Joe Armon-Jones is a keyboardist/producer who came up as part of the jazz group Ezra Collective. Over the last five years or so, he’s established himself as an excellent instrumentalist, but also someone who is very interested in collaboration with other artists. Two years ago, as part of Giles Peterson’s MV4 project, a compilation album recorded at London’s Maida Vale Studios, Armon-Jones teamed up with vocalist Fatima for a song called “Only.” Now in 2022, he’s teamed back up with the Swedish-born/UK-based singer to make a three-song EP, Tinted Shades.

Fatima has been releasing music for over ten years, with her debut album on Eglo Records, Yellow Memories, coming in 2014, and her sophomore album, And Yet It’s All Love coming in 2018. Between the two albums, she’s worked with some heavy hitters such as Oh No, Knxledge, mndsgn., and Swarvy. All of these collaborations are great in their own way, but when you get to hear her with someone like Joe Armon-Jones, you get an entirely different experience. That’s because Fatima gets to lean much more heavily in the jazz direction with her vocals, and she’s able to play off of the live instrumentation of Jones and drummers like Moses Boyd and Morgan Simpson. She’s able to really take her time and explore the space. Now, it’s not strictly a jazz EP – there are elements of hip hop, funk, soul, R&B, and psychedelic, but it’s all being incorporated under the umbrella of a jazz/neo-soul type of project. It’s an intimate affair, with Fatima, Jones, Boyd, and Morgan all making it feel like you’re in the room as the music is being played, with everyone leaning in to hear each other and play off of each other’s musical ideas. It’s incredibly funky and inventive, but it’s Fatima’s warm and inviting vocals with this really rich and solid tone that guide you along the way and give you this home base to keep coming back to as the compositions go off in different directions. The whole project is only three songs long, but each one is so well written, developed, and layered, it’s easy to get lost inside their musical world and forget about time for a little while.

Tinted Shades is an excellent collaboration between two talented artists in Fatima and Joe Armon-Jones. It’s smart and sophisticated, intimate and soulful. Hopefully this is just the beginning of the collaboration, because these three songs aren’t nearly enough.