It’s absolutely crazy to me how much London-based keyboardist Joe Armon-Jones has grown over the last few years or so. I remember seeing him at venues like the Total Refreshment Centre back in 2017 playing to much smaller crowds. He has stayed true to his craft since then, and with albums like Starting Today and Turn To Clear View he has established himself as somewhat of a jazz superstar.
His headline London at Electric Brixton happened on Thursday 6th February at Brixton Electric, a 1,789 capacity venue. He brought special guests Maxwell Owin & Luke Newman, Jehst and Asheber, while Unit 137 Soundsystem powered the event with their massive, bass-heavy speakers. The energy was there from the start. The DJ sets were electric, Unit 137 were incredible and the crowd was in the mood to party. It was absolutely packed too, which blew my mind. Knowing where he was performing 3-4 years ago to where he is now just amazes me. I was sat just above the stage ground in one of the seats in the corner of the venue and immersed myself in what I can only describe as one of the best jazz performances I’ve seen to date.
What I love about Joe’s live shows is that as much as he’s performing his own music, it’s all about the band around him. So I need to shoutout everyone individually because they all killed it. Kwake Bass was on drums, Nubya Garcia on tenor saxophone, Oscar Jerome on guitar, Jehst on vocals/raps, James Mollison on saxophone, Asheber on vocals, Mutale Chashi on bass and Ife Ogunjobi on trumpet. Massive shoutout and love to absolutely everyone in the band, who all brought their absolute best. Joe performed his entire Turn To Clear View album, and the energy was absolutely stunning. Seeing Nubya, James and Ife absolutely blow the roof off with the mesmeric melodies throughout the album was so powerful and moving. Joe Armon-Jones on the other hand is as slick and brilliant on the keys as ever before. Kwake Bass is a legend and his contribution with the thumping drums was incredible. Asheber’s vocals were absolutely stunning when he was on stage, and the final unreleased track they performed sounded absolutely incredible.
All in all, Joe Armon-Jones blew the fucking roof off Electric Brixton, and I honestly can’t wait to see him grow further as an artist. Watch some of the performance below:
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