Elina Duni & Rob Luft Quartet
Lineup
About the Event
Swiss-Albanian vocalist Elina Duni and London guitarist Rob Luft have been collaborating since meeting at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2017. Since then they have become one of ECM Records' standout partnerships, touring extensively across Europe and releasing a series of acclaimed albums, most recently Reaching For The Moon.
Their music brings together jazz, Balkan and Mediterranean folk traditions, original compositions and inventive arrangements of songs from across Europe and beyond. Duni's expressive, multilingual vocals and Luft's lyrical guitar playing create a sound that is intimate, atmospheric and open to improvisation. For these shows Upstair at Ronnie's, they are joined by bassist Tom McCredie and drummer Jay Davis, two of the UK's leading jazz musicians, for a special quartet performance.
Elina Duni is one of Europe's leading jazz singers, acclaimed for her distinctive blend of Balkan folk traditions and contemporary jazz. Winner of the 2025 Swiss Jazz Award, she has recorded extensively for ECM and performs internationally as both a bandleader and collaborator.
Rob Luft is one of the UK's most acclaimed guitarists and composers. A BBC New Generation Artist and winner of the Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize, he has built an international reputation through his own projects and collaborations with artists including John Surman, Django Bates, Gregory Porter and The Cinematic Orchestra.
“One of the most ethereally beautiful standard interpretations I’ve ever heard… with Luft’s atmospheric guitar work enveloping Duni’s pristine vocals…. yet another example of the duo’s utterly seductive music-making… outstanding.”
— Jazzwise
“A unique voice in jazz... few contemporary jazz-influenced singers manage to sound so intensely like themselves while drawing on such a variety of genres, languages, and cultural backstories as the Albania-born vocalist Elina Duni.”
— The Guardian
“A singular talent, a fluent improviser and a composer of catchy, earthy, infectiously upbeat tunes… Luft’s sound is joyously original, robust and in-your-face.”
— The Irish Times