Born in 1983, in Carshalton, Surrey, trumpet player Yazz Ahmed grew up surrounded by music. Yazz’s Mother was a ballet dancer for the Royal Ballet and would play classical music - as well as jazz - around the house while Yazz’s Grandfather, Terry Brown, a jazz trumpet player in the 1950s, would tell Yazz stories from his days on the road.
During the 1950’s, Terry performed with the original John Dankworth Seven, Tubby Hayes, Ronnie Scott, Jimmy Skidmore, and Phil Seamen, and many other British jazz musicians. Terry later became a record producer for Pye and Philips Records.
Tubby Hayes (tenor),
Terry Brown (trumpet),
Jimmy Skidmore (alto)
Yazz has always had a love for music. By the age of nine she had started to take up a personal interest when she began trumpet lessons at school. Yazz found an instant connection with the trumpet and took to the instrument naturally.
During her time at school, Yazz played in the school orchestra and at her local music centre - the Merton Music Foundation. She went on to study for a degree in music at Kingston University and in 2005, won a scholarship to study on the postgraduate jazz course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.
Yazz has performed with various groups of many contrasting musical styles including funk band Big Daddy Moochin’, the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, many small jazz ensembles
. She has also participated in some orchestral work and was featured in the Manic Street Preachers' music video of their single Ocean Spray.
Yazz has had the good fortune to work with a number of internationally acclaimed jazz musicians, including Toshiko Akiyoshi, Pete Saberton, Rufus Reid, Jean Toussaint, Henry Lowther, Mark Nightingale, and Sir John Dankworth.
She is currently working with her own horn section ‘Toot Sweets’, the Andy Panayi Big Band,Eleanor Keenan’s Broad Band, and promoting her own projects with the Yazz Ahmed Quintet.
Yazz formed her Quintet in 2006 as part of a student performance project when she was studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Since then, as her music has developed, the personal has changed in order to find the right musicians to interpret her compositions and to involve current members’ writing skills. The group now includes Alam Nathoo (tenor sax), John Bailey (piano), Jay Darwish (bass) and George Hart (drums).
The 
musicians featured come from a contrasting spectrum of musical backgrounds:
Although Alam is currently in his final year on the post-graduate jazz course at Trinity School of Music, he has performed with the Heritage Orchestra, the Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz Orchestra, as well as rock band McFly.
Jay Darwish tours regularly on bass guitar with singer/songwriter Neuton Faulkner, plays double bass with jazz artists such as Alan Barnes, and specialises in many varying styles.
George Hart performs frequently with the F-ire Collective and Brigitte Beraha, with pianist John Bailey, and works regularly with many British jazz musicians such as Julian Siegel and Harry Beckett.
The Quintet has performed at many London jazz venues such as The Vortex, The Spice of Life, and The Bull’s Head.
Still in the early stages of their careers, the Yazz Ahmed Quintet hope to continue performing in and around London and to achieve touring support from the Jazz Services/Arts Council funding scheme.
Her influences? The list on Yazz's Myspace site is long but amongst them you will find Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Wheeler and Thelonius Monk - but as Yazz says: ‘I could go on forever …’.
Yazz is currently working on her debut album which will feature her Quintet, Janek Gwizdala, and a few other musicians on the British jazz scene. Listen to a few tracks from her forthcoming album on her Myspace site by clicking on www.myspace.com/yazzahmed where you will also find details of where you can hear her playing.
Yazz plays Eclipse trumpet and flugel horn.
© Yazz Ahmed and Sandy Brown Jazz 2009
© Photographs Yazz Ahmed