In 2019
@iammarlonburton called me and told me Emma-Jean Thackray was looking for a manager, asking if I’d like to work with her - I’d heard her play the previous year at
@greatescapefest in a rammed pub, so much so I couldn’t see the band, but heard a joyful noise and had to ask who it was - so I was happy to meet and chat. I saw that she was playing Walthamstow Jazz Festival that week and went along - I was initially refused entry in as the room was again rammed, I had to blag a bouncer that I was there to meet her and had to get in! The show in Walthamstow was a different proposition, EJ was solo, with a horn and Roland SP404 sampler, making all the noise herself, with some Peep Show thrown into the mix. A serious jazz artist, not taking herself too seriously. Sign me up. We met again following her return from Brazil, and talked jazz, jazznotjazz and future ideas for music amongst other things. I was again impressed, this time by the ideas and scope of Emma-Jean’s ambition and quickly I realised that this artist would benefit from having her own imprint - an outlet for exploration across varied releases as ideas and projects reveal themselves. Rain Dance EP came first, and sported two very different and distinct singles, Open, which would go on to feature
@bluherfavcolor and Movementt, perfectly encapsulating what the then “new” nujazz scene of London was tapped into: jazz which remembered it’s roots on the dancefloor, jazz made by a generation of artists who spent equal time in the clubs as the conservatoire.the album Yellow followed in 2021, drawing on preparatory work across 4 previous EPs, selling close to 30,000 records, topping various charts - no mean feat on her own fledgling label - and enabling the artist to tour 20+ countries around the world. A bereavement stopped work for some time, but like all true artists, she drew on her own experience to create Weirdo: an astounding document of hope, survival, loss, love. Out today via
@gillespeterson @brownswood @parlophone , huge congrats
@ejthackray 🤟🏾
