Taking Off: Jonathan Enser

It’s a pity that this feature only affords a limited space to spotlight the music and thoughts of Jonathan Enser. The inspirational London-based trumpeter, composer, bandleader, and disability advocate has recently released an EP, Silhouettes: A Dream Sphere Journal, under his project Matters Unknown, three years after his debut album, We Aren’t Just.

 It’s the start of a busy period; there’s a tour coming soon and another album underway. Yet, as we speak, Enser is recovering from a surgical procedure which took place the week prior, following years of chronic pain and a leg amputation in February 2023. These experiences have irrevocably fed into his music, which he describes as “functional therapy”. For Enser, music is a purpose and a voice, inextricable from its social and cultural context, serving as a vehicle to explore disability advocacy and spiritual renewal.

Coming from a family of visual artists, Enser was encouraged to learn music from a young age, taking part in local brass bands and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. He describes how “nothing really made sense” until he caught Gentleman’s Dub Club at a festival, and then Hot Eight Brass Band at Glastonbury at the age of 16. From then on it was either going to be carpentry or music, and he chose the latter, eventually going on to study at Leeds College of Music.
 It was there that he became involved in Nubiyan Twist, a now eminently successful group – yet Enser also offers a balanced criticism of his college experience.

“I don’t really feel like they do the social history of music any justice in these institutions. And also learning the music from the people is quite important. I wanted to make sure that I was giving due credit to the people that it came from, rather than the world we live in, in the UK, where the academic side of music is incredibly whitewashed.“

This led to periods living in Cuba and New Orleans post-graduation, where Enser was able to further trace the interconnected traditions of the African diaspora, beyond jazz. It’s the mark of a curious, exploratory mind, one which looks outwards as opposed to in, a trait that runs throughout Enser’s music. His two releases under Matters Unknown are endlessly collaborative: We Aren’t Just features a cast of 14 musicians, including percussionist Mohamed Gueye on sabar (a traditional Senegalese drum) and jazz violinist Matt Holborn, while Silhouettes spotlights Paul Johnson on Persian ney and the work of Cuban percussionist- vocalist Flavio Correa.

“It always has been very much to do with the people that I collaborate with, who are my friends,” explains Enser. “ They’re just people who have amazing souls. I guess it’s in alchemy: first comes spirit, then comes soul, then comes matter. And it’s how I see the music.”

These animist beliefs are at the heart of Enser’s creative and collaborative processes, which sound enviably fluid and organic.

“I’m very grateful that my mother taught me to use chaos as a way of creating, in that I didn’t need to put so much pressure on the idea. Instead, just do whatever," he explains. "Capture it and then work out where you’re going with it and refine it. I haven’t ever struggled with composition, I can usually write 50, 60 tunes in a year and they’re all developed compositions that I could release. And that’s very much a result of my creative practice being one that doesn’t apply too much pressure on itself.”

Despite this energy and positivity, Enser has to contend with playing grassroots music in a niche scene, where funding is hard to come by.

Yet as he explains it, Matters Unknown came about as “a song that needed to be sung”, something that needed to happen beyond his already-existing projects.

“ I put in seven failed funding applications last year, each of which took two whole days of work. And last year I invested every surplus penny that I earned into doing this release, Silhouettes. Because I needed to. For some of us, that’s just the reality. ”

After playing 80 shows in 2024, Enser is now taking a three-month break from live performances in order to fully recuperate. Silhouettes, however, is just the beginning of a packed calendar of releases; there’s a single coming out as part of a Somewhere Soul compilation, followed by another album, titled Axis Conjunction Transition.

While the Silhouettes EP was recorded prior to his amputation, the forthcoming album is shaped from the past two years of therapy and rehabilitation. All the releases share a common thread of advocacy and serious engagement with the social issues that surround us.

“The music is really groovy, but the subjects are real, and they need to be spoken about fundamentally. I think that’s why I have so much confidence in what I do, it’s because I know it’s needed. And I’m excited to continue to do it for the time being, until I feel like the world’s had enough. And I don’t feel like we’re there yet.”

This feature originally appeared in the April 2025 issue of Jazzwise – Subscribe to Jazzwise today