1. Watermelon Man

This track version actually came from an improvisation that Allesandro IIona (Keys) made on a live show at Ronnie Scott's at the start of the year. I think we were were having some issues with one of the monitors on stage and it just started making this beeping sound. Then I remember Alleh just came in with that piano riff at the start and the rest was history. This one of the first tracks we recorded for the EP and I'm super pleased with how this one turned out. Afters eeing Herbie Hancock live for the first time the year before, this felt like the perfect tribute to him!

2. Mandible

The majority of the writing on this album was done at my studio space in Hither Green, where I am every Tuesday! I use this space to record but mainly a space to develop my art. So this EP all came from a few sessions there. We all have our own creative things going on so it was really great to collaborate as a band and trash out some ideas we had. Mandible is one of my favorite tracks on the EP. It's very simple but leaves us a lot of space to explore some more free improvisation. I think in some of my previous recorded music I was more focused on creating well crafted music with great melodies and harmony. Whereas here there's a bit more focus on playing as a group and being more explorative in improvisation. We also didn't have a melody for this track until a week before the recording! Sometimes it just takes awhile to find that melody or it might just pop into your head one day.

3. Slum

This is a tune that was actually written by myself in 2017/18. Round about that time, I had been playing at a jam night at a warehouse unit in Limehouse called Unit 31. The night was run by Pianist Raffy Bushman and Drummer Sam Michnik and was focused on hip hop and Jazz fusion. We would usually play a set of instrumental music before it opened up for vocalists and other instrumentalists to come and jam. It was a great place to try out new ideas, so I wrote this tune for it but we never recorded it. It was really nice to revisit this tune and get it recorded properly at 'That Sound Studios' (Seven Sisters). This track is all about dynamics and a slow build throughout. Descending to more chaos at the end!

4. Red Pistachio

For the first two sessions we wrote with a different bass player to Edmondo Cicchetti who is on the recordings. A great bass player and friend of mine Tom Driessler. This track started kinda exactly how it starts on the record, with that bass hook. I'm very influenced by Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah and his melodic writing. Particularly on his album 'Stretch Music'. So this felt really inspired by that album. The chords don't really move around too much until the solo section where it becomes more like a blues. Then Allesandro get's a bit more loose at the end with the descending sequence.

5. Jerome Arrived Late

Quite simply we started writing this tune before Jerome (Drums) arrived late. In the recording session we were a bit undecided about what to do in the solo section. We tried out a few different options before we eventually landed on featuring Gabriele Pribetti on Sax. I'm really into his solo on this as it's rhythmically and dynamically really exciting. As I mixed the record it was also a great solo to mess with and run through lots of different plug-ins. There's some weird delays and phasing going on that and I added some octaves too in places.

Credits

Jackson Mathod - Trumpet and Flugelhorn

Gabriele Virgilio Pribetti - Tenor Saxophone

Edmondo Cicchetti - Double Bass

Allesandro IIona - Piano and Keyboards

Jerome Johnson - Drums

Mixing - Jackson Mathod

Mastering - Alexander Miller

Tracklisting:

A1. Watermelon Man (6:40)

A2. Mandible (6:59)

B1. Slum (6:04)

B2. Jerome Arrived Late (5:56)

B3. Red Pistachio (5:19)