Lucky Number Music

When Nardeydey, AKA Shirley Tetteh, released her first solo singles “Speedial” and “FreeFalling” at the tail end of 2018 and start of 2019, we were watching in real time the emergence of a singular and complex songwriter-artist from a musician that was already a guitarist of renown in London’s new jazz scene.

Playing in fast-rising collective Nérija (Domino), spiritual jazz ensemble Maisha (Brownswood), and also in the Mercury Music Prize 2019 nominated Seed Ensemble, Shirley opened up to reveal her deeply personal and remarkable songwriting, processing her inner life with dream-logic tapestries, pulling together myriad influences from folk, pop, jazz, soul, gospel, electro-pop, afrobeats and beyond. All written and self-produced, the tracks are deeply original, wearing her guitar virtuosity lightly in creating inexplicably perfect trans-genre pop songs.

Today Nardeydey is announcing that her debut eponymous EP will be released digitally and as a Rough Trade exclusive 12” vinyl at the end of November. She also shares new single and EP track, ‘Dreamin’, a luscious track dotted with found sound sample texture & a revolving cascade of chords, discloses new facets of her vision with each track.

Nardeydey, AKA Shirley Tetteh, is an important guitarist of the New Jazz scene; a founding member of the fast rising all-female collective Nérija, playing in spiritual jazz big band Maisha and even having won a Parliamentary Jazz Award in 2018 for Best Newcomer. But more than just a guitar virtuoso, Shirley is a songwriter of some genius too.

Her new single “Freefalling”, which was premiered on The FADER today, reinforces that notion, again weaving multiple feels and techniques into an unusually amazing whole. The song kicks off with a funky Joni Mitchell melodicism, replete with her glowing gospel harmony style. Then it drops into an electro-pop hybrid synth passage before turning on a dime into an extended RnB harmonic bridge complete with a surprise Prince solo (in miniature). It’s a thrilling 03:28 of unclassifiable pop music.

Excited to introduce our latest writer signing – Shirley Tetteh, aka Nardeydey.  Even among all the young talents on the rise from London’s incredible new jazz scene, Shirley stands out as a true don.  She is a guitarist of high renown (she has played in live bands for Anderson. Paak and Little Simz) and is a key member of the all-star, all-women’s ensemble Nérija (recently signed to Domino Records w-wide), and the spiritual-jazz big-band Maisha. She is also, herself, a fabulous alt-pop singer-songwriter – and her first single, under the solo name Nardeydey, is out now.  From the opening bars of “Speedial” you will hear a unique musical intelligence that marks Nardeydey as a special artist. The breezy melodic lines snake towards a yearning harmonic bridge with a narrative nod to Laurel Canyon, meanwhile, complex polyrhythms purr along in support, tickling the brain with their unusual complexity. “a punch bowl brew of a song: a little Italo disco here, a little post-punk there; the aesthetics here are a little all over the place, but in a great way.” Pitchfork