British pianist Ashley Henry makes his major label debut with the release of the Easter EP on Silvertone / Sony Music.
Drawing influences from jazz, hip-hop and R&B, the 6-track selection is an imaginative project that boldly explores new musical territory, marking Henry out as an important new artist on the Jazz scene
Born and raised in South London, Henry graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2016 and has gone on to perform and collaborate with the likes of Jason Marsalis, Terence Blanchard and Jean Toussaint. Within the Easter EP, audio and visual style touchpoints include the likes of Abdullah Ibrahim, Ahmad Jamal, Sinead Harnett, Digital Underground, ZuZu and even Margot Fonteyn, Era Istrefi, Freddie Mercury and Dreezy.
Henry is beautifully influenced by his Jamaican heritage and in particular the wave of Caribbean jazz musicians from the 1950s, including the likes of Joe Harriott, Harold McNair, Dizzy Reece, Harry Beckett and Wilton Gaynair, who arrived in Britain during the jazz boom of the late post war period. Despite this eclectic range of international influences, Henry's sound remains distinctively British, crazily present and in the true tradition of jazz is bold.
The Easter EP sees Henry tackle a broad range of material in his original tracks and re arrangements of tracks by revered US rapper Nas and indie punk trio The Enemy.