FFO: Hiatus Kaiyote, Tenderlonious, Nala Sinephro

Following the release last year of Rebecca Vasmant’s acclaimed album With Love, From Glasgow (nominated for Scottish Album Of The Year 2022), Vasmant’s Rebecca’s Records label have announced their latest release, the debut album from spiritual jazz outfit ‘Azamiah’ led by India Blue.

Azamiah have emerged from Glasgow’s bubbling jazz scene, and their debut album, the beautifully transportive and soulful ‘In Phases’, released on 16th June via 12” and digital with the lead single ‘Night Woman’.

Centered around India Blue’s expressive and ethereal lead vocals, the twelve track LP takes the listener on an immersive journey that draws inspiration from the sounds of the natural world and the urban rhythm of the city.

‘Night Woman’ - which has already received early support from Gilles Peterson - encapsulates the gorgeous sonic worlds that are the essence of Azamiah’s debut, as grooving bass, gentle, breezy brass and sublime percussive embellishments forming a truly dazzling aural experience.

Headed by respected Glasgow-based producer, composer and DJ Rebecca Vasmant, Rebecca’s Records is a family run imprint that aims to platform and support female-led jazz, as well as shining a spotlight on Scottish jazz. The label represents the wonderfully diverse and rich music scene that makes Glasgow so very special.

Speaking about Amaziah’s album In Phases, Rebecca Vasmant said: “When I first heard the beautiful and mesmerizing music from Azamiah, I was absolutely blown away, and I am so very happy that we are able to present such a beautiful album. It was recorded and written in Glasgow, continuing our ethos of promoting and supporting Scottish jazz. This record gives me the chills, and I really love the music so very much.

“We hope to release beautiful and special records that make us feel like we've been transported into a cloud of happiness and peace, and hopefully will make listeners feel the same. We aim to send the message of the spirit of Glasgow -collaboration, love and acceptance - in that everyone is welcome in our beautiful city that we call home.”

Check out our Q&A with Azamiah below and make sure tolisten to their brand new debut album here.

Your debut album is out on Rebecca's Records and has already had great support from the likes of Clash Magazine, The Skinny and Gilles Peterson. Tell us more about the creative processes & collaborations involved in the album?

I formed Azamiah back in 2021 with a vision to bring musicians together to form a collective whereby I could flesh out compositions I’d been working on both as a solo artist and collaboratively with Azamiah’s keys player Josef Akin. We worked remotely on ‘Heroine’ allowing it to transition through a number of phases until it became the song it is now on the album. I shared the skeleton of tracks like ‘Heroine’, ‘Night Woman’ and ‘Conversations’ with the rest of the band, and allowed the songs to become their own thing, with everyone brushing their own colours onto each ‘canvas’.

As well as bringing our own collaborative and individual compositions to the band, I discovered very early on that as a band, we gelled really well together which sparked a unique musical chemistry allowing us to create songs like ‘Bedroom’, ‘Celesta’ and ‘Half-man’. We would meet regularly to rehearse, and either start or end our rehearsals with jam sessions which I feel definitely allowed us all to connect as a group in a deep and special way. After we had the arrangements for the tunes down - and once they were recorded - I took all the stems home and spent weeks recording and arranging the vocal parts, layering, harmonising and responding to my own parts which I felt took the sound of the album to a realm that exists somewhere between a live and produced sound. For me, that’s what the songs were calling for – vocals that were rich, dynamic and percussive.

Who are your biggest influences?

During the production of this album, I listened to a lot of music by ‘Hiatus Kiayote’, ‘Solange’, ‘SAULT’ and ‘Makaya McCraven’. In the wider context of the band, ‘Frank Zappa’, ‘Nala Sinephro’, and ‘MNDSGN’ are some of the band's influences.

You all have lots of different artist projects going on. Tell us more about how the band members came together to form Azamiah?

We came together towards the end of lockdown when we all had more time to invest ourselves into a new project. I had a vision to start a new band which would be led by my vocals - this idea was encouraged by Josef Akin so I got a rhythm section together and experimented with other harmonic instruments which is when I met our harpist, Romy Wymer. It felt like a very organic connection between us all so we started our journey together; jamming, building new ideas and playing through compositions I’d written independently and collaboratively.

What has been your favourite venue to perform in?

It would be between Kinning Park complex for a Sofar sound show or The Rum Shack for a Laylow show. The audience were seated on the floor for both the above performances, there were candles lit all over the place, and diffusers with essential oils - the vibe and setting were perfectly matched with Azamiah.