Music Spoken Here presents Poppy Daniels
Thursday 23rd April 2026 – The Marr’s Bar, Worcester
7:30pm doors for 8pm start – £15 on the door
Over the last four years, Worcester has enjoyed unique opportunities to see many of the UK’s top young musicians perform at The Marr’s Bar, through a fortnightly programme curated by local promoter Music Spoken Here.
BBC Yong Jazz Musician of the Year 2024 Ursula Harrison, along with two of the other three finalists that year, Klara Devlin and George Johnson, have appeared on the programme. Some of the top young drummers in the UK have also made their Worcester debut through the programme including Young Drummer of the Year winners Nathan Shingler (2019) and Tom Potter (2016), along with Jas Kayser, who won both Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year and Parliamentary Jazz Newcomer of the Year in 2021 and went on to tour globally with Lenny Kravitz. Most recently, the 2025 Parliamentary Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year Rob Luft has appeared twice last year, with his own quartet in March and Eddie Parker’s Airborn in December.
Set to join this prestigious lineup on Thursday 23rd April is Londoner Poppy Daniels, nominated for this year’s Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year alongside Donovan Haffner and Earth-o-Naut. The awards take place at Koko in London, exactly one week before her Worcester appearance!
Poppy is an established trumpet player on the London scene and part of Komodo Horns – a collaboration with saxophonist Flo Blue and various trombone players including Rosie Turton. Her introduction to jazz was hearing Louis Armstrong playing ‘La Vie en Rose’ from her dad’s computer. Other significant influences include Miles Davis, Clifford Brown and Blue Mitchell.
Studying at Leeds College of Music, she became good friends with another trumpet player in her year and they would spend every Sunday playing jazz standards together. On leaving college anxious about heading back to the London scene, she decided to move to New York to build her confidence and “that kind of hustling mentality”. She found everyone there very welcoming and friendly and her bold move was rewarded with sitting in with Barry Harris, one of her idols.
Returning to London, her extensive session work has seen her perform with Daniel Casimir, China Moses, Little Simz, Arlo Parks, Hak Baker and Eliane Correa and at Glastonbury 2024 with Jordan Rakei. Poppy featured on Nix Northwest’s 2019 album ‘Life’s a Bitch, I Just Need an Early Night’ and has toured with him since. She has also worked regularly with Blue Lab Beats, featuring on their 2022 album ‘Motherland Journey’.
Enjoying the session work, she was feeling ready to start her own project but struggled to get anything off the ground. Following a bike accident that put her out of action for a while, she turned her experiences navigating significant life changes to inspiration for writing. Each piece, which musically draws on her London roots blended with jazz, Latin and hip-hop, reflects a key event or turning point in her life between 2022 and 2023. She performed her new music on the NinetyOne Living Room stage at the 2023 Brick Lane Jazz Festival and released her debut EP “Keep on Going” in April last year on the Jazz Re:freshed label.
Poppy will be performing with her regular band featuring Eddie Lee on keys, Kian Cardenas on guitar, Tricky on bass and Lox on drums. Doors open at 7:30pm with the band starting at 8pm. Admission is complimentary for Music Spoken Here Club Members, or £15 on the door for non-members.