Draft:Alison Rayner
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Alison Rayner | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupations | Musician, composer, bandleader |
| Instruments | Double bass, bass guitar |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
Alison Rayner is a British jazz bassist and composer. She was a founding member of the all-female Latin-jazz group The Guest Stars in the 1980s, co-founded the jazz organisation Blow the Fuse in 1989, and currently leads the contemporary jazz quintet ARQ (Alison Rayner Quintet). In 2019 she received an Ivors Academy Jazz Composition Award for her piece "There is a Crack in Everything".[1]
Career
[edit]Early career and The Guest Stars
[edit]Rayner has been active as a jazz and contemporary music bassist since the mid-1970s.[2] In the 1980s she was a founding member of The Guest Stars, an all-female Latin-jazz group that toured internationally, playing venues across seventeen countries including New York's Blue Note, and recorded three albums during a five-year period.[3][2]
She has worked as a session and touring bassist across jazz, funk, soul and world music, appearing on around thirty albums with musicians including guitarists Tal Farlow and John Etheridge, jazz poet Jayne Cortez, vocalists Carol Grimes and Ian Shaw, saxophonist Jean Toussaint, guitarist Deirdre Cartwright and trumpeter Chris Hodgkins.[4][2]
Blow the Fuse
[edit]In 1989 Rayner co-founded Blow the Fuse with guitarist Deirdre Cartwright, an artist-led jazz organisation running a record label and club nights in London, with a particular emphasis on promoting women in jazz.[5][4] Blow the Fuse received the Services to Jazz award at the 2020 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
ARQ
[edit]Rayner leads ARQ (the Alison Rayner Quintet), a band featuring Deirdre Cartwright (guitar), Diane McLoughlin (saxophone), Steve Lodder (piano) and Buster Birch (drums).[6] Formed in the early 2010s, the group has released four studio albums: August (2014), A Magic Life (2016), Short Stories (2019) and Sema4 (2025).[7]
ARQ won Ensemble of the Year at the 2018 Parliamentary Jazz Awards.[2] Rayner's composition "There is a Crack in Everything", from the album Short Stories, won the Jazz Composition for Small Ensemble award at the 2019 Ivors Composer Awards (Ivor Novello Awards).[1] The band's 2025 album Sema4 won the Presto Music Jazz Recording of the Year award.[8]
Rayner was runner-up in the Double Bass category of the British Jazz Awards in both 2018 and 2019.[2]
Discography
[edit]- As leader (ARQ)
- August (2014)
- A Magic Life (2016)
- Short Stories (2019)
- SEMA4 (2025)
Awards
[edit]- Ivors Composer Award (Jazz Composition for Small Ensemble), 2019 — "There is a Crack in Everything"[1]
- Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Ensemble of the Year (with ARQ), 2018[2]
- Parliamentary Jazz Awards, Services to Jazz (with Blow the Fuse), 2020
- Presto Music Jazz Recording of the Year, 2025 (with ARQ, for Sema4)[8]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "The 2019 Ivors Composer Awards Winners Announced". PRS for Music / The Ivors Academy. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
- ^ a b c d e f "Alison Rayner". All About Jazz. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
- ^ "Alison Rayner – New ARQ album 'SEMA4'". UK Jazz News. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
- ^ a b "Alison Rayner Quintet - Short Stories". The Jazz Mann. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
- ^ "Alison Rayner". National Jazz Archive. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
- ^ "Alison Rayner Quintet (ARQ)". Ronnie Scott's. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
- ^ "OTL25 (Nov): Alison Rayner Quintet". Cadogan Hall. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
- ^ a b "Jazz in the House: ARQ". Lauderdale House. Retrieved 2026-07-29.
Category:British jazz bass guitarists Category:British jazz double-bassists Category:Living people Category:British women bass guitarists
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