The ALISON RAYNER QUINTET
7:30 p.m. Friday 15 May
with
DIANE McLOUGHLIN sax
DEIRDRE CARTWRIGHT guitar
STEVE LODDER piano
ALISON RAYNER bass
BUSTER BIRCH drums
Much-lauded, award-winning and eclectic quintet ARQ, led by bassist and composer Alison Rayner, has spent twelve years crafting a unique sound that draws on jazz, folk, pop and Latin influences. They are widely celebrated for their four album releases and twelve years of UK & European touring across jazz clubs, concert halls and international festivals, regularly selling out London clubs such as Ronnie Scott’s and the Pizza Express Jazz Club, as well as regional venues across the UK. ARQ have been winners in both the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and the British Jazz Awards and their 2025 album Sema4 was awarded Presto Music Jazz Recording of the Year.
ARQ’s new release Sema4 showcases the quintet’s “stylistic virtuosity and masterful interplay” and has received extensive airplay, press coverage, reviews and live radio sessions, such as Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ show. Previous releases: August (2014) , A Magic Life (2016) and Short Stories (2019) all garnered press acclaim and international radio play, with Rayner winning a coveted Ivor Novello Composer Award for ‘There is a Crack in Everything’ from Short Stories.
This performance will feature music from all four ARQ albums, whilst emphasising their latest release. Expect richly nuanced compositions, rhythmic interplay and folk-infused melodies – music that is inventive, colourful and unfailingly melodic, possessed of a strong narrative and cinematic quality.
★ Presto Music Awards Jazz Recording of the Year 2025
★ Ivor Novello Composer Awards ‘There is a Crack in Everything’ 2019
★ All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards Ensemble of the Year 2018
★ British Jazz Awards Best Small Group 2018
ARQ are:
Alison Rayner bass | Buster Birch drums | Deirdre Cartwright guitar | Diane McLoughlin saxophone | Steve Lodder piano
Press
• “Mingling folk-dance vitality, high-energy soloing, ambient spaciness and episodes of poignant tenderness” John Fordham, UK Jazz News (March 2025)
• “A masterclass in musical storytelling and collective expression – full of emotion, nuance, and shared human experience” Jazz in Europe
• “Bright, open jazz music that rejoices in human experience without sentimentalising it” ★★★★ BBC Music Magazine
Website and social handles
ARQ website: http://www.alisonrayner.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alisonrayner.arq
Bandcamp: https://arqmusic1.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonraynerquintet/
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/0jl7NhcZg6A?si=nHHGK-QDipXO9zf-
ARQ’s new release Sema4 showcases the quintet’s “stylistic virtuosity and masterful interplay” and has received extensive airplay, press coverage, reviews and live radio sessions, such as Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ show. Previous releases: August (2014) , A Magic Life (2016) and Short Stories (2019) all garnered press acclaim and international radio play, with Rayner winning a coveted Ivor Novello Composer Award for ‘There is a Crack in Everything’ from Short Stories.
This performance will feature music from all four ARQ albums, whilst emphasising their latest release. Expect richly nuanced compositions, rhythmic interplay and folk-infused melodies – music that is inventive, colourful and unfailingly melodic, possessed of a strong narrative and cinematic quality.
★ Presto Music Awards Jazz Recording of the Year 2025
★ Ivor Novello Composer Awards ‘There is a Crack in Everything’ 2019
★ All Party Parliamentary Jazz Awards Ensemble of the Year 2018
★ British Jazz Awards Best Small Group 2018
ARQ are:
Alison Rayner bass | Buster Birch drums | Deirdre Cartwright guitar | Diane McLoughlin saxophone | Steve Lodder piano
Press
• “Mingling folk-dance vitality, high-energy soloing, ambient spaciness and episodes of poignant tenderness” John Fordham, UK Jazz News (March 2025)
• “A masterclass in musical storytelling and collective expression – full of emotion, nuance, and shared human experience” Jazz in Europe
• “Bright, open jazz music that rejoices in human experience without sentimentalising it” ★★★★ BBC Music Magazine
Website and social handles
ARQ website: http://www.alisonrayner.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alisonrayner.arq
Bandcamp: https://arqmusic1.bandcamp.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alisonraynerquintet/
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/0jl7NhcZg6A?si=nHHGK-QDipXO9zf-
“In a Jazz age with an abundance of technical excellence – and ARQ have it in great quantity – we look for something else as well. ARQ bring to the stage a musical bond that is expressed in such fun and joyful moments that it is a pleasure to be in the room with them. Jazz of the highest quality.” Phil Rose, Birmingham Jazz
