Joe Armon-Jones – ‘All The Quiet (Part I)’

From playing keys with the all-conquering afrobeat inflected London party band that is Ezra Collective, to being a regular collaborator of Nubya Garcia and others, Joe Armon-Jones has become an inescapable presence in UK jazz and for good reason too. His distinctive playing style is malleable and able to fit into many contexts.

As a solo artist, Armon-Jones has leant towards dub and electronica and has forged highly fruitful partnerships with musicians outside the jazz sphere such as dubstep producer Mala. Across a tight set of releases, he has forged a laid-back sound that leans in many directions with its soulful production and easy-going grooves.

With All The Quiet (Part 1), released on his own Aquarii Records label, he won’t be surprising anyone familiar with his solo oeuvre – but that is no great issue as what is on offer here is of an extremely high calibre. Across the set, Armon-Jones is joined by his Ezra Collective bandmates Ife Ogunjobi and James Mollison on trumpet and saxophone respectively with further sax work from the aforementioned Nubya Garcia.

‘Lifetones’ kicks off proceedings with its deep dubby bass, bright synth lines and synchronised horns. Forgiveness adds to the blissed-out vibes with its reverb drenched sound, wordless vocals and some of the most soulful and affecting sax playing on the entire record.

Armon-Jones is extremely adept at picking collaborators – a case in point being his meeting with Brooklyn born, south London based rapper Goya Gumbani. An inspired choice, he is a musical figure who crosses genre boundaries himself, delivering fusions of east coast hip-hop, neo-soul and contemporary jazz. The track ‘Eye Swear’ captures both artists at their best, delivering a hip-hop cut with Joe’s distinctive tight keyboard runs.

Guest singer Asheber adds melodious and captivating vocals to Kingfisher, with its crisp off-kilter rhythms and thoughtfully chosen instrumentation. Elsewhere ‘Danger Everywhere’ and ‘Show Me’ are shorter cuts, almost sonic palate cleansers. While they don’t hang around for long, both hint towards a darker sound than we’re used to from Armon-Jones.

Across the set, the listener is of course treated to ample servings of Armon-Jones’ characteristic playing style offering piano and keyboard lines that run, dance and shift all over the top of the often-laid-back grooves. But above all else, his solo work sees him in producer mode – creating the foundations for his band and collaborators to work with and then assembling the final product.

He has discussed this being the first time that he has handled all the mixing himself. In a social media post, he displayed a sense of apprehension about letting work that he has entirely mixed himself out into the world – but he needn’t have worried. The album sounds fantastic, it’s sumptuous and multilayered.

This is a fine release in the growing Armon-Jones catalogue. It is of course, only ‘part I’. In June he will release its companion album ‘All The Quiet Part II’. It will be interesting to see which aspects of his work he delves into on this second set. But for now, fans have plenty to get their teeth into with this first helping.

from https://ukjazznews.com