Rob Luft is an award-winning 22-year-old musician from London, and has been described as one of the UK’s most prominent and talented young contemporary jazz guitarists. Praised by The Times ‘to achieve great things in the future’, Rob was the recipient of the 2016 Kenny Wheeler Jazz Prize in association with Edition Records, and he also received the 2nd Prize in The 2016 Montreux Jazz Guitar Competition.
Having joined NYJO at the age of 15, Rob then went on to study on the jazz programme at the Royal Academy of Music. Subsequently, he co-founded the tango quintet The Deco Ensemble, with whom he has released one album, ‘Encuentro’ (2015), featuring the music of Argentinian composers such as Astor Piazzolla. With this group alone, Rob has performed in The National Philharmonic (Warsaw), The Purcell Room (London), Salle Cortot (Paris), Ministry of Culture (Bratislava), Palazzo Brancaccio (Rome), as well as in many other major European cities. Other concert highlights include performances with artists including Django Bates & Loose Tubes, Eddie Parker’s “Mister Vertigo”, Stan Sulzmann, Gregory Porter, Hamish Stuart and Liane Carroll.
Rob is a member of Byron Wallen’s “Four Corners”, Martin Speake’s “Mafarowi”, and Enzo Zirilli’s “Zirobop”. Furthermore, he appears on Liane Carroll’s latest release on Linn Records (‘Seaside’ – 2015), Brazilian singer Luna Cohen’s new album on the Catalonian independent label Temps Record (‘November Sky – 2016), & the debut album from Enzo Zirilli on Milanese label UR Records (Zirobop – 2015). Finally, he was the recipient of the 2015 Peter Whittingham Award as part of two collective ensembles – Patchwork Jazz Orchestra and jazz-rock quartet Big Bad Wolf.
