Sabina Desir: Freedom Road Re-Imagined at House of Sisters Grimm for EFG London Jazz Festival 2026

Sabina Desir

Her vocal talents have acquired a cult following over the past five years, through her musical projects Freedom Road, Banned, Dear Nina, Love Ray and more. Her creative inspiration and passion have led to powerful productions representing the Black experience through song combined with narrative and visuals. Her Freedom Road toured the UK to extraordinary acclaim, honouring the Black civil rights movements in the US and UK through blues, jazz, soul, reggae and more, accompanied by the powerful photographs of Charlie Phillips OBE, Vanley Burke and Shaïny Vilo. Banned uncovered the hidden history of Black American air crew stationed on the Kent coast during the Cold War years, presented both as a visual art exhibition at the Turner Contemporary Gallery, and as a concert performance.

Since relocating from London to Ramsgate, Sabina has established herself within the East Kent Arts community working as a vocalist and establishing The Jazz Sessions at Gulbenkian Theatre to bring outstanding Jazz artists to the South East of England. The Jazz sessions welcomed players spanning the genre including Jean Toussaint, The Steve Williamson Experience, Led Bib and Camilla George, to name a few. She produced and curated the hugely successful Turner Contemporary exhibition ‘Banned’ in 2023 attracting 56k visitors. As a vocalist Sabina has formed a partnership with the hugely talented keyboard player/composer Jessica Lauren and they have presented a wide range of enthusiastically received projects over the last five years. She has performed with many UK Jazz luminaries including Brit award-winning drummer Shaney Forbes, Parliamentary Jazz award-winning Winston Clifford, Multi-woodwind players & Composers Tamar Osborn, Jason Yarde much lauded guitarist Tony Remy and many more.

https://www.facebook.com/sabina.desir.9

Jessica Lauren

Drawing on a wide range of influences, she has forged her own distinctive sound and musical personality, releasing four albums under her own name, as well as appearing on countless other recordings, spanning jazz, soul, blues, funk, rock, broken beat, dance and analog electronica.

She has played alongside rare-groove icons Jean Carne, Tom Browne, Dexter Wansel, Kleeer, and James Mason; jazz giants Archie Shepp, The Art Ensemble Of Chicago, and Marshall Allen, Knoel Scott and Ahmed Abdullah of the Sun Ra Arkestra; contemporary artists such as Shabaka Hutchings, Arun Ghosh, and The Heliocentrics; and as a core member of Nick Woodmansey’s space jazz co-operative Emanative for over a decade.

Since moving to Margate over 10 years ago, she has proudly worked with Sabina Desir as accompanist, musical director, and co-creator of multiple projects.

https://www.facebook.com/jlauren001

Vanley Burke

Vanley Burke is often described as the ‘Godfather of Black British Photography’, whereby his iconic images have captured the evolving cultural landscape, social change, and stimulated debate in the United Kingdom over the past four decades.

He draws strength from remaining a humble man of the community, whose personable character allows him to capture the intimate and private nature of people’s everyday lives.

His body of work represents possibly the largest photographic record of the Caribbean Diaspora in Britain, and as an avid collector, Vanley continues to connect histories through his substantial archive housed at the Library of Birmingham. From local community organisations to the Victoria & Albert Museum and Whitechapel, Vanley has exhibited widely in the United Kingdom, and as far afield as New York, South Africa and China.

Vanley’s artistic enquiry is not simply limited to black and white documentary photography, as his eccentric rebellious nature lends itself to sculpture and painting, and crafting art that gives life a shape. His simple motivation has been the preservation of culture and history through creation, documentation, and discovery.

Charlie Phillips, OBE

He is well known for his photographs of Notting Hill during the period of West Indian migration to London. Arriving in London from Jamaica at the age of twelve, he grew up amidst a background of hostility and prejudice. He began taking photographs at the age of fourteen and later worked as a freelance photographer for magazines including Harpers Bazaar, Life and Italian Vogue. While living in Notting Hill, he explored aspects of urban life in the 1960s, photographing friends and neighbours, creating a pictorial documentary of a community at a particular moment in time. Phillips has also chronicled the passion and style of African-Caribbean funerals in London over several generations. His images speak of the intimacy and familiarity with which he views his own community. “As far as I’m concerned, we haven’t been given a proper platform to show our culture, our side of the story, ” he says. “It’s not Black history; this is British history, whether you like it or not. ”

Winston Clifford

Since studying with ex-Tubby Hayes drummer Bill Eyden and with Trevor Tomkins at the Guildhall School of Music, he has gone on to play with many musicians including Courtney Pine, Bheki Mseleku, Jason Rebello, Cleveland Watkiss, Gary Bartz, Archie Shepp, Jean Toussaint and many others; playing at many international festivals and recording with some of the most talented contemporary jazz musicians in the UK and beyond.

Jason Yarde

Composer, arranger, producer, musical director and saxophonist Jason Yarde creates music that has been described as powerful, spiritual and formidable. He composes across variety of styles (jazz, classical, hip-hop, R&B, reggae, soul) and for a variety of media (orchestras, chamber ensembles, big band, dance, film). His potential and originality has been rewarded with nominations for the Bird Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Jazz on 3 Innovation Award for the BBC Jazz Awards, the inaugural prize for Contemporary Jazz Composition at the British Composer Awards and a prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Composers.

https://www.instagram.com/joyandears

Ivan Hussey

Joining the Reggae Philharmonic Orchestra at age 17, Ivan played on two of their albums and began a career as a session cellist, where he has arranged and played on well over 300 albums and singles including UK and US hits by: Mick Jagger, Incognito, Maxi Priest, Take That, Wet Wet Wet, Third World, The Lighthouse Family, Soul II Soul, Gabrielle, Annie Lennox, Jay-Z and many others. He also spent time touring with Duran Duran, Gabrielle, The Lighthouse family, Smoke City, Snow Patrol and Natacha Atlas respectively.

https://www.facebook.com/ivan.hussey

https://www.instagram.com/celloman_uk

Jason Simpson

A wonderfully melodic player full of heart Sabina cites him as her bassist of choice. The last year has seen Jason touring with Ibibio Sound Machine in Europe,Canada and USA . He is also a contributor to Nick Woodmansey’s long standing space jazz co-operative Emanative.

https://www.instagram.com/jsimpsonbass