One to watch: Oscar Jerome
The UK jazz underground is still on pause, with live music venues remaining closed, but a fixture on that once-bubbling scene is 27-year-old Oscar Jerome. He can be spotted playing as part of London Afrobeat band Kokoroko, with whom he wrote their serene 2019 smash Abusey Junction, which has been streamed a triumphant 60m times, or working alongside Shabaka Hutchings, Moses Boyd and Yussef Dayes.
The Norwich-born guitarist, who studied at London’s Trinity Laban (the same conservatoire Fela Kuti attended), is also an accomplished solo artist. Last year he supported LA sax prophet Kamasi Washington on the latter’s UK tour. Next month, Jerome will release his debut solo album, Breathe Deep, which inhales a broad range of influences: supple Latin-American-influenced soul, dub pioneer Lee Scratch Perry, US jazz bopper Grant Green – and the pastoral imagery of John Keats. Many familiar faces from bands such as Ezra Collective, Sons of Kemet and Maisha crop up as guests.
Jerome’s guitar sounds like sunbeams, and he is a gifted songwriter with a folkie sensibility – soulful but understated, his voice never forced or overblown, and all the richer for it. Current single, the upbeat and acoustic Joy Is You, has a sliver of the Jack Johnson about it; Timeless is a gorgeously slinky duet with Lianne La Havas. But Jerome also sings about the climate crisis, homeless refugees and “the haze of city life” with an intimacy that may make you gasp.
Breathe Deep by Oscar Jerome will be released on 14 August on Caroline International
