Studio Masters

Joe Armon-Jones – Turn to Clear View (2019)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:47 minutes | 501 MB | Genre: Jazz Fusion, Jazz Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Brownswood Recordings

Since Starting Today – his first solo album released in 2018 – it was clear that Joe Armon-Jones had established his place in the young British jazz scene as a kind of mad scientist behind the keyboard who knows Herbie Hancock like the back of his hand. Spotted on the compilation album We Out Here (a Qobuzissime record!), released on Gilles Peterson’s label Brownswood Recordings, the co-founder of Ezra Collective has now revealed Turn to Clear View, a work that is just as eclectic as its predecessor with guest appearances from the likes of Oscar Jerome, Moses Boyd, Georgia Anne Muldrow and Nubya Garcia. Much like his counterparts, JAJ has been bottle-fed on a thousand different sounds and styles. There’s jazz of course, but also fusion, club music, afrobeat, hip-hop, neo-soul, acid jazz, dub and funk, genres that he effortlessly connects together like blocks of Lego. And much like its predecessor, the second album led by Armon-Jones echoes sounds of the late seventies and early eighties, when soul and funk were infiltrating jazz, for better or for worse. JAJ walks in the footsteps of Roy Ayers, Bernard Wright, Ramsey Lewis, Ronnie Laws, Ronnie Foster, Blackbirds, Headhunters and Alphonse Mouzon. And yet on tracks such as The Leo & Aquarius, he reminds us – with the help of the rapper Jehst – that he is living firmly in the 21st century and not in some fantasized past. This becomes evident again on Yellow Dandelion, which Georgia Anne Muldrow turns into a soul’n’jazz hit with very modern sounds. Behind his keyboard, JAJ never thinks purely about himself, nor does he abuse his pyrotechnic virtuosity. And it is precisely that quiet confidence which makes Turn to Clear View so wonderful. – Marc Zisman
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Joe Armon-Jones – Starting Today (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 46:45 minutes | 509 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Brownswood Recordings

2018 debut album, by prodigious keys player, composer and producer Joe Armon-Jones, is buoyant, celebratory and welcoming. With a background in jazz, he draws from influences in dub, hip-hop and soul. Different traditions are infused and commingled together. Soulful brass arrangements are colored with carefully-tuned atmospherics; individual flashes of brilliance are bound into the album’s bigger picture. He’s part of London’s young, jazz-influenced music scene. Drawn from that same close-knit circle, the album features the likes of Moses Boyd, Nubya Garcia and Oscar Jerome. It’s playing with those – along with Ezra Collective, which he co-founded, and touring with the likes of Ata Kak and Pharoahe Monch – which has honed his playing and grown his ideas. It’s made for a record with an unmistakable depth. He draws on deep musical understanding, making music which is warm and has a feeling of joy. A document of his vision for bringing together his different influences, it’s also a testament to hard-earned, head-turning musical virtuosity.
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