ARQ – Alison Rayner Quintet
ARQ – Alison Rayner Quintet
Wed 19 November 2025
Stage time / 12:00pm
Doors / 11:00am
Celebrating the Jazz Clubs
Award-winning & eclectic quintet ARQ, led by bassist & composer Alison Rayner, are widely celebrated from over ten years of touring & four album releases. They have crafted a unique sound that draws on jazz, folk, pop & Latin influences and are noted for their vibrant, communicative performances.
Alison Rayner’s Quintet ARQ have been touring jazz clubs, concert halls & international festivals across the UK & Europe for twelve years, regularly selling out London venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and Soho Pizza Express Jazz Club. They have been recent winners in both the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and the British Jazz Awards. Their 2025 release Sema4 showcases the quintet’s “stylistic virtuosity and masterful interplay” 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 2019 Ivor Novello Composer Award for ‘There is a Crack in Everything’ from Short Stories.
This special afternoon concert will feature music from all four ARQ albums, whilst emphasising their latest release. Expect richly nuanced compositions, rhythmic interplay & folk-infused melodies – music that is inventive, colourful & unfailingly melodic, possessed of a strong narrative & 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”.
Alison Rayner bass | Buster Birch drums | Deirdre Cartwright guitar | Diane McLoughlin saxophone | Steve Lodder piano
“Throughout the night, the quintet displayed exceptional musical chemistry and sensitivity. It was not just a concert, but a masterclass in musical storytelling and collective expression. The Alison Rayner Quintet reminded us that jazz at its best is a conversation – full of emotion, nuance, and shared human experience.” Betty Accorsi , Jazz in Europe (July 2025)
Alison Rayner’s Quintet ARQ have been touring jazz clubs, concert halls & international festivals across the UK & Europe for twelve years, regularly selling out London venues such as Ronnie Scott’s and Soho Pizza Express Jazz Club. They have been recent winners in both the Parliamentary Jazz Awards and the British Jazz Awards. Their 2025 release Sema4 showcases the quintet’s “stylistic virtuosity and masterful interplay” 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 2019 Ivor Novello Composer Award for ‘There is a Crack in Everything’ from Short Stories.
This special afternoon concert will feature music from all four ARQ albums, whilst emphasising their latest release. Expect richly nuanced compositions, rhythmic interplay & folk-infused melodies – music that is inventive, colourful & unfailingly melodic, possessed of a strong narrative & 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”.
Alison Rayner bass | Buster Birch drums | Deirdre Cartwright guitar | Diane McLoughlin saxophone | Steve Lodder piano
“Throughout the night, the quintet displayed exceptional musical chemistry and sensitivity. It was not just a concert, but a masterclass in musical storytelling and collective expression. The Alison Rayner Quintet reminded us that jazz at its best is a conversation – full of emotion, nuance, and shared human experience.” Betty Accorsi , Jazz in Europe (July 2025)
