أحمد [Ahmed]

Information

أحمد [Ahmed] is:
PAT THOMAS / piano
ANTONIN GERBAL / drums
JOEL GRIP / bass
SEYMOUR WRIGHT / alto saxophone

[Ahmed] make music to listen, dance and think to.

This is music of heavy rhythm, repetition and syncopation set deep into an understanding of jazz and the obscure depths of its history.

[Ahmed]’s music is inspired and reimagined from the work of Ahmed Abdul-Malik – the NYC bassist, oudist, composer, educator and philosopher who fused aspects of American, Arabic and East African thought, ethics, meanings and beliefs in open and experimental ways to make vital, forward leaning jazz.
[Ahmed] reimagine Malik’s work as they push for new ground. Melodies respirate, swell, escalate and combust in a driving jazz, which is masterful and swinging.

Across their multiple releases including The Wire’s 2025 Album of the Year ‘Giant Beauty’ (Fönstret, 2024), the quartet of Pat Thomas, Antonin Gerbal, Joel Grip and Seymour Wright create stamping, swinging, relentlessly propulsive music, that is all at once profound, physical, and ecstatic. This is a place of high-art and primitive pleasure.

“An infinitely complex synthesis of shared history that concentrates into an explosive now”

The Wire

“One of the most mind-blowing free jazz and improvisation groups in the world today”

The Quietus