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09

March, 2026

By: Sebastian Scotney

Photos: © Izzy Tippins; Madeleine Young; Casey Vock

UK Jazz News/ #IWD2026 | WomenToTheForce | Loads of Humor

Loads of Humor

We are going to hear a lot more of the astonishingly wide-ranging and in-demand guitarist Tara Cunningham. In the past eighteen months her name has been increasingly visible on the UK jazz scene, in bands led by trumpeter Laura Jurd, saxophonist Tom Challenger, pianist Liam Noble, drummer Seb Rochford – and others. This is the first published profile of a London-born, Bath-raised musician with a distinctive sound, a strong musical presence, and a winningly positive spirit.

I spoke to Tara Cunningham on her only free morning between two tours. She’d just finished eleven dates on US Eastern seabord with the avant rock band Modern Nature, in which she shares lead and rhythm guitar and lead vocals with the band’s central figure Jack Cooper. She was about to depart later that day with Laura Jurd’s ‘Rites and Revelations’ band for dates in Holland. When I ask about that pressure, the quick turnaround, and how completely different these two ventures must be in every way…the first thing I noticed was that there was no sign of weariness at all, just an inspiring positivity: “I love it all; it feels like its all part of the same thing.”
The guitarist was born in Haggerston in East London in 1999, but her family moved away from the capital when she was two. “I grew up in Bath. I started playing the guitar at eight. I grew up on my dad’s record collection which was 70s psych rock and art rock – Pink Floyd…David Bowie. And I really loved Talking Heads.”

An early motivator was active encouragement which she received from the teachers at her secondary school in Bath. One of them was in charge of the school big band, and also ran a jazz group which played at functions in the area round Bath. When Tara Cunningham was invited to play in the function band at just thirteen years old, That felt important: “Gigging and the prospect of being paid money at that age was definitely formative,” she remembers. She also looks back and is grateful for the guidance of early teachers – “that was an important thing – people showing me which way to go.”

One of these was freelance/ session drummer Mark Whitlam – who ran a pop band at the school. He advised her that studying jazz would leave her more broadly equipped as a musician than studying pop. She started attending the Saturday school in the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. “That was an introduction into the London jazz world. It was an eye-opener, finding people of my age doing a similar thing.” Contemporaries in her cohort included musicians who have gone on to make serious waves, such as trumpeters Ife Ogunjobi of Ezra Collective, and Alex Ridout.

Exposure to jazz education at Junior RAM and then at Trinity Laban reinforced an important direction, what Cunningham calls her “rebellion against the archetypal jazz guitar,” through the realisation that “other instruments can sound far more interesting and expressive.” For her, what matters is giving particular character to individual notes and sounds, rather than seeking smoothness or homogeneity. “I always related more to textural and gestural playing, rather than the intricate language of a line.” And her recent solo album, ‘Almost -Not Exactly’ (Nonclassical), reinforces that, involving different kinds of preparation of the strings, building in taps on the guitar body and various microtones. “I’m really attracted to “wonk” in the music,” she smirks.

That kind of playing particularly appeals to pianist/ bandleader Liam Noble, whose quartet with Cunningham, drummer Will Glaser and drummer Tom Herbert explores it in a way reminiscent of Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time, but with electronic effects. Tara Cunningham’s presence in that band is particularly conducive to good things happening. “She takes it seriously….but there’s loads of humour in what she does” says Liam Noble. The guitarist concurs: “A sense of humour is such a big part of my personality and who I am.”

I was curious if there might be exceptions to her aversion to jazz guitar, artists towards whom she does having a strong leaning? Cunningham is a devotee of Jim Hall and mentions ‘Conversations’, the duo album with Joey Baron, and his last studio album, recorded in 2010. “I find duo so exciting generally, because of how exposed and exploratory it tends to be – for me this album exemplifies everything I love about Jim Hall’s playing.”

She works a lot in a duo context with a close colleague who was in her cohort at Trinity, bassist Caius Williams, and the impetus they both bring to the free improv scene sounds particularly exciting, even refreshing: “I like the side of free improv where you can make sounds that are funny, even quite mad!” Tara also cites the example of having been paired with singer Eska for a duo improvisation at the Moment’s Notice gig in Peckham, and remembers with great fondness a moment when the singer responded to a baby’s crying by working with the sound and embodying it into the performance. “That was such a powerful way of connecting with an audience in a humorous way, I loved that.”

Fundamental to Tara Cunningham’s way of working is a relish for collaboration with artists who defy any rulebook. As an example, she remembers the first time she worked with Steve Noble: “That was a brain expander – he really didn’t care about any rules that you would associate with playing free jazz. He introduced pulse – and even melody – it was inspiring! ”

In fact, she sees her most recently released ‘solo’ album, ‘Almost – Not Exactly’ (Nonclassical) as more of a collaborative than a solo venture, this time with a good friend, visual artist Jemima Seymour. Of her own music on the album she says ““I’ve always liked beat-driven music, and the use of ‘found sound’ within it,” but what completes it is the visual, with the beat rhythms as a soundtrack for a pair of dancers in Athens.

Tom Challenger says: “She’s a great collaborator. The way she plays is unique, but with strong personality.” It is an idea which Tara Cunningham, characteristically, likes to echo: “I love collaboration in any form. The meeting of two minds in the live context is always very special.”

Este artículo se publica simultáneamente en las siguientes revistas europeas, en el marco de “Milestones”, una operación para destacar a las jóvenes músicas de jazz y blues : Citizen Jazz (FR), JazzMania (BE), Jazz’halo (BE), Meloport (UA), UK Jazz News (UK), Jazz-Fun (DE), In&Out Jazz (ES) y Donos Kulturalny (PL).

This article is co-published simultaneously in the following European magazines, as part of « Milestones » an operation to highlight young jazz and blues female musicians : Citizen Jazz (FR), JazzMania (BE), Jazz’halo (BE), Meloport (UA), UK Jazz News (UK), Jazz-Fun (DE), In&Out Jazz (ES) and Donos Kulturalny (PL).

#Womentothefore #IWD2026