Laura Jurd (UK)

Composer-performer Laura Jurd’s distinct voice as an improvising trumpet player is at the heart of everything she creates. Her music celebrates and innovates the rich traditions of jazz and folk music, whilst often reflecting her love of The Beatles and Stravinsky to name two notable influences. Her compositions dig into something primal, earthy and human, whilst taking twists and turns that both invite surprise and evoke the inevitable.

As a composer she has collaborated with the London Sinfonietta, the Festival of New Trumpet Music, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the Ligeti Quartet to name a few. She regularly performs throughout the UK, Europe and beyond with her Mercury-nominated band Dinosaur, having played the likes of North Sea, Montréal and Molde International Jazz festivals to name a few. She can also be heard playing alongside London jazz band Kansas Smitty’s and leading a number of exciting projects in UK jazz and improvised music. Recent collaborators include drummer Seb Rochford, pianist Huw Warren and accordionist / sound-artist Martin Green.

Her latest record The Big Friendly Album was released in September 2022.

Laura Jurd & The Big Friendly Band

Dinosaur

In 2020, Mercury-nominated, “British Jazz super-group” Dinosaur celebrated a decade of music-making as a band with the release of their 3rd album ‘To The Earth‘. Their latest offering finds them in a more acoustic setting, presenting brand new material that reflects on 10 years of miraculous interplay, whilst maintaining the sonic elasticity of their previous, more ‘plugged-in’ album ‘Wonder Trail’. Playing the compositions of bandleader and multi-award winning composer, Laura Jurd, Dinosaur explore Laura’s distinctive yet ever-evolving music with playful abandon and technical prowess, earning them a reputation as some of the most remarkable UK jazz musicians of their generation.