Born in Leeds, England in the late 1980s, Emma-Jean Thackray is an acclaimed jazz multi-instrumentalist, DJ, singer, composer, and producer. She experiments with a wide variety of musical styles including spiritual jazz, funk, neo-soul, electronica, and rap. Known more for her trumpet playing, she also plays percussion and keyboards. Her musical journey began playing the cornet in a local marching band. She then studied trumpet and composition at the Royal College of Wales, where her teacher was jazz pianist and composer Keith Tippett. After earning a master's degree in orchestral composition from Trinity College London, she formed Emma-Jean Thackray's Walrus in 2016. Her band members included her regular collaborators Elliot Galvin (electric piano, organ), Ben Kelly (tuba), Liz Exell (drums) and Pie Eye Collective (electronic instrumentation). The group released the Walrus EP in 2016. Emma-Jean Thackray then went solo, releasing the Ley Lines EP in 2018. Founding her own record label, Movementt, she released the Rain Dance EP in 2020 before reissuing the previous EPs Walrus and Ley Lines. In 2021, Emma-Jean Thackray released her first album Yellow, which rose to Number 1 on the Jazz chart and Number 3 on the Indie chart. Two EPs followed in 2022, Yellower Vol. 1 (live) and Yellower Vol. 2 (remixes), before the eclectic album Weirdo (2025). Featuring vocals from Reggie Watts, Kassa Overall and the jazzwoman herself, this sophomore full-length saw Thackray playing synths, Fender Rhodes, acoustic piano, trumpet, guitar, bass, percussions, trombone, flugelhorn, arrangements and production.
