by Ian Mann
February 15, 2026
/ LIVE
This really was an impressive performance from Ankora. The standard of the musicianship was exceptional for such young players, and the quality of the original writing was also consistently impressive
Ankora, Music Spoken Here, The Marr’s Bar, Worcester, 12/02/2026.
Hannah Clifton, Klara Devlin – trumpets, Mali Sheard – alto sax, Keira Chakraborty – flute, Kezia Abuoma – keyboard, Tami Adebanjo – guitar, Holly Reinhardt – double bass, Miranda Radford – drums
Another excellent turn out at The Marr’s Bar for this keenly anticipated visit of Ankora, an all female octet featuring young musicians who all met via the Tomorrow’s Warriors development programme, founded thirty five years ago by bassist and educator Gary Crosby and his wife Janine Irons.
Two of tonight’s performers, drummer Miranda Radford and trumpeter Klara Devlin had visited the Marr’s Bar in March 2025 as part of Radford’s own quartet, another well attended event that formed part of MSH’s hugely successful Upbeat! series featuring drummer led bands. My review of the Radford quartet’s performance can be found here;
Since then I’ve enjoyed performances featuring other Ankora members. Devlin brought her own quartet to Brecon Jazz Festival in August 2025 and in November I saw pianist Kezia Abuoma and saxophonist Mali Sheard leading their own bands at the Pizza Express Jazz Club in Soho during the EFG London Jazz Festival.
The two Pizza Express events were part of the Heads Up series curated by Kasia Konstance, a series that champions the music of young British jazz musicians. Sheard and Radford were also part of Abuoma’s quintet while flautist Keira Chakraborty was a member of Sheard’s Homestead group.
All of these performances are reviewed elsewhere on this site as part of my coverage of the Brecon and London jazz festivals.
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/friday-at-brecon-jazz-festival-08-08-2025
Moving forward into 2026 and I caught up with Sheard again when she and bassist Holly Reinhardt performed as part of a quintet led by pianist / vocalist / songwriter Emily Tran at the annual Bath Jazz Weekend. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/6th-annual-bath-jazz-weekend-widcombe-social-club-bath-sunday-11th-january-2026
Meanwhile Music Spoken Here’s Dave Fuller had seen all eight members of Ankora, plus tenor saxophonist Ciara Osuagwu, perform under the Tomorrow’s Warriors Frontline banner at the 2025 Brick Lane Jazz Festival. This performance, following on from that of the Radford quartet, persuaded him to bring the band, now working under the new name Ankora, to Worcester. Dave’s account of the group’s Brick Lane performance can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/features/article/saturday-at-brick-lane-jazz-festival-london-26-04-2025
Dave interviewed the band’s Kent born trumpeter Hannah Clifton for MSH’s regular ‘Piece Talks’ series, which can be accessed via the Club’s Youtube channel or Facebook page. We heard that she was lucky enough to attend a school that still had a music department and that her initial background was in classical music and brass band music. As a young teenager she was persuaded to attend a Tomorrow’s Warriors jam at the Rich Mix venue in London and although initially nervous the encouragement and positivity of Gary Crosby resulted in her joining the Tomorrow’s Warriors development programme, with Sheard joining at around the same time. Both musicians flourished in the family atmosphere of the Warriors set up and Clifton credits Crosby with building her confidence. Other mentors have included saxophonists Binker Golding, Nubya Garcia, Denys Baptiste and Camilla George, drummer Femi Koleoso (of Ezra Collective) and pianist Sultan Stevenson, all Warriors alumni who continue to give back to their Alma Mater, indicative of the Warriors’ celebrated “each one teach one” ethos. It’s an organisation that genuinely does have the feel of an extended family with former members, now established professional musicians, mentoring younger players. Even the members of Ankora perform teaching roles, mentoring some of the Warriors’ youngest members, the eleven and twelve year olds.
