackray

Bandcamp profile E. J. Thackray
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thackray, Emma-Jean Year of birth missing (living people) 1980s births Alumni of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Alumni of Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance English cornetists English jazz trumpeters Women jazz trumpeters Jazz cornetists Women trumpeters British jazz bandleaders English multi-instrumentalists Warner Music Group artists Living people Musicians from Leeds British record producers women record producers