Ashley Henry and the RE:ensemble - Easter EP

The Guardian 80

(Silvertone/Sony Music)

In 1994, when rapper Nas sampled the pianist Ahmad Jamal on his track The World Is Yours, he seemed to rekindle a love affair between jazz and hip-hop – and inspire a generation of jazz pianists to play as if they’d been sampled by a hip-hop producer. Ashley Henry, a 26-year-old pianist from south London, does a mean acoustic version of that Nas single, paying tribute to Jamal’s hypnotic chromaticism but also creating his own static, riff-based, sample-friendly grooves. Henry also writes strong, simple melodies, and is an inventive arranger – a song called Pressure by Coventry indie outfit the Enemy is improved immeasurably when transformed into a fidgety piece of neo-soul with vocals from Cherise Adams-Burnett; while the title track is an ambitious piece of Latin bop featuring tenorist Jean Toussaint and poet Anthony Joseph. Expect big things on Henry’s full-length LP later this year.