Warriors RISE : Maddy Coombs Qt + Sophie Speed Qnt

As a Tomorrow’s Warriors Emerging Artist, and already tipped as a rising talent on the British jazz scene by Jazz Wise in the summer of last year, London tenor saxophonist Maddy Coombs has been mentored by Binker Golding, Denys Baptiste and Gary Crosby. Maddy has played alongside Judi Jackson, Soweto Kinch, Mark Kavuma, and The Silhouettes Project.

Leading her own line-up, she has performed at a host of venues and festivals including Brighton Jazz Festival, We Out Here Festival, Pizza Express Soho, Spice of Life, and with Jazz:Refreshed, including their Sounds of 2025 event at London’s iconic Jazz Café. Maddy is also building a reputation as a brilliant composer and arranger with her own music drawing inspiration from many artists including Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Melissa Aldana and Joel Ross amongst others.

The Sophie Speed Quintet is a dynamic and energetic ensemble led by Leeds tenor saxophonist Sophie Speed. Sophie’s original music blends the influences of jazz legends like Monk, Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Hank Mobley, Art Blakey and Duke Ellington into an exciting, modern sound. A graduate of the Jazz degree course at Leeds Conservatoire (2023), Sophie is frequently playing across the UK and further afield including at notable venues such as Ronnie Scotts, Pizza Express and The Vortex as well as The Domicile and Konzerthaus in Germany. As well as running her own creative projects, Sophie can also be found playing in the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (NYJO), Ferg's Imaginary Big Band, and the Tom Sharp Jazz Orchestra. The quintet features an exciting line-up of Leeds and London’s talented young jazz musicians (including double bassist Fergus Quill and tenor sax king Alex Fisher). They create a vibrant and immersive sound that blends elements from both hard bop and post bop/modal jazz.

This performance is part of Tomorrow’s Warriors’ Warriors Rise initiative, which sees the acclaimed jazz talent development organisation support three emerging Warriors’ artists, including Maddy, across a seven-date run of UK gigs, providing tour planning and marketing mentoring. Warriors Rise is a PRS Foundation Talent Development Network Partner initiative supported by PPL.

 

More about Tomorrow’s Warriors
For over 30 years, Tomorrow’s Warriors has played a vital role within its community and the wider music industry and has been credited with literally changing the face of UK jazz.  Free access to Tomorrow’s Warriors artistic programme has proved crucial in nurturing the nascent talent and early careers of so many of the most exciting UK artists currently tearing up the international jazz scene including Mercury Prize 2023 recipients and BRIT Awards Best Group 2025
winners EZRA Collective, Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia, Shabaka Hutchings and Sons of Kemet, ESKA, Jason Yarde, Denys Baptiste, Robert Mitchell, Soweto Kinch, Shirley Tetteh, Byron Wallen...the list goes on.  

A Black-founded and Black-led organisation, Tomorrow’s Warriors offers a pioneering, free to access, comprehensive programme of learning and training which champions and supports young Black and female talent and those who come from challenging circumstances that would be a barrier to access opportunities to pursue a music career.

“Tomorrow's Warriors occupies a unique and vital space in our cultural landscape. Their work in helping positively shape future generations is of critical importance especially with the tribulations we currently face. Please keep supporting - each one, teach one!” - Gilles Peterson (BBC 6 Music/Brownswood Recordings)