Blues Blood
is the third
Blue Note
album from saxophonist and composer
Immanuel Wilkins
. Its title refers to a quote by Daniel Hamm, one of a group of young boys monikered the Harlem Six after being wrongfully accused of murder in 1964. They were severely beaten by prison officials while awaiting trial. This set poignantly reflects the racism and violence that continue in present-day society. Co-produced with
Meshell Ndegeocello
,
Wilkins
' quartet includes pianist
Micah Thomas
, bassist
Rick Rosato
, and drummer
Kweku Sumbry
. Guests include drummer
Chris Dave
and guitarist
Marvin Sewell
, as well as vocalists
Ganavya
June McDoom
, and
Yaw Agyeman
, with a guest spot by
Cecile McLorin Salvant
on the single "Dark Eyes Smile." For the first time,
also makes use of minimal electronics.
Set-opener "Matte Glaze," co-written with artist
Theaster Gates
, opens with gentle piano chords that shift as three vocalists alternate the lyric delivery with a grooving bassline, sultry percussion, and the leader's buoyant alto sax all melding post-bop, gospel, and more. The New York-based singer
wrote the lyrics to "Motion," a more dynamic journey.
McDoom
articulates the lyrics with limpid clarity while atmospheric electronics frame
and company moving across modern vocal jazz (think
Annette Peacock
), modal gospel, and avant pop as
Rosato
and
Sumbry
dance across the backdrop trading lines and beats.
appears on "Everything." Its lyrics were also written by
(she co-wrote six songs on this date). It offers spoken word from
Esi Sumbry
framed in flowing harmonies by
Agyemen
. The entwined vocalists extend the airy, balladic qualities of "Motion," but much more intimately when
begins singing and chanting in Tamil.
Salvant
appears on "Dark Eyes Smile," a moody love song that frames the singer in lush harmonies and a subtle third verse that opens it wide to embrace the final bridge, where bird sounds and painterly synths frame the quartet. "Afterlife Residence Time" is an exercise in vanguard jazz that includes all four singers and
Sewell
on guitar. It emerges as an expressionistic, midtempo ballad though the band free themselves from restraint. They leave the singers behind and create a muscular dynamic that crosses fusion, blues, and jazz-pop. "Moshpit" is a dark and dirty instrumental. Its gritty groove sounds like
Tom Waits
searching for a rhythm track.
sings "If That Blood Runs Fast," an abstracted experimental tune wedding Afro-futurist soul to post-bop and modal jazz with
joining the band. The closing title cut is a burning vocal number with all vocalists but
. The music joins advanced rhythmic syncopation to vanguard jazz, post-bop, and exotic, gospelized blues. The singers keep it rooted in sacred swing.
ups the ante of 21st century jazz and belongs in the company of
Sonny Rollins
'
Freedom Suite
Duke Ellington
's
Black, Brown and Beige
. With imagination, taste, and resolve, the album explores social and historical connections with modern society as racism, violence, displacement, class struggle, and oppression still govern American life for many. ~ Thom Jurek