Zara McFarlane (born 1983) is a British music artist, singer, songwriter, composer, vocal coach and playwright based in East London, England.
[14] Her 2020 album ‘Songs of An Unknown Tongue’ was born out of her extended trip to Jamaica in 2018 to research the early folk rhythms unique to the island.
A culmination of this research and a subversion of the colonial legacy of slavery, McFarlane teamed up with London producers Kwake Bass and Wu-Lu to explore a meeting point between current electronic sounds and the historic traditional rhythms of Jamaica.
The Guardian's John Fordham listed it as Album of the Month and gave it a 4 star review in which he wrote, "The British jazz singer pays homage to Vaughan with earthiness and spontaneity: an animated reinvention of these classics".
[19] McFarlane has collaborated with a wide range of artists across various genres including DJ's Nicola Conte, Little Louie Vega and Nicola Conte, electronica musician Manu Delago, dub producer Dennis Bovell, British musicians Gary Crosby’s Jazz Jamaica, Ezra Collective, Soweto Kinch, Shabaka Hutchings and American trumpeter Leron Thomas.
[20] Zara McFarlane's tracks have been remixed and reworked by British producer Swindle, Viennese Techno Duo Ogris Debris, Ninja Tune’s Floating Points, Afro-Funker Osunlade and Space-Jazzers Emanative.
Representing Jamaica, McFarlane performed at the Barbican Centre in 2014 as part of the Commonwealth Week celebrating South African musician Hugh Masekela.
McFarlane has made television appearances on Later... with Jools Holland (BBC Two),[22] Un Lugar Llamado Mundo[23] and the live broadcast of Victoires du Jazz.