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Alison Rayner Quintet (ARQ)
RONNIE SCOTT'S
17th March 2026, 17.30pm
£30 – £45 >> BOOKINGS <<
“Bright, open jazz music that rejoices in human experience without sentimentalising it.”
— ★★★★ BBC Music
“ Mingling folk-dance vitality, high-energy soloing, ambient spaciness and episodes of poignant tenderness”
— UK Jazz News
“ A masterclass in musical storytelling, full of emotion, nuance, and shared human experience” Jazz in Europe
Much-lauded, award-winning, and eclectic quintet ARQ, led by bassist and composer Alison Rayner, has spent twelve years crafting a unique sound that draws on jazz, folk, pop and Latin influences. They are celebrated for their four album releases and touring across jazz clubs, concert halls and international festivals. They have been recent winners in both the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and British Jazz Awards and were awarded Presto Music Jazz Recording of the Year for their 2025 album Sema4.
Line-up
ALISON RAYNER – bass
DIANE McLOUGHLIN – saxophone
DEIRDRE CARTWRIGHT – guitar
STEVE LODDER – piano
BUSTER BIRCH – drums
2025 release Sema4 showcases the quintet’s “stylistic virtuosity and masterful interplay” and has received extensive airplay and positive reviews. Previous releases: August (2014) , A Magic Life (2016) and Short Stories (2019) all garnered press acclaim and international radio play, with Rayner winning a coveted Ivor Novello Composer Award for ‘There is a Crack in Everything’ from Short Stories.
This performance will feature music from all four ARQ albums. Expect richly
nuanced compositions, rhythmic interplay and folk-infused melodies – music that
is inventive, colourful and unfailingly melodic, possessed of a strong
narrative and cinematic quality.
The quintet’s chemistry is rooted in enduring relationships and Rayner credits
their musical cohesion to the strong bonds they have developed over years of
collaboration. “Each musician in this band has their own voice, but together we
have built something even greater than the sum of its parts”.