Description
The essential 2015 debut album from the Tenderlonious led jazz outfit - Ruby Rushton, available on CD for the first time. The album tore up the rule book at the time and is a reflective, instrumental composition, nuanced by a fusion of jazz, afro-beat, hip-hop and electronic influences. Features drummer Yussef Dayes of Yussef Kamaal.
Back when Ruby Rushton released their debut album in 2015, the London jazz landscape looked very different. Moses Boyd hadn't yet released the genre-unifying 'Rye Lane Shuffle', Yussef Kamaal Trio had only just first teased their output at the 22a Boiler Room, never mind releasing an album which opened jazz up to a completely new audience. Shabakah Hutchins too continued to operate from the shadows, before The Ancestors, Sons of Kemet and Comet is Coming got their dues.
'Two For Joy' perhaps came at a time when jazz wasn't cool, but was a triumph nonetheless, fuelled by a love of Coltrane, Yusef Lateef and Fela Kuti to more contemporary artists like Slum Village and Sa-Ra. Recorded way back in 2011, it tore up the rule book reaching beyond traditional jazz and coffee table conformity. The band was a quartet at the time made up of composer and 22a label boss Ed Cawthorne (Tenderlonious) on saxophone, Nick Walters trumpet, Aiden Shepherd on keys and Yussef Dayes (Yussef Kamaal) on drums. The album fuses jazz, Hip Hop, Afro-Beat and electronic music, captures the sound of London today!
Personnel: Ed Cawthorne (tenor saxophone), Nick Walters (trumpet), Aidan Shepherd (keys, bass), Yussef Dayes (drums)