Emma-Jean Thackray: Dear Miles – A Love Letter

A live premiere of Dear Miles – A Love Letter, a new project by British nu jazz musician and composer Emma-Jean Thackray, performed at Bristol Strange Brew.

Emma-Jean Thackray, a British nu jazz musician and composer born in Leeds in 1989, is the artist behind this new project. Thackray emerged in 2016, released the album Yellow in 2021 on Warner Music Group, and followed it with Weirdo in 2025. Described as a multi-instrumentalist and producer who has been nominated for the Mercury Prize, Thackray is presenting this work for the first time in live performance.

The project takes Miles Davis's electric era as its starting point and moves further into electronic territory. Its beat-driven re-imaginings blur the boundaries between jazz improvisation and dance music culture, which gives the material a distinct character compared with Thackray's earlier records.

Bristol Strange Brew is a concert and performance venue at Fairfax Street in the centre of Bristol. The evening suits listeners interested in the meeting point of jazz and electronic dance music, and in a new stage work built on Davis's late-1960s and 1970s sound.