Man’ish Boy is a deeply personal work that found Jones meditating on his life growing up in the south: not an easy life, but one suffused with familial love, hard work and self-assurance. His experiences in church, particularly hearing gospel choirs – the ecstatic combination of powerful individual voices coming together to create something greater – were a deep inspiration for this project. An abiding respect for elders and the breadth of life experience they bring led Jones to ask master musicians Cooper-Moore  (piano, diddley-bo) and Rakalam Bob Moses (drums) to be part of this project.