Fresh Sounds: Charlie Stacey - Music Is Healing

Keyboard player and pianist Charlie Stacey fuses jazz-piano virtuosity with dark synth textures and grooves on his first solo project - a direct-to-disc, one take recording for Night Dreamer Records. We can listen to his first single Music Is Healing, from the album The Light Beyond Time, which will be released on 22nd November.

One of the UK’s leading keys players, Charlie Stacey improvisational skills are unmatched. Known for his work with Yussef Dayes and fellow Tomorrow Warriors alumni such as Moses Boyd and The Ezra Collective. Stacey’s technical prowess and ability to jump between genres has quietly gained the young pianist a reputation as one of the most advanced players around.

Fronting a band for his debut recording under his own name, Stacey had to bring that knack for improvisation to the fore. Alongside his regular band of Oscar Ogden (drums), Tom Driessler (bass) and Jay Phelps (trumpet), Stacey was joined in the studio for the first time by vocalist Vula Malinga - who has performed with Basement Jaxx and Incognito - and Holland-based Senegalese percussionist Mamour Seck. Together, the group forged four sprawling jams from the white heat of the direct-to-disc recording process.

Listen to Charlie Stacey new single Music Is Healing, from his forthcoming debut album The Light Beyond Time:

As Stacey explains: The fact we only spent one-and-a-half days recording actually made it more fun, as it meant we played in a more intense, focused way. In fact, as a touring live musician, Stacey relished the opportunity to record with the same levels of jeopardy. I liked the idea of the spontaneity of creating something with one opportunity only to get it right. I also liked the idea of non-judgement that leaving stuff intact lends itself to. Whatever we played on the day is what we ended up using and therefore is neither right nor wrong, it just is.

Stacey is the not the first young UK jazz musician to take on the direct-to-disc recording process at Night Dreamer, and joins the likes of Emma-Jean Thackray, Sarathy Korwar and Maisha, who have all cut equally exploratory records for the label.

Watch below Charlie Stacey new single Music Is Healing, from his forthcoming debut album The Light Beyond Time: