Jasmine Myra

Jasmine Myra (given name Jasmine Whalley) is an alto saxophonist, flutist, composer, and bandleader based in Leeds, England. Her music, deeply rooted in jazz, ranges across post-bop and modal music, crossover classical, and contemporary instrumental. Bring to Light, her crowd-funded 2019 debut EP, showcased her core quintet crisscrossing post-bop, electronica, and hip-hop with influences ranging from MF Doom and Soweto Kinch to Kenny Wheeler. 2022′s Horizons — billed to Jasmine Myra — showcased an organic jazz octet appended by harp and string quartet, and appeared from Gondwana. It was produced by the label’s trumpeter and A&R man Matthew Halsall. Embraced by U.K. DJs and programmers, Myra was nominated for that year’s Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Award.
Born Jasmine Whalley in Leeds, her father was a jazz pianist with a massive record collection. In primary school she chose violin as her instrument, but that didn’t quite work. In high school she took up the saxophone and shortly thereafter, she decided upon her vocation. She immersed herself in the music of pioneering alto players including Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley and the jazz tradition at large. She played in pickup music-room bands as well as the school’s jazz band and orchestra. She also played in the Leeds Youth Jazz Rock Orchestra.
Myra attended the Leeds College of Music, studying jazz composition and performance. She played in many school bands, and worked with a quartet called Têtes de Pois. This group — guitarist Ben Haskins, keyboardist George MacDonald, electric bassist Owen Burns, and drummer George Hall — eventually became the quintet known as Jasmine. They gigged across Leeds and Manchester (both have healthy, supportive music scenes) and played some London gigs with Nubya Garcia. She also studied at the Leeds Conservatoire and played in her instructor Rob Mitchell’s jazz hip-hop band Abstract Orchestra.
In 2018, Myra undertook a crowd-funding campaign to record her original music with the quintet. Released under the moniker Jasmine, 2019′s Bring to Light (on the Tight Lines label) is a nine-track jazz-hip-hop-electronica fusion EP and drew accolades from critics, bookers, and club and radio DJs; the band was selected by Jazz North Introduces for 2018/2019. Their prize? Showcasing their music at six leading jazz festivals in the north.
When the pandemic forced a global lockdown in 2020, Myra was initially depressed at being isolated from her friends, bandmates, and the music scene. She decided to combat her depression by composing for a larger group. Influenced by Kenny Wheeler’s elegant, diverse music (in particular Windmill Tilter, Gnu High, Deer Wan, and Music for Large & Small Ensembles), she began expanding her harmonic palette to include some classical instrumentation. At the end of quarantine, Myra began experimenting with her band as an expanded ensemble in rehearsal and in performance. Trumpeter and Gondwana A&R man Matthew Halsall was deeply impressed by what he heard. He signed her to the label. Enlarging her group to a core nonet, the new personnel included Anna Chandler on soprano saxophone, Jasper Green on keyboards, acoustic bassists Gavin Barras and Sam Quintana, and percussionist Greg Burns. Guitarist Haskins and drummer Hall, who’d played on Bring to Light, also returned. She recruited harpist Alice Roberts, violinists Isabella Baker and Lisa Natsuno, violist Elizabeth Lister, and cellist Lizzie Elliot. Released in July, Horizons left hip-hop behind for a lusher, more organic approach with expansive textures and melodic invention. It won international acclaim and presented more opportunities for the group to tour. ~ Thom Jurek