Jazz North x Brighter Sound: Artist Development Day
When: Thursday 16th April 2026, 11:00-18:00 (arrive from 10:45)
Where: Band on the Wall, 25 Swan Street, Manchester, M4 5JZ
Are you a northern artist keen to meet new collaborators, get inspired and shape your strategy?
Jazz North and Brighter Sound are teaming up to bring you a relaxed and informative artist network event on Thursday 16th April at iconic Manchester venue, Band on the Wall.
We’re thrilled to invite Ellen Beth Abdi, Oli Bentley(Split) and Mara Cruz to host the day alongside support from Kinaya Said Ibrahimand Jazz North’s Helena Summerfield and Heather Spencer.
Our artist-facilitators will guide discussion and workshops around finding your artistic voice, telling your story through visual brand and creating sustainable careers. Mara Cruz will be hosting a jam session to top and tail the day - the perfect chance to get to know likeminded artists, try out something and enjoy a low pressure environment to make music.
It’s free to attend and food is provided! Who are you bringing with you?
Key details about the day
Jam Session
There will be a jam session which you're welcome to participate in or just enjoy listening! We will provide a backline of keyboard, drum kit, guitar and bass amp. Please bring your instruments with you!
Catering
We'll provide tea and coffee and bring in some pizzas for lunch! Let us know if you have any dietary requirements below and we'll do our best to accommodate.
+1s
If you're coming as a group, please make sure each person fills in this form as we need everyone's email, access and dietary requirements!
Contact / More Info
If you have any questions, please get in touch with helena@jazznorth.org and for further details, timings and speaker info - visit www.jazznorth.org/artist-development-days. If you’ve signed up, we'll send a full event schedule to your inbox in the lead up to the event.
Change of plans?
If you can no longer attend, please email helena@jazznorth.org so we can track capacity and number for food!
Special guest Grammy award-winning Producer, NK-OK (Blue Lab Beats & Kaidi and NK-OK)
Meet our special guest NK-OK
Our special guest at the Artist Development Day will be Grammy award-winning Producer, NK-OK (Blue Lab Beats & Kaidi and NK-OK). NK-OK will be in conversation with Creative Project Producer and Artist Manager Kinaya Said Ibrahim. This session will delve into the very real story of an artist who has built their career in the jazz+ world (biography down page).
Session Details and Speaker Bios
Jam Session
Our upcoming Artist Development day will be top and tailed by opportunities to make music with the multitalented Mära Cruz and Kemani Anderson.
Mära and Kemani will be facilitating the space to make you feel right at home so come along with your instrument or use the backline provided (keyboard, drum kit, mic and amps). If this isn’t your bag, that’s totally fine, it’s also the perfect place to soak up the vibes and get to know the other artists attending.
Finding your Artist Voice
This session, with Manchester’s own Ellen Beth Adbi, will explore the meaning of finding your own unique voice as an artist and how to go about getting there. This workshop will explore themes around creativity, authenticity and originality in the work you make and how you present this to your audiences.
How to use design and visual identity to Tell your Story
This session will explore the building blocks of how to tell the story of your music through visual brand identity/brand. Oli Bentley from Saltaire-based design company Split will share some key examples and methods before leading a workshop on how you can begin exploring this yourself.
In Conversation: Creating Sustainable Careers
This session, with our special guest NK-OK, will delve into the very real story of an artist who has built their career in the jazz+ world. We’ll be exploring creative routes to building sustainable careers and talking about how on earth you make the money work when you’re starting out.
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Mara Cruz is an Angolan singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist born and raised in Portugal until migrating to the UK in her early teens. Her musical background stems from South African Gospel, Semba and contemporary worship. Mara’s music ranges from Nu-jazz to Gospel including reharmonisation and a soulful churchy feel. For the future Mara aspires to take her music all over the country and successfully grow into the role of a music director and session musician. “Here to conquer the World One Note at a time.”
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Kemani Anderson is a singer/songwriter from Manchester and the vocalist / co-founder of Secret Night Gang (SNG). Heavily influenced by church growing up, Anderson then developed a passion for soul, R&B, reggae and jazz music and became inspired by the likes of Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Donny Hathaway, Earth, wind and Fire, Chaka Khan , Al Jarreau, D’angelo and many other artists.
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Mancunian music-maker Ellen Beth Abdi uses live loops, pokey drums, undulating synths and quietly subversive lyrics to mould her unique sound. ‘Potent and lyrical electronic soul with a social conscience. For the thinkers and the movers of this dimension and others’.
Ellen’s enchanting and distinctive sound has gained her spots at Manchester International Festival, and support slots for Olivia Dean, Hollie Cooke, Ishmael Ensemble, Oscar Jerome and Allysha Joy. She was invited to collaborate live with music legend Angélique Kidjo, opening Aviva Studios for Manchester International Festival 2023.
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Oli Bentley is an award-winning designer, artist and printmaker. He founded his design studio, Split, whilst studying on the Jazz Degree at Leeds College of Music in 2009.
Split predominantly works with creative, cultural and community clients. They work regularly with Edition Records and their roster of incredible international jazz artists and Oli has created campaigns and album artwork for Dave Holland, Chris Potter, John Patitucci, Nikki Iles, Fergus McCreadie, Laura Jurd/Dinosaur, Jasper Høiby and Mark Guiliana, to name a few. He also works with The Leaf Label – whose artists have included Polar Bear, Matthew Bourne and The Comet is Coming, alongside a wide range of other alternative, electronic and experimental artists – as well as Peter Gabriel's Real World Records, and a wide range of other signed and independent artists.
Alongside Split, Oli also also founded the community-led People Powered Press, which (accidentally) holds the world record as the largest letterpress proofing press in the world and works across the north of England to create hand-printed letterpress murals with community groups, amplifying community voices.
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NK-OK is best known as the producer half of the trailblazing production duo Blue Lab Beats, the Grammy award winning outfit at the forefront of the UK’s Jazztronica movement. As a producer, finger drummer, and sonic architect, his work fuses jazz, hip-hop, soul, and afrobeats into forward-thinking soundscapes that have earned global acclaim and collaborations with the likes of Sampa the Great, Kojey Radical, Pip Millett, IDK, Kofi Stone, Tiana Major 9, Masego and Jay Prince.
The first album he produced was when he was 15 and in Age of LUNA, He also produced Kaidi & NK-OK album and EP. At 27 years old he has 6 albums under his belt and many tracks that were produced or remixed for other artists also.
