![]() ![]() One of the coolest memories I have of this year is experiencing a night of performance in the heart of Koreatown in Manhattan. The Baylor Project, The Evening: Live at APPARATUS Her Tiny Desk Concert with her band, The Cookout, opened with an original composition dedicated to her hometown of Detroit called "Where the Nubians Grow." It's an undeniable groove that personally embedded a seed of perseverance within me to push through the final quarter of 2022. As one of the few women instrumentalists in a late-night television show band, she plants seeds of inspiration into young women musicians globally. This has been a year of cultivation for Endea Owens: Through her initiative The Community Cookout she sows seeds of hope in New York, providing monthly meals and pop-up concerts for her neighbors. An immersive listening experience that never settles on one version of the truth. It's groove-forward but non-ingratiating, with a dynamic that puts pure creative potential in the hands of every musician in Parker's band: alto saxophonist Josh Johnson, bassist Anna Butterss (whose own work made another of our year-end lists) and drummer Jay Bellerose. Guitarist-composer Jeff Parker is one of McCraven's longtime collