Zara McFarlane
Jazz
Multi-award-winning singer-songwriter Zara McFarlane is known for her unique sound鈥痬elding influences from jazz, reggae, folk鈥痑nd nu-soul.
Zara first caught the attention of world-renowned DJ Gilles Peterson on the release of her self- produced EP in 2010. She has released four studio albums on his label Brownswood Recordings and went on to win best Jazz Act at the MOBO awards (2014) and Urban Music Awards (2015). From her jazz roots, honing her craft with Tomorrow’s Warriors, Zara continues to push the boundaries of jazz adjacent music via an exploration into the folk and spiritual traditions of her ancestral motherland, Jamaica, described as a ‘potent hybrid’ in ‘Arise’.
The twice Jazz FM vocalist of the year winner has led her band in festivals from British Summer Time (Hyde Park), Field Day and BoomTown Festivals to prestigious international jazz festivals and venues such as Ronnie Scott’s, The Jazz Cafe, The Royal Albert Hall, Love Supreme (UK), Rochester Jazz (US), Cully Jazz (CH), St. Lucia Jazz Festivals and SXSW (US).
With a voice that has been described as ‘a caressing voice of sparkling clarity’, Zara is an in-demand vocalist internationally and has performed with acclaimed musicians including Hugh Masekela, Gregory Porter, Gary Bartz, Ernest Ranglin, Shabaka Hutchings, Moses Boyd and Ezra Collective and collaborated with esteemed producers Lil’ Louie Vega, Swindle, Floating Points, Osunlade and Dennis Bovell.
Zara’s latest album “Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan” marked the centenary of Sarah Vaughan’s birth and received critical acclaim with the Guardian praising McFarlane’s “immense technical and emotional arc”.
