Lara Jones is an award-winning saxophonist, improviser, producer, composer & collaborator.
She is a member of avant-garde trio J Frisco, and is currently the recipient of Help Musicians UK’s Peter Whittingham Jazz Award and Jerwood Arts Jazz Encounter Fellowship.
Lara contrasts high energy pulsating electronics and mediative dream-like soundscapes, with solo saxophone & software Ableton; using live processing and field recordings to build structures and stories in her work.
Highlights to date include selection for Manchester Jazz Festival’s Hothouse Programme, which commissioned her to write a new series of audio-visual based works for saxophone & electronics. She’s using the fellowship from Jerwood Arts, in collaboration with Cheltenham Jazz Festival, to develop this work into an immersive installation in a geodesic dome which will be hosted by Manchester Jazz Festival in a train station.
She released her debut solo album ‘Ensō’ in April 2020, which was featured on BBC Radio 3’s ‘Freeness’ and in ‘Jazzwise’ magazine. Performance highlights include Vortex Jazz Club, EFG London Jazz Festival, King’s Place, 'Jazz in the Round', a solo saxophone and electronics show at Cafe OTO and notable concerts as co-director of the Northern Contemporary Collective (a versatile ensemble of musicians, artists and dancers that utilise unusual spaces, improvisation, cross art forms,and deliver educational workshops) at Sounds Like THIS Festival, Leeds.
In her career to date, she has supported artists including Courtney Pine, Novelist, Roller Trio, Portico Quartet, Matthew Bourne, Elliot Galvin, Laura Jurd, collaborated with Archipelago & Shiva Feshareki as a part of Brighter Sounds-Both Sides Now Residency, and performed around Europe at events including Sofar Sounds, EFG London Jazz Festival, Gateshead International Jazz Festival and Tubax International Festival in Munich.