Jessica Ackerley - All Of the Colours Are Singing (2024) [Hi-Res]

“All Of the Colours Are Singing” is a musical parallel to the state of flux and massive transitions in my life during the past three years.

There has always been a tension between my roots in jazz and improvised music and other musical interests. After leaving New York City to pursue a PhD in Hawai’i I felt a freedom to lean into it more, but the geographic distances between myself and the album’s musicians presented various challenges.

How can you create inspiring, improvised music together with the distance of an ocean?

Time was limited for developing the band’s chemistry with rehearsals in New York and Honolulu. An urgency to create collective magic shines through in this music because of it. The core trio of Walter, Aaron and myself recorded in Manoa Valley, HI, and the string arrangements were remotely tracked back in Queens, NY, by my friend, Concetta. I continually felt the pull between each world, both musically and geographically.

In late Spring 2023 when I started arranging the accompanying string parts, my closest friend in Honolulu was diagnosed with cancer. We had met shortly after my move in 2021 during the preliminary stages of this album, and had bonded over our mutual love of art and painting. Throughout the arranging process I would spend time with her. It had a sobering impact on how the string trio shaped the previously recorded rhythm section material. About a week after completing the final album masters in February 2024, she passed.

This music is a documentation of my navigation amongst joy, change, uncertainty, and grief. I wanted to capture beautiful dynamic gestures and viscerally emotive sounds in response to it all.

Jessica Ackerley - electric guitar and compositions
Walter Stinson - upright bass
Aaron Edgcomb - drums
Concetta Abatte - violin 1, violin 2 and viola (tracks 1, 4, 6, and 7)