Emma-Jean Thackray
English multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and DJ.
Emma-Jean Thackray is an English musician and DJ who works as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, and vocalist. She has directed the London Symphony Orchestra and performed at Glastonbury. Her debut album Yellow won Jazz FM Album of the Year in 2022, and she was nominated for the 2025 Mercury Music Prize.
Quick Facts
- Born
- 35, 22 April 2025
- Origin
- Leeds, England, UK
- Genre
- Jazz
- Occupations
- Musician
- producer
- singer
- bandleader
- songwriter
- composer
- DJ
- broadcaster
- Instruments
- Voice
- trumpet
- guitar
- bass guitar
- drums
- percussion
- keyboard
- electronics
- Label
- Brownswood
- Parlophone
- Movementt
- International Anthem
- The Vinyl Factory
- Years active
- 2015–present
Facts from the source article.
Early life
Thackray was born and raised in Leeds in a working-class family and has spoken about growing up in a low-income household. She began playing the cornet in primary school on an instrument her parents bought from a second-hand shop. By her teens she played principal cornet and trumpet in several Yorkshire brass bands. She studied jazz performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama under Keith Tippett, then earned a Masters in orchestral jazz composition at Trinity Laban Conservatoire under Issie Barratt and Errollyn Wallen.
Music career
In 2016 Thackray self-released her debut EP Walrus and was selected for the Red Bull Music Academy. She wrote, played, recorded, produced, and mixed all the music on Ley Lines (2018), released by Vinyl Factory, and appeared on a Clash list of women pushing UK jazz forward. The following year her collaboration with Makaya McCraven, Too Shy / Run Dem, came out on International Anthem. In September 2019 BBC Radio 1 asked her to arrange a cover of Dua Lipa's New Rules using only brass instruments and car horns. In 2020 she began self-releasing music under Movementt in partnership with Warp Records, issuing the EP Rain Dance and reissues of earlier EPs, plus the EP Um Yang on Night Dreamer Records. She made her first appearance on Later... With Jools Holland in June 2021 performing Say Something, and later that year signed with Warner Chappell Music. Her debut album Yellow, self-released in July 2021, reached No. 1 on the UK Jazz Albums Chart and No. 3 on the UK Independent Albums Chart. In February 2022 the Talking Therapy Ensemble released the improvised EP Talking Therapy, recorded at Abbey Road Studios. She scored the soundtrack to the Netflix short film Erax in 2022. Her second album Weirdo, self-produced, self-performed, and self-mixed, came out in 2025. Thackray also DJs at festivals including Glastonbury and BBC6Music Festival. She hosted a monthly show on Worldwide FM from October 2018 to October 2022, which was nominated for Best Radio Show at DJ Magazine's Best of British awards 2022. She has covered for Mary Anne Hobbs on 6Music and Soweto Kinch on BBC Radio 3, hosted shows on NTS, held residencies on Jazz FM, and currently has a monthly residency on Tokyo station J-Wave.
Personal life
Thackray is based in south London and is a Taoist who regularly releases music inspired by her practice. A lifelong fan of Leeds United FC, she has appeared on TalkSport and came second in Chris Sutton's weekly football predictions feature on the BBC; in March 2025 she won One Football's AI vs Humans Predictions feature. Her long-term partner died suddenly from natural causes in January 2023. She has said of the album Weirdo, made after this bereavement, that if she had not made it she would not be here. Thackray is autistic, has ADHD, and has spoken openly about her mental health struggles including OCD. She is a vegan and queer.
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