Talking Tracks with oreglo
On their experience at Cross The Tracks and the future of the UK Jazz scene
oreglo, a London-born jazz collective, flirt with blending genres like jazz, rock and reggae. They made their debut with the single 'Levels' released earlier this year and have been absolutely killing it jamming on TikTok, gaining a well-deserved entourage of fans. We too are so excited to hear their debut EP set to come out later this year.
We spoke to oreglo about their experience at Cross The Tracks, the future of the UK jazz scene and the most intriguing-sounding dinner party line up, Gary Lineker, Björk and Akala.
The oreglo origin story begins at school with Nico and Linus, who played together every day in the music rooms. Nico met keys player C-sé at a Tomorrow’s Warriors Jam; joining the band in the summer of 2022. They recall, “Nico had the idea to call up a tuba player, specifically Teigan. When we got to our first rehearsal, we just clicked. It was something different. We’ve never looked back since.”
As for the name of the band, they settled on the word oreglo. Explaining their choice, they said, “it’s just a random made-up word that c-sé the keys player created [...] and we found it kind of reflected our sound in a weird way.”
Being young jazz musicians in the UK comes with its own challenges; oreglo pointed out, “there are a lot of hungry people who want to snap you up in your prime and make the most out of you, so making sure you aren’t being exploited and the people wanting to take you on are genuine.”
We are currently witnessing an incredible moment in the UK jazz scene with a new generation of talent, highlighted by Ezra Collective's recent Mercury Prize win.
oreglo shared their thoughts, “when Ezra won, we all felt like it was such a pivotal moment, and we felt so validated and proud to follow in their footsteps. [...] Ezra’s success at the Mercury means that there is now more than ever real public attention towards instrumental (and non-instrumental) UK jazz.”
oreglo were hand-selected by Ezra Collective to perform at Cross The Tracks 2023 after their incredible entry in the Lambeth Sounds Emerging Artists competition.
Winning was a surreal experience for them. “We were totally in shock,” they recall.
“We all remember clearly; we were at the studio and Teigan, our tuba player, just shouted ‘WE WON’ without any context; we all knew what he meant and started freaking out.”
oreglo played an incredible set at The Caboose. “It was super satisfying to see our crowd grow and grow as people drifted over upon entering the festival and hearing our music,” they said.
When we asked for their favourite moment from the performance, they had too many to choose. They decided on “when we got everyone to get down, a little crowd trick we took from Ezra. Nico got everyone to get low, counted down from ten and they got up and danced like crazy on 1!”
They continued, “we also loved Kaidi Akinnibi's solo on passion dance, it went off! He soloed for a good while but kept building the energy, which was amazing.”
Their latest single, 'J.A.C.K.', has been described by the band as ‘oreglo does rock’. Fusing different genres is something that the band loves to do, seeing what flows naturally with the music. They said, “at our core, we merge mainly jazz, rock and reggae, but we also have been playing with hip-hop, jungle, dnb, and much more.” oreglo does hip-hop? Sign us up.
TikTok has played a key role in promoting their music, with oreglo using the platform to showcase their studio jams and genre-blending experiments, garnering an impressive 20.3K followers. The band added, “however we're very firm believers that our sound is at the core of our success and that the quality of music at the end of the day is what causes this.”
We wanted to discover more about oreglo, who they are and what motivates them, so we asked our most burning and bizarre questions.
If you could collaborate with any artist from any genre and time period, who would it be and why?
Linus - I feel like Sade would elevate the oreglo sound so beautifully and bring it to a whole other level.
Nico - I would love to work with Esperanza Spalding, her compositions are so unique and creative. I feel like with the palette of oreglo, plus her vocals and bass, we could make some really interesting music.
Teigan - I genuinely would love to have Damian Marley on one of our tunes like ‘Afrodite’ which is very much Reggae/Dub, I feel like he’d bring a whole new take on our sound.
C-sé - Definitely Kendrick Lamar. He was really and truly the first artist I held close to my heart. Sonically, he is so versatile and free, yet purposeful and I believe that should oreglo and Kendrick collaborate, it would definitely be an interesting and refreshing sound.
If you were to recommend a few jazz musicians to someone who is new to the genre, who would they be?
Linus - Older classic artists: Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock Newer: Oscar Jerome, Kokoroko, Moses Boyd, Butcher Brown, BADBADNOTGOOD.
Nico - O.Gs : Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Horace silver, Max Roach, Wayne shorter - Newer people: Esperanza Spalding, Makaya Mccraven, Joell Ross, Robert Glasper, Chris Dave
Teigan - Horace Silver, Chet Baker, Bill Evans, Theon Cross, Joel Ross, Immanuelilkins, corto.alto, Sultan Stevenson just to name a few.
C-sé - Miles, Parker, Monk, Jamal, Vaughn
If you could have dinner with any three people, living or dead, who would they be?
Linus - Kevin Parker, Damon Albarn and George Best
Nico - David Bowie, Herbie Hancock, Neil Degrasse tyson
Teigan - Bob Marley, Fela Kuti and John Williams
C-sé - Gary Lineker, Björk, Akala
You are all incredibly talented musicians. is there any other non-musical skill you wish you had?
Linus - The ability to cook really well. I’d love to just be able to casually whip up a Michelin-star meal when I felt like it. This will happen though, determined to become a sick chef in the next few years.
Nico - I wish I could speak Italian fluently, my grandparents were from Italy and I never learnt how to speak it properly so I never know what my relatives are saying.
Teigan - I wish I could draw, I feel like music is such a unique outlet for my emotions and I wonder what way my emotions would translate to a canvas or paper.
C-sé - I wanted to be a physicist at one point. School put me off that, but it fascinates me.
oreglo are currently working on their debut EP which is set to come out in early 2024 so keep your ears peeled in anticipation... In the meantime, you can check them out on social media and make sure to listen to their amazing singles already on Spotify.