When I first listened to keyboard player Jessica Lauren’s new release FILM I assumed it was a brand new recording. In fact it was recorded in 1997. Standout track “Uptown” wouldn’t sound out of place on a 2024 outing for a just-emerging UK jazz-dance artist. The session was originally released as CD only on a small label back in 1999. Since then Jessica’s friend and collaborator and the man behind label Impressive Collective, Greg Boraman, has been burning to deliver it to more ears … ‘I had it loaded onto my iPod and each time a track from Film came up on shuffle I thought just how much I thought it should be re-issued and given the attention it deserves’. Blending modal jazz, electronica, library music, field recordings and more, FILM melds acoustic and electric pianos, harpsichord with synthesisers, electronica and digital techniques that could sound dated 27 years on but somehow stand up proudly. As well as the more electronically driven tracks there are also pared back moments with small ensemble and string settings.
As far as I’m aware there hasn’t been a new recording from Jessica Lauren in a while, but this 20th century set leaves us wondering what she’d get up to in the studio in 2024.
This is our Album Of The Week on One Jazz w/c Monday 25th November