Alison Rayner’s award winning quintet feature compositions that are ‘inventive, colourful and unfailingly melodic’ from their four album releases, including their 2025 album Sema4, winner of Presto Music Jazz Recording of the Year. 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. ARQ’s new release Sema4 showcases the quintet’s “stylistic virtuosity and masterful interplay.” Sema4 was awarded Presto Music Jazz Recording of the Year and has received extensive airplay, press coverage, reviews and live radio sessions, such as Radio 3 ‘In Tune’ show. 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. ARQ have been winners in both the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and the British Jazz Awards. They regularly sell out London clubs such as Ronnie Scott’s and the Pizza Express Jazz Club and are well-known in regional venues across the UK as well as European jazz clubs, concert halls and international festivals. This Jazz in the House performance will feature music from all four ARQ albums, whilst emphasising their latest release. 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. “Mingling folk-dance vitality, high-energy soloing, ambient paciness and episodes of poignant tenderness” John Fordham, UK Jazz News (March 2025) “A masterclass in musical storytelling and collective expression – full of emotion, nuance, and shared human experience” Jazz in Europe “Bright, open jazz music that rejoices in human experience without sentimentalising it” ★★★★ BBC Music Magazine Programmed by Blow the Fuse Photo of Alison credit Tim Dickeson; photos of ARQ credit Robert Crowley Performers Alison Rayner – bass Buster Birch – drums Deirdre Cartwright – guitar Diane McLoughlin – saxophone Steve Lodder – piano