Zoe Rahman - Dreamland

Hot on the heals of Zoe Rahman's highly rated new album 'Colours of Sound' (MANUCD007), comes her first solo piano album, 'Dreamland', previously only available via Bandcamp. Rahman's style is deeply rooted in jazz, yet it reflects her classical background, British/Bengali heritage, and her extremely broad musical taste.

Zoe Rahman's first solo piano album of originals and jazz evergreens, with first takes producing most of the forceful and tender results. Rahman's bass-stamping, McCoy Tyner-influenced rhythmic power surges through Red Squirrel, and her lullaby Fast Asleep strikes a characteristic balance of warmth and strength. The Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore song Kar Milono Chao Birohi is an anthemic melody over deep, rolling chords, and Epicentre is an impressionistic, free-rhythmic original. Duke Ellington's The Single Petal of a Rose is casually wrapped in graceful embroideries, Abdullah Ibrahim's Sunset in Blue rocks with the South African legend's youthful vim, and These Foolish Things combines a jaunty swing piano feel and an intensifying bluesy clout. Dreamland is a powerful testament to this fine pianist's growing authority.

Review quotes:
A joy to find Zoe fully in the spotlight, uninterrupted, on this dazzling solo session. A milestone. - ***** BBC Music Magazine

An exciting solo set, brilliantly performed and totally absorbing - **** The Observer

An arresting work suffused with enormous feeling, and bursts of surprising delicacy and power....Rahman shines on her own. - **** Evening Standard

Always exciting, playful, muscular and a tiny bit unhinged, that's what I love about Zoe Rahman. - Jamie Cullum, BBC Radio 2

A powerful testament to this fine pianist's authority - The Guardian