Jazz in the House: Maydan Ensemble

The Maydan Ensemble traverses international bounds and genres, creating an inclusive and irresistible sound that blends modern jazz with Arabic, Anatolian and Persian folk music.

The Maydan Ensemble of the North London Jazz Collective is a fully international quintet comprising some of London's busiest jazz musicians: the rising-star vocalist Amena from Egypt, acclaimed Irish-Iranian jazz guitarist Kourosh Kanani, ⁠Italian-English bassist and stalwart of the London jazz scene Lorenzo Morabito, Londoner Robbie Ellison on drums and one the finest Iranian folk musicians in London, Parham Bahadoran on reeds (zurna, duduk and clarinet).  

‘Maydan’ means ‘town square’ or ‘public meeting place’. Originating in Farsi, the word is now used across Arabic, Turkish, Urdu, Kurdish, Georgian and Ukrainian. The name reflects the group’s belief that music, like the town square, is where cultures meet — rooted in communal life and shared experience, with the power to connect and, at times, quietly challenge.

Their repertoire explores the meeting point between jazz and Middle Eastern musical traditions from two directions: jazz standards inspired by West Asia, and the group’s own jazz-inflected arrangements of Arabic, Anatolian and Persian folk songs.

Having formed at the start of 2025, the Maydan Ensemble have wowed audiences, selling out multiple venues across UK and beyond, including Palestine House and the Green Note, as well as recently headlining Zeman World Music Festival in Serbia.