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Preparation is overrated. Impulse is everything. Such was the rebellious wisdom that drove the sessions for Project Mama Earth’s astonishing debut EP. In June 2017, five world-renowned musicians met in Devon England for a high-wire act unique in modern music. They had no songs. No chord charts. No game plan. No safety net. Nothing, in fact, but a plan to play and catch the sparks. Where a lesser band would have stumbled, the gauntlet was readily seized by the all-star Mama Earth lineup of Joss Stone (vocals), Nitin Sawhney (guitar), Jonathan Joseph (drums), Étienne M’Bappé (bass/guitar) and Jonathan Shorten (keyboards). “The possibility for catastrophe was huge,” nods the drummer. “It could have completely tanked. But the minute everyone stood in the studio, before we even touched an instrument – I just knew.”
Releasing on November 10th on Mascot/Provogue, Stone’d Records Project Mama Earth was recorded in ten white-knuckle days, but the roots of the project run a little deeper. Back in 2003, acclaimed drummer/percussionist Jonathan Joseph saw him drafted as musical director for a hot-tip British soul singer about to sell five million copies of her acclaimed debut album, The Soul Sessions. Fast Forward to 2013, while Joseph manned the drumstool for Jeff Beck, the drummer hit on the Mama Earth concept of an album driven by the dynamic rhythms of Africa, there was no question that Stone would take lead vocals.