Ankora emerged out of the second edition of the Tomorrow’s Warriors Female Frontline scheme. The organisation has always encouraged diversity and inclusivity in terms of both ethnicity and gender, and as Clifton mentioned the first edition of the Frontline developed into Nerija, an ensemble that recorded three albums before the individual members went their separate ways. This was the group that nurtured such musicians as saxophonist Nubya Garcia, now a major solo star, trumpeter Sheila Maurice Grey, of Kokoroko, and guitarist Shirley Tetteh.
The musicians that became Ankora were all part of the TW family but hadn’t all played together until they were invited to form an ensemble under the guidance of drummer Romarna Campbell, who will visit MSH with her own trio on March 26th 2026.
This was in 2022 and the new group played its first shows in April 2023, the first in Colchester, well away from the London spotlight. The shows went well and the ensemble have continued to hone their stage craft, as evidenced by tonight’s very impressive performance.
The Ankora name was taken from the Latin word for anchor, a symbol of groundedness, hope and a connection to roots.
As we have already seen many of the members of Ankora are composers and lead their own projects, writing for both their own bands and for the Ankora group. Clifton is unusual in that she is also a medical student, whereas her band mates are now all full time musicians. The playing of original music is positively encouraged, although tonight’s repertoire also included a smattering of well chosen and often unusual covers.
Fuller and Clifton also discussed the broader topics of the economics of the music business, particularly from the point of view of younger musicians. Crucially the Tomorrow’s Warriors programme is delivered free and the youngsters participating in the programme do so without paying fees. It allows talented musicians from less advantaged backgrounds to receive the kind of top class musical education necessary to give them the opportunity of considering a full-time musical career. The achievements of TW’s many illustrious alumni is a testament to the quality of the teaching on the programme, as was the excellence of tonight’s performance by Ankora.
We heard that many of Clifton’s colleagues supplement their income with teaching work and she stressed the need for hard graft and the requirement for modern musicians to have a business centred / entrepreneurial mindset in addition to artistic creativity. Ankora are aware of the importance of social media and have their own Youtube channel but no official album release. They would like to record, but it’s an expensive business. However they are also wary that placing too much emphasis on developing their social media profile may be at the expense of true musical creativity. Indeed although young Ankora seem to relish the task of building a following the old fashioned way, through the quality of their live performances, with Clifton, partly with her medic’s hat on, stressing the importance of human connection and interaction in physical spaces such as music venues. Tonight’s excellent performance at one of the Midlands leading grass-roots venues very much emphasised her point.
And so to tonight’s music, which commenced with “The Queens’ Arrival”, jointly written by Sheard and Chakraborty. The unusual front line configuration of two trumpets, alto sax and flute gives Ankora’s music a distinctive sound and the ensemble playing was impressively tight and cohesive throughout with plenty of intriguing interplay between the horns. Propelled by a loping, modal style groove the opener featured expansive solos from Sheard on alto, Abuoma at the keyboard (who favoured an electric piano, or Rhodes, sound throughout the evening), Clifton on trumpet and Adebanjo on guitar.
Reinhardt was the composer of “The Fish and The Bird”, a tune based around the concept of the denizens of one world being aware of the existence of the inhabitants of the other, but being unable to understand or enter it. Insert your own political metaphor here.
The piece was introduced by the composer at the bass, her melodic motif augmented by the sound of Radford’s cymbals and Abuoma’s electric piano, the latter sounding suitably watery and aquatic. The horns were added for the main melodic theme with Chakraborty and Devlin subsequently emerging as soloists. Flute specialists are comparatively rare in jazz and as young as she is Chakraborty rates as one of the best flute soloists I have seen, pure toned, fluent and inventive. Meanwhile Devlin, a former finalist in the BBC Young Jazz Musician of the Year competition displayed similar qualities. Eventually the piece came full circle and concluded with its composer at the bass.
The next item featured Reinhardt in the role of arranger with her adaptation of “Don Quixote”, a tune recorded by the American bassist Charles Fambrough (1950 – 2011). Once again the piece was introduced at the bass with drums and keys added and with Clifton stating the melody on trumpet. The addition of the other horns created a fuller sound as they played the melody in unison. Abuoma subsequently emerged as the featured soloist and also entered into an engaging series of keyboard / flute exchanges with Chakraborty.
Introduced by Radford at the drums “Fire”, written by Alice Coltrane and Joe Henderson, saw the octet entering into the realms of spiritual jazz… .Abuoma took the first solo at the keyboard, again deploying a Rhodes electric piano sound. Clifton followed on trumpet before handing over to Sheard for another fluent and incisive alto solo. As she proved at the two Pizza Express shows Sheard is equally proficient on soprano sax, but tonight saw her focussing entirely on alto.
The first set concluded with an arrangement of “Timelessness”, a tune by the late, great South African pianist and composer Bheki Mseleku (1955-2008). Combining Township inspired melody with bebop sophistication this piece featured complex collective horn lines and saw Chakraborty and Devlin emerge as the featured soloists. It was appropriate that Chakraborty should feature as Mseleku used to work with former Loose Tubes flautist Eddie Parker., who had visited MSH in December 2025 with his Airborn group. Devlin’s extended trumpet solo was one of the best of the night, her fluent and fiery playing fuelled by Radford’s dynamic drumming. Abuoma’s keyboard solo combined Township and gospel influences and an excellent first half was crowned by Radford’s drum feature.
The beginning of the second set saw Ankora returning to original material with “Power”, written by Kezia Abuoma, yet another composing talent within the band’s ranks, as her quintet show at the Pizza proved. Powered by the kind of punchy horn motifs that may have provided the title the performance included solos from Abuoma on electric piano and Sheard on alto.
“Shipwreck”, another composition from the writing team of Sheard and Chakraborty was an expression of the whole band’s love of the sea, a reaction to living in the concrete jungle that is Greater London. Again the four horn frontline was deployed to good effect with individual solos coming from Sheard on alto, Clifton on trumpet and Chakraborty on flute, with Abuoma’s keys prominent on the outro.
I remembered Abuoma’s tune “Deliverer” from her Pizza Express show and it was good to hear this excellent composition again here. Strong in terms of both melody and rhythm this performance included solos from the composer on electric piano and Devlin on trumpet. As mentioned previously I saw Devlin play on a couple of different occasions in 2025 but tonight she seemed to be playing better than ever. Sheard was also featured on alto as part of this new octet arrangement that included some superb interplay between the various wind instruments.
I also recalled Devlin’s composition “Reaching Out” from her Brecon Jazz Festival performance and once again the piece was ushered in by a passage of unaccompanied trumpet from the composer. Bass, keyboards and drums were subsequently added, followed by the horns in an arrangement that was perhaps the closest we had heard to orthodox straight-ahead jazz. Solos here came from the composer on trumpet, Chakraborty on flute and Reinhardt on double bass, with sections of the bass and trumpet features accompanied by Radford’s drums only.
The octet signed off with a final cover, an arrangement of the relatively little known Chick Corea tune “Litha”. Once again this performance was notable for some terrific horn interplay plus solos from Abuoma on keys and Devlin on trumpet, a stunningly fluent and powerful statement, perhaps her best solo of the night.
The Worcester audience got behind the band from the off and that sense of connection and interaction that Clifton talked about was very much apparent. A great reaction from the crowd ensured that an encore was inevitable and Ankora responded with a brief but joyous romp through Thelonious Monk’s “Rhythm-a-Ning” with concise solos coming from Sheard on alto and Abuoma on keys.
This really was an impressive performance from Ankora. The standard of the musicianship was exceptional for such young players, the average age of the band members is just twenty, and the quality of the original writing was also consistently impressive. Clifton handled the majority of the talking and her announcements were both charming and informative.
Ankora gel really well as a unit and appear to have developed a real ‘band’ mentality. I predict a big future for them, both as a band and as individuals. They certainly have the potential to match the success of Nerija and it would be good to see their music documented on disc. The quality of tonight’s performance won them a lot of new friends and this is a band that has the potential to build a substantial following.
I also predict successful solo careers for the individual members, many of whom already lead their own groups.
My thanks to Holly Reinhardt and Mali Sheard for speaking with me after the show on what was one of the great MSH / Marr’s Bar nights.
Ankora’s Youtube channel can be found here;
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs8I6ENgsH_5zURlcwqcWxQ
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