It’s difficult to believe that Yellow is the debut full-length for UK rising star of the burgeoning London jazz-not-jazz scene, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and bandleader Emma-Jean Thackray who has already established a ‘buzz’ with three EP releases and live performances. As we’ve come to expect form this vanguard of young London artists, Thackray blurs the lines between several genres, in this case ‘70s fusion jazz, P-Funk, the space-oriented fare of Sun Ra and Alice Coltrane, some Beach Boys orchestration, and just enough club-dancefloor elements to tie it back to her past work.
Originally from Yorkshire, Thackray now lives in southeast London and has a studio in her small flat where she developed most of the album during the pandemic. She has brass, strings, choral segments, and chanting weaved into this psychedelic project, loosely held together by a groove, albeit subtle at times, that runs through each piece. The project began with contributions from her long-term band – drummer Dougal Taylor, pianist Lyle Barton and tube player Ben Kelly. Yet, after Thackray cut, spliced and multitracked vocal and instrumental takes, it tended to relegate some of these studio sessions to the background.
In a weird way, if one didn’t know this, the album might sound like a long improvisational jam, akin in some ways to the UK group, The Comet Is Coming, but it is mostly a Thackray DIY studio endeavor. This is not a new approach. On her 2018 EP Ley Lines she played all parts herself including a clarinet she picked up ten minutes before recording. For example, “About That” has horns and Fender Rhodes but besides the sampling form her drummer, it’s Thackray playing all the parts and stitch them together. The best comparison is Brian Wilson or Madib, who mesh instrumentation, arrangement, and production to develop what they are hearing.
From an interview three years ago Thackray says, “I play sloppy on purpose, push the time a little bit forward or back…holding my sticks in a lazy way to get those sounds…I wanted to make sure it didn’t have just a singular voice, so I’d snap myself into different modes by changing my jumper or taking off my shoes. When I did the choir for Ley Lines, particularly when I did the men’s voices, I tried to change my shoulders, my stance. When I was doing the high bits, I tried to make myself smaller, hold myself like a petite woman. I wanted it to have different characteristics, I was trying to exhibit different aspects of me.”
Yorkshire is famous for brass bands and Thackray, primarily a trumpeter latched on early to the concept of a communal approach to music. So, in one sense it is somewhat ironic that she does so much of it herself, but the result is a big sound from several sources, it’s not the conventional head-solo-solo-head jazz. At Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, she studied under free improviser Keith Tippett, but while her classmates were playing bop, she was immersed in her headphones listening to people like Madib and Tony Allen. After Royal Welsh, she earned a master’s degree in jazz orchestral composition at Trinity College alongside Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia.
She claims that her music is heavily influenced by rhythmical sounds, that it’s much more about rhythm than notes. Yet, Yellow features plenty of lead and layered vocals too. The lyrics are replete with references to astrology and the cosmos. Spirituality and expanded consciousness find their way into “Third Eye” and “Sun.” She purposely bookended the album with “Mercury” and “Mercury (in Retrograde).” The latter is the reverse of the former with chord sequences, basslines, and melodies delivered backward. So, yes, the album will disorient you and space you out like a psychedelic trip. That’s her intent but there are serious notions at work as well. “Spectre” takes the language of a haunting to confront the reality of depression. “Say Something” urges people to talk with meaning and conviction. She never stays in a serious mode too long though as “Venus” and “Our People” percolate with beats that suit the dancefloor.
Thackray lives by the mantra “Move the body, move the mind, move the soul.” It’s a lot to take on but somehow, she pulls it off. Grab your headphones and take the trip.
