Jason Staddon

“Together EP”

(Self released)

Jason Staddon – guitar, vocals
with Jonathan Mason – electric bass, Mark Galozzi-Hibbert – drums

Jason Staddon is a guitarist, vocalist, composer, producer and educator based in Barry, South Wales.

I was recommended to take a listen to his music by bassist Aidan Thorne, a regular presence on the Jazzmann web pages thanks to his work as the leader of his own band Duski, as a prolific sideman and as one half of two separate double bass / guitar duos with guitarists Jason Ball and Toby Hay. Thorne is currently a member of the Will Barnes Quartet, a group led by yet another guitarist. It’s fair to say that he is a fair judge of a guitar player, his Duski group having also included Dan Messore.

I’m grateful to Jason for forwarding me a copy of his EP following Aidan’s suggestion. Staddon’s Bandcamp page reveals that he has been releasing music since 2021 and his output includes a number of individual tracks plus two examples of incidental music from independent cinema releases.

As an educator Staddon offers private guitar tuition and also runs the Riff Raff Rock Club, a weekly jam session for youngsters aged from eight to eighteen.

He is a songwriter who sings as well as plays and this new release features a mix of songs and instrumentals. He is assisted by bassist Jonathan Mason and drummer Mark Gallozzi-Hibbert.

Collaborators on Staddon’s earlier singles include drummer / percussionist Harry Greenway, violinists Jess Townsend and Catrin Pryce-Jones, cellists Tom McClusky and Maya Parish, flautist Vicky Guise and saxophonist Nate Orr.

The 2025 single “Nothing”, a song written by Staddon was released under the name Amber Collective and featured Staddon doubling on guitar and bass alongside Greenway on drums,  Ruth Zewge on vocals and saxophonist Lloyd Cottrell. Nate Orr was involved in an engineering capacity, as he is on “Together”.

This new five track EP, Staddon’s most substantial recording to date, commences with the solo guitar instrumental “Starting Over”. This is an attractive composition that demonstrates the classically trained Staddon’s impressive guitar technique, but does so during the course of a piece that evokes a sense of serenity and which makes effective use of the spaces between the notes.

The first song is “Heart”, which features Staddon’s guitar and warm but fragile vocals on a love song that sounds appropriately heartfelt. The music combines the singer -songwriter tradition with traces of jazz, folk and blues.

Title track “Together” introduces Staddon’s collaborators on a jazz flavoured instrumental that sees Jonathan Mason take a liquidly melodic electric bass solo alongside the sophisticated chording of Staddon’s guitar. Galozzi-Hibbert adds responsive accompaniment from the drum kit. The trio’s understated cohesiveness represents a good reflection of the tune’s title.

The rhythm team remain in place for “I’ll Find You”, the second song on the EP. This is a more straightforward indie pop / rock offering with roots in the singer songwriter tradition. Staddon’s plaintive vocals imbue the song with an appealing sense of yearning and wistfulness and he also adds a couple of skilful guitar breaks as Mason and Galozzi-Hibbert provide solid but sympathetic rhythmic support. There are also hints of a couple of judicious keyboard overdubs, presumably played by Staddon himself.

The recording concludes with “Playing Games”, a second voice and guitar offering with a lyric that sounds is if it may be dedicated to Staddon’s young son, who I suspect may have provided the EP artwork, which is credited to Dylan Staddon. Musically the song variously reminds me of John Martyn and Robert Wyatt, two other artists who brought a lot of themselves to their work and were not afraid to display a degree of vulnerability.

Presenting a variety of musical styles the “Together” EP shows much promise. Staddon, who began playing at the age of nine, is a technically gifted guitarist, a distinctive vocalist and a disarmingly candid songwriter.

His Bandcamp page describes his sound as;
“music that feels both technically refined and emotionally immediate”, which represents a very accurate summation.

The mix of songs and instrumentals suggests that he’s not quite certain which musical direction to follow, and as admirable as a multi-faceted approach might be one suspects that the singer-songwriter route is the one more likely to bring him a degree of commercial success. That’s not to in any way decry the two instrumental pieces, as a jazz listener I very much enjoyed both of these.

The next step for Staddon has to be the full length album. Having been introduced to his music I shall be very interested to see how his career continues to develop.

Jason Staddon’s recording are available via his Bandcamp page here;
https://jasonstaddon.bandcamp.com/music

See also;
https://www.jasonstaddonmusic.com/

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