Jem Sultan

Sultan is Londoner with roots in the Caribbean (his parents are of Barbadian and Vincentian descent). He is a product of both Tomorrow’s Warriors and the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy (JJJA). Sultan is the first to admit that he has absorbed the work of many of the greats of the jazz piano – there has clearly been time well spent living with the music of McCoy Tyner, Geri Allen, Herbie Hancock and Kenny Kirkland – but that is only a part of his story. His faith as a young Christian is ever-present, as is his deep appreciation of Black gospel music, bebop, swing, reggae, funk and hip-hop as well as the history of Africa and the African diaspora which are part of his identity.

Finally Woken, Jem's full-length debut, fleshes out the It All Starts Here EP with six additional tracks. It features the addicting title track, the same one that blew away KCRW and Nic Harcourt and got her signed to ATO, and it really is quite brilliant. With a dizzy main loop and loping percussion that undulates slyly beneath Jem's dusky vocal detachment, it sounds like what would happen if Beth Orton started bouncing ideas off of Super Furry Animals' hard drive. The song's formula essentially repeats throughout Finally Woken – Jem's simplistically alluring vocals stringing along subtle electronic percussion, ear-catching samples, and melodic loops built from traditional instruments. However, perhaps because this debut sort of snuck up on her, it seems stylistically scattershot. Jem and collaborator Yoad Nevo have a jones for switching things up. They elongate and reduce their elements wildly, to varying degrees of success.