Nord Showcase: Sarah Tandy
Saturday 25th April • 18:30-19:00 • Flow State Hub, Ely’s Yard, E1 6QR
Special solo Nord performance from Sarah Tandy — broadcast live on One Jazz.
Sarah is a unique voice within London’s thriving jazz community. She has gained a reputation as a formidable and dynamic performer, with two sold out shows at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club as well as shows at the Jazz Cafe, Love Supreme Festival, and SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Her talents have seen her much in demand and she has worked with acts as diverse as Nubya Garcia, Yazmin Lacey, Yussef Dayes, Binker Golding, Jazz Jamaica, Mansur Brown, Camilla George, Basement Jaxx, Mabel, Poppy Ajudha, and Akua Naru.
Born and raised in West London, Sarah had a rigorous classical music training and studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Despite this, she had always had an obsession with the visceral excitement of jazz performance and began to find herself increasingly drawn to the creative freedoms and adventures of the city’s live music scene.
She began performing in London back in 2014, gradually forming the musical connections that would become pivotal to her creative journey. During this period she engaged with the many different musical strains that were fermenting in London at the time, honing her craft and finding her way towards a distinctive sound which is both original and rooted in the jazz tradition.
In 2019 she released her debut EP with the pioneering Jazz Refreshed label. The record received widespread praise, and support from Jazz FM and BBC Radio DJs Gilles Peterson and Jamie Cullum. She was also nominated for a Jazz FM award for Breakthrough Act of the Year. In 2020 she was awarded the Parliamentary Jazz award for Best Instrumentalist. She was also invited to compose a piece for the 2019 New Music Biennial on behalf of J Night Jazz in Hull, which was later performed at the South Bank Centre.
During the touring hiatus that occurred in 2020, Sarah sought to further develop her skill set, studying electronic music production in depth and also focusing on writing, arrangement and composition. This has led to writing and production credits on Yazmin Lacey’s recent album Voice Notes, and she continues to collaborate in the studio with a number of artists.
Over the past year, Sarah has been completing her debut album which is scheduled for release in Autumn 2026. The album draws together a number of different music threads and features guest performances from K.O.G., Kyra, Tee Peters and Akin Soul. A freewheeling ride incorporating elements of psychedelic funk, hip-hop, grime, trip-hop and soul, the album is bound together with a palpable love for the wildness and exuberance of Jazz.