Percy Jones Releases Debut With MJ12 Project

Instrumental jazz/fusion/prog band MJ12, featuring Percy Jones (Brand X, Soft Machine, David Sylvian, Brian Eno, Steve Hackett) has released its self-titled debut album.

The band draws its name from “Majestik 12, which was supposedly a group of 12 scientists and engineers assembled in the late 40s to investigate UFOs,” Jones said. There’s speculation as to whether the group actually existed.

The band has a less fantastical story. “Stephen Moses [drums/trombone] and I had been doing gigs for a while where we would invite guests to sit in,” Jones said. “We did all improv, so this was actually M&J +1 or 2. After a while we started using David Phelps [guitar] and Chris Bacas [saxophone] on a regular basis if they were available. At this point we started writing stuff, but keeping a lot of the improv thing going to keep it spontaneous. The end result was bits and pieces of ideas coming from everybody that were all tied together to try and make a coherent tune, but with lots of blowing inside. By last summer we felt like it had shaped up well enough to record it, so we went in and recorded it over 2 days.”

MJ12 is available on CD.

MJ12 Track List:

1. Call 911
2. Bad American Dream Pt2
3. Magic Mist
4. Talk Time
5. The Wow Signal
6. Big Daddy Road
7. The Phantom Maracas
8. Guns And Pussy
9. Magic Mist Reprise