Jessica Lauren Four by Jessica Lauren - Freestyle Records [FSRCD093] FLAC download included with physical items

Jessica Lauren Four

Jessica Lauren

A 10 track soul jazz album (57m 18s) — released April 16th 2012 on Freestyle Records

#soul #soul-jazz
Freestyle Records is immensely proud to be the new home for one of the UK's most creative and in demand musicians, Jessica Lauren. Since the early 1990s, the soulful, spacey jazz grooves of keyboard player Jessica Lauren have been a familiar part of London's alternative music scene, having in the past released her own original music on Soul Jazz Records, M.E.L.T 2000 and People Records. Jessica's keyboard skills have augmented the live performances and studio recordings of world renowned artists such as Jean Carne, Tom Browne, Dexter Wansel and James Mason, Japan's United Future Organisation, UK soul diva Juliet Roberts, as well as Jessica currently being a core member of Nick Woodmansey's space jazz outfit Emanative. Jessica Lauren Four is her latest project, nearly entirely acoustic, and is an intoxicating cocktail of her many diverse influences including blues and soul, jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms, combined with ambient dance music, always interesting, absorbing and surprising. Opening up with White Mountain which is a spell binding and hypnotic blend of 21st century jazz sensibilities, combined with ambient dance music minimalism and is a first rate lesson in the 'less is more approach' to music making. The sense of restraint and space captured on this recording is a quite beautiful and rare thing, especially in the jazz world. Renowned vocal sensation Jocelyn Brown makes two contributions on the album, the first being the rolling, rhythm & blues romper stomper Happiness Train, which allows Jocelyn to stretch out within a fresh and wide open musical landscape and the result speaks for itself. Her second appearance on this collection, I Believe is gospel influenced soul with Jessica's tender piano and organ work underpinning Jocelyn's quite outstanding and touching vocal performance. Across on the entire album, Jessica and her band mates, bassist Andrew Kremer and percussionists David 'Booie' Gallagher and Paul Gunter adeptly weave together various rhythmic palates into a varied but cohesive selection of sounds that draw together a world of influences and textures, from the latin pulse of Vaya Con Dios, the jaunty and swinging vibe of Gangaman, and the punchy yet considered attack of The Name Of Fela Will Always Stand For Freedom, this tight musical unit display a rare skill for playing with taste, precision and a selfless, collaborative attitude where the only end result that matters is the music.

I think this is a fantastic album! - Roberts Elms BBC London 94.9

A perfect blend of jazz, soul, blues and Latin. What's not to like? - Sean Smith TokyoJazzNotes.com

Superb producton, rich rhythms and amazing piano skills! this is one hell of an album in my book! - Smoove Smoove & Turrell

An outstanding work contending for the greatest albums of the year - Mark Milz Further In Fusion

Deep, mellow and uplifting.Jessica Lauren Four is a blissful listen! - DJ Philster Funkalicious

What an incredible mix of tracks, dancefloor and smoke filled room friendly! - DJ Kappa Radio Reverb

Lovely juicy percussive jazz goodness, we like. - Ollie Lloyd The Yardbird Club

JL4 has delivered a winner! Perhaps it's indicative of how good music really is right now if you are prepared to scratch beneath the surface. - Andrew Jervis The Friday Night Session

Just a classy piece of work.. well done! - Anthony Psaltis Eastside Radio

A SMOOTH EMBRACE BETWEEN 2 LEGENDS: ONE CALLED JAZZ AND THE OTHER NAMED THE RHYTHM! - Dj Ausar 89.3 WRFG FM ATLANTA

Absolutely enchanting musicianship! - Ket Shah www.back2backfm.net

Its jazz cool at its coolest. - John Warr www.totallyradio.com

Lovely and stylish piece of work from one of the jewels in the UK jazz scene. But Happiness Train, wow! That is one big beast of a tune! - Craig Charles BBC 6 Music

A truly fantastic album from UK keyboard virtuoso Jessica Lauren. - Peter Young Jazz FM

Great album! I love it. I am really into White Mountain and The Name Of Fela Will Always Stand For Freedom. I will support this album for sure. - Andrea Benini Mop Mop

When things come naturally, they hit you big time! - DJ Bunuel Radio Helsinki

Wow, no special fx were used on this one. Just good music. So refreshing to hear! - Mike www.this-is-tomorrow.net

The talented Jessica Lauren is going from strength to strength. - Phil Levene Soulm8 Ezine

One of the best projects I have listened to in a long time! - Simone Vimercati Jazz It Up Radio Show

Cool, casual, and convincing. 10 Gold Stars for Miss Lauren. - Tony Minvielle www.SoulandJazz.com

A great collection of soulful, jazzy keys....latin and afro rhythms make this a much more accessible record for the dancefloor. - Lord Baron Samedi www.alphabeatsoup.org

I love my baby, and my baby loves jazz. I could listen to this all night long! - Dj Strangefellow

This is one of the best things I've heard from the label. Quite simply put ..it's brilliant. - Jeff Young Jazz FM

This is without a doubt my favourite album this year, doesn't get much more beautiful than this. - Tom Lowe RTE 2fm

Superb moody and spiritual jazz ... Simply beautiful and beautifuly melodic. - kwak Back To Niceness

From a cinematic Blues-score feeling over to serious latin driven anthems, while some other songs sound like a tender feather falling through sunbeams from the sugarloaf mountain..this albums' got it all! - The Renegades Of Jazz

The album of her career! - Robbie Vincent Jazz FM

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