‘Come On Now’ marks the new EP release from trumpeter and composer, Jackson Mathod, serving as his first release through the label partnership of Bridge the Gap and New Soil.
“Fun music. Forever.” These are the words that serve as the albeit brief but fairly apt bio on Mathod’s Bandcamp page also serving as the perfect introduction to his inspirational take on contemporary jazz.
The last couple of years have been incredibly productive for Mathod – with a steady flow of single releases via his Bandcamp page, the release of his debut album last year and recent recorded collaborations with El. Train, Fika and Blue Lab Beats, the new EP is perfectly poised to elevate Mathod’s star even higher as he seems to garner increasingly broader attention through each of his releases.
What’s a notably endearing quality for Mathod is his propensity to wear his heart – and his influences – on his sleeve. With past single releases celebrating everything from his affections for Indian culture (‘India’, 2020) to his fandom for D’Angelo (‘Spanish Bifter’, 2020), Mathod openly embraces his everyday experiences and surroundings morphing them into musical compositions that serve as personal diary-like reflections of his life.
The brilliantly titled ‘Travels in a Confined Space’ (2021) is further evidence of his music being heavily influenced by events of the time. The trumpeter’s debut album had finally come to fruition following the UK’s lengthy quarantine period as brought on by a certain global pandemic which introduced us to the concepts of self-isolation, face masks, home schooling and incessant Zoom interactions. While the world was turned upside down, the music industry felt incredible hardships during that time with music venues closing down and musicians unable to tour but – for some – the time did afford artists the opportunity to create although understandably in wholly unusual circumstances. Hence ‘Travels in a Confined Space’ was born.
And building masterfully upon that project’s success a mere eighteen months later, Jackson Mathod follows up with a brand-new EP once again demonstrating his boundless desire to create alongside some fantastic musicians for ‘Come On Now’.
Across the five tracks presented here, Mathod recruits a variety of friends and long-term collaborators including Blue Lab Beats multi-instrumentalist David Mrakpor, pianist James Beckwith and drummer Harry Pope, amongst others, with each track relishing within the luxury of its own character and personality. The hip-hop influences of the fantastic Mathod-Mrakpor co-creation, ‘So Cold’; the Latin-inspired celebration of ‘Brazil Nut’ and the noir-tinged intimacy of ‘3am’ are all solid standouts for a terrific EP.
While Jackson Mathod has all but earnt himself a decent rest from his recent burst of creative output, the volume of awesome music over the last two years would suggest it may not be too long before more musical gems amongst the Mathod catalogue present themselves to listeners. And while we’ll have to wait and see where life has taken Mathod since ‘Come On Now’, we can rest assured we’ll be gifted with fun music. Forever.
