Biography: Joy Jones

Joy Jones is a revelation in a world of stagnant sounds. After honing her craft as an honorary member of the legendary Bugz in the Attic crew, Jones’ has finally released her debut album Godchild, a simply exquisite piece of work that fuses soul with nu-jazz, broken beats, and world rhythms into a unpredictable gem that will no doubt stand out as one of the best releases of 2009.

Godchild is deeply rooted in the traditions of African music expressing itself through gospel vocals, African chants, complex soca rhythms, and jazz inflections. Yet the album also is singularly progressive, showcasing a cutting-edge production style that sounds like nothing else around. Jones saunters through hand clapping anthems like the fried chicken and grits funk of “This Too” and the Fela-flavored “The Joy” (produced by Daz-I-Kue) before dancing over gentle jazz masterpieces like “Glassboxes” and gauzy ethereal ballads like “Right Now.”.

Lyrically Joy Jones is something like a spiritually focused Erykah Badu with an edge. She speaks with pinpoint accuracy on topics as far-reaching as the media, the economy, and spiritual freedom without ever coming off as preachy or heavy handed. The album contains a perfect quartet of tracks which sum up her sound and lyrical style. The immediately accessible “Hollywood” with its stuttered synthetic beat contains sharp words on the plight of fame with verses like “A rapper dies/the media flies/no one has time to cry/post-mortem merchandise.” Additionally “Supernova”, “Nomad”, and “Promised Land” all work around a similar concept matching body-swaying eclectic percussion and touches of electronic bliss with a complex vocabulary and poetic sensibilities. These four tracks alone craft such a unique sonic fantasy that Joy could have probably just released an EP and been good to go.