A Cross-Continental Single With Joy In Its Step And Cameroon In Its Heart
listen to the article
There is an easy brightness to “ASHIA,” but Jon Gold’s sense of joy comes with weight behind it. The Delaware Water Gap-based pianist and composer draws together jazz, Brazilian music, and wider currents of Latin and African rhythm around a deceptively simple idea: gratitude as a practice rather than a passing feeling. The song takes its name from a word Gold encountered through a friendship with someone from Cameroon, one that carries several shades of meaning but, for him, returns to gratitude. “If we do not practice gratitude then we can never be satisfied or happy,” he explains. That philosophy gives the track its emotional centre, grounding all of its movement in something quietly deliberate.
“ASHIA” unfolds with the elasticity of musicians listening closely to one another. Two-time Grammy nominee Mauricio Zottarelli takes the drums, Jackson Lourenço anchors the bass, Juan Lucangioli handles vocals, Will Allen brings the horns, and Nigerian musician Ofat steps forward for a tenor solo. Though the players span different places and musical traditions, the performance feels conversational rather than assembled, its details passing naturally from one voice to the next.
Jazz provides the framework, but Gold keeps the borders porous. Cape Verdean calypso, Brazilian samba, and echoes of Richard Bono move through the arrangement without becoming decorative reference points. The rhythm section carries a light-footed momentum, horns arrive in bright flashes, and Lucangioli’s vocal phrasing adds softness against the busier instrumental movement. Gold’s piano sits within that exchange rather than towering over it, shaping harmony and motion while leaving room for the ensemble to breathe.
Beneath that buoyancy is a more serious dedication. Gold has described “ASHIA”
as a tribute to the people of Cameroon and their struggle for peace, allowing gratitude and solidarity to exist within the same musical frame. The song’s warmth never requires it to ignore hardship. Instead, celebration becomes its own form of attention — an acknowledgement that joy can carry memory, responsibility, and care alongside it.
That breadth feels natural within Gold’s musical history. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he was introduced early to blues and jazz through his brother Jay Gold, whose work with Mushroom Records helped shape his listening. Piano led to performances with the Palo Alto School District Jazz band, including an appearance alongside Dizzy Gillespie on KQED-TV, before Gold’s interests expanded further toward Brazil. A Brazilian Government fellowship, teaching at PUC-Rio, and work with figures including A.C. Jobim and Hermeto Paschoal deepened a musical vocabulary already inclined toward exchange.
“ASHIA”
draws those histories together without turning them into a résumé. What emerges instead is music built around connection: between countries, traditions, musicians, and the meanings a single word can accumulate as it travels. As Gold continues shaping a broader collection of original compositions and international collaborations, “ASHIA”
offers a clear centre of gravity. Here, gratitude is not treated as sentiment. It is rhythm, exchange, and something practised in motion.
If you would like to submit your music for playlist or feature consideration, please submit here via our partnership with MusoSoup.
