Groove First, Everything Else Follows: Inside “The Bounce” and the Expanding Sound of London JazzWITH JON ONABOWU

There’s a certain confidence running through London’s current jazz landscape — not in the traditional sense, but in how fluidly artists are moving between scenes, sounds and expectations. It’s less about definition, more about feel. At the centre of that shift are musicians treating groove as the anchor, letting everything else stretch outward from it.

With “The Bounce”, that approach comes into sharp focus. Built from a long-standing musical relationship and shaped in the room rather than on a grid, the track captures a balance between instinct and intention — something that runs through the wider project it introduces. Drawing on jazz, hip-hop, gospel and beyond, the sound is expansive without losing its core. We caught up to talk about feel vs complexity, collaboration, and what jazz sounds like in London right now.

"The Bounce" feels rooted in groove but still musically adventurous — how do you strike that balance between complexity and something that people can instantly feel?

I think the feeling aspect is down to the musicians. If they’ve worked on their feel enough, that gives everything a great foundation. Beyond that, you can be more creative/experimental with the other aspects of the song (that’s typically where the complexity lies). I have one song on my upcoming album that’s in an odd-time signature but I play the groove in such a way that it doesn’t feel complex. Then there’s being tasteful with your choices -something David is a master at. I want the sophistication to be something you discover on the third or fourth listen, not something that stands between you and the music on the first.

You've described the track as coming from a natural session with David Mrakpor — what was it about that collaboration that made it click so quickly?

David and I have been playing together for years, so there's a real synergy there that makes the creative process feel easy rather than forced. I came in with the B section as a voice note on my phone. Just a rough idea I'd been carrying around and we developed the A section melody together in the room. We ended up writing two tracks that day, both of which are on the album.

Your music draws from jazz, hip-hop, gospel and more — do you think of yourself as sitting within jazz, or pushing beyond it into something new?

Both, because to me, the spirit of jazz has always included pushing beyond. That restlessness, that drive to absorb whatever's around you and make it your own, that's not a departure from jazz. That is jazz. So, I think of this music as what jazz sounds like in London in 2026. There's still a heavy focus on improvisation, expression, creativity and musicianship. Those things aren't going anywhere but it exists in a contemporary setting, with elements of today's culture genuinely fused in rather than just referenced.

The Cosmic Fusion residency has become a key part of your story — how has curating those live, improvisational spaces shaped the way you approach your own recordings?

My favourite thing about Cosmic is that it gives musicians a chance to really shine: to take centre stage and push themselves at the same time. I wanted the album to do the same, which is probably why the tracks aren't quite radio-friendly. Running Cosmic has also made me okay with mistakes. Some of the best moments from our gigs came from accidents that ended up becoming part of the song and part of the arrangement. I try to hold onto as much of that energy as possible when we record.

As the first taste of your upcoming album, what does "The Bounce" tell us about the wider project — and what sides of your sound are you most excited for people to hear next?

‘The Bounce’ sets out the stall in terms of feel and intention; groove as a unifying force, complexity that serves the music rather than showing off. But the album goes to some different places from there. There's more intensity in some tracks, more tenderness in others. There’s a drill-infused track I’m looking forward to people hearing. It’s a palette cleanser towards the end of the album that people probably wouldn’t expect to be on there at all. What I'm most excited for people to hear is the range; not in a genre-hopping way, but in the way a live band breathes and shifts over the course of a set. The album is really an invitation to experience this music the way it was meant to be heard; live, together, in a room.