Joe Armon-Jones – Turn to Clear View (2019) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

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

Tracklist:

1. Joe Armon-Jones – Try Walk with Me (feat. Asheber) (04:19)
2. Joe Armon-Jones, Georgia Anne Muldrow – Yellow Dandelion (05:00)
3. Joe Armon-Jones – Gnawa Sweet (06:24)
4. Joe Armon-Jones – Icy Roads (Stacked) (04:57)
5. Joe Armon-Jones – (To) Know Where You’re Coming From (06:10)
6. Joe Armon-Jones – The Leo & Aquarius (feat. Jehst) (06:30)
7. Joe Armon-Jones – You Didn’t Care (feat. Nubya Garcia) (05:10)
8. Joe Armon-Jones, Obongjayar – Self: Love (06:13)

Download: