Mercury Prize-nominated, MOBO Award-winning drummer Moses Boyd has teamed up with Appleton Estate to create a rum and jazz vinyl subscription service. Produced in partnership with Flying Vinyl, subscribers will receive an exclusive signed vinyl record from each artist, a 20cl bottle of Appleton Estate premium rum, a Jamaican-inspired pre-batched cocktail by The Drinks Drop and a copper cup to enjoy it in. In addition, a cocktail voucher for The Alchemist will be included each month to enjoy an Appleton Estate premium rum cocktail at the bar.
Boyd will select the artists whose records will appear throughout the subscription service. Rising artists from across the modern British jazz scene will be featured, including cktrl, Theon Cross, and Demae. Each artist will choose one of their own record along with another from Jamaica that has inspired them.
“Jamaica has had a huge influence on me and my music, and in my opinion forms an integral part of the DNA and culture of UK music,” explained Boyd about the partnership. “The musical community I come from is indebted to sound system culture, its roots and its proponents. Beyond the sonics, we owe a lot to the innovative ways Jamaica has distributed, marketed and presented music. And, for many of us, it’s the backbone of how we operate, from communal events to remixes.
“Jamaica has also provided a lineage of great thinkers and visionaries from dub to poetry, jazz, reggae and beyond. My hope with this project is to showcase some lesser-known gems that have been an inspiration. And to also show how Jamaica’s influence has had a long-lasting effect on the musical landscape here in the UK.”
Sandra Brunet, marketing director at Campari Group UK, said: “Modern British jazz is indebted to the jazz of Jamaica, where many of the scene’s biggest talent finds inspiration, or have their family roots.
“Our unique subscription service reveals the untold story of Jamaican jazz pioneers across the generations who brought with them the warm bass of the sound system culture that has shaped today’s young British jazz players – artists like Moses, cktrl, Theon and Demae, whose rhythms are as finely crafted as our premium rum.
“Moses has become something of a figurehead of this scene which made him our natural choice as the curator of this series that highlights how our premium credentials and joyful spirit are so closely related with the same discipline and energy of the new wave of British jazz.”
The new Appleton Estate Jamaican Jazz Sessions follows a first in 2019, which included a partnership with DJ Gilles Peterson.
For more information, head over to Appleton Estate’’s official website.
In June, Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum launched a 15 Year Old Black River Casks rum, and also updated its existing ultra-premium 21 Year Old Nassau Valley Casks, both crafted by Master Blender Joy Spence.
