Joe Armon-Jones "Icy Roads (Stacked)"

I've been touting UK jazz for a while now and singing the praise of key player Joe Armon-Jones for some time as well. So it should be no surprise that the A-side to his new 10" ends up on here.

Particularly when he enlists the talents of bassist Mutali Chashi of KOKOROKO, who provides such a wide-tire firm-grip bassline for Armon-Jones to drive these icy roads on.

As the info on the Bandcamp page notes, the release has " killer artwork nodding to Thrust-era Herbie Hancock" so you have a good sense of what this sounds like before you ever press play. This is some funky soulful jazz right here. Very curious to hear the B-side "Aquarius" when the physical drops at the end of June.

Joe Armon-Jones & Maxwell Owin - Idiom

Gilles Peterson is in NYC right now for a Winter jazz fest and did a special ep. of Brownswood Basement spotlighting UK jazz where he brought in a bunch of folks including Yazz Ahmed (who was responsible for one of my Top 10 albums of last year). But one name he featured that was unfamiliar to me was Joe Armon-Jones.

Did a little dig and discovered this release from last fall with Maxwell Owin and it is a tight mix of jazz and beats. "Idiom" featuring Oscar Jerome is a particular stunner.