Zara McFarlane

Zara McFarlane brings a rich vocal timbre to her roles as composer and producer, securing MOBO recognition through jazz that advances by integrating soul, folk, and reggae. Her presence has shaped both Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Recordings and the wider U.K. jazz landscape, evidenced by four stylistically distinct studio albums released every three years: Until Tomorrow (2011), If You Knew Her (2014), Arise (2017), and Songs of an Unknown Tongue (2020). In 2024 she released the homage Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan.

Born in Dagenham, England, to Jamaican parents, McFarlane absorbed reggae and R&B from an early age. At 14 she performed a Lauryn Hill song on the television program Stars in Their Eyes. She studied at the BRIT School, the University of West London’s Tech Music School, and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, where jazz became central to her work. Her earliest sessions took place with the house act Bopstar. A six-track debut EP appeared in 2010, yet wider notice followed only after Gilles Peterson signed her to Brownswood and issued Until Tomorrow in October 2011; the refined contemporary jazz recording earned a MOBO nomination. Its successor, the more expansive If You Knew Her, arrived in January 2014 and delivered a MOBO award for Best Jazz Act. Produced by Moses Boyd and released in September 2017, Arise reflected a deeper immersion in Afro-Caribbean textures.

By the close of the 2010s her collaborative recordings and performances had encompassed Denys Baptiste, Nicola Conte, Jazz Jamaica, Soweto Kinch, Orphy Robinson, and Louie Vega. She also joined Dennis Bovell for a new version of Augustus Pablo’s “East of the River Nile.” The 2020s opened with the singles “Black Treasure” and “Everything Is Connected,” which preceded Songs of an Unknown Tongue in July 2020. Later, working with clarinetist and saxophonist Giacomo Smith, she issued the 2024 tribute album Sweet Whispers: Celebrating Sarah Vaughan, interpreting material associated with the legendary vocalist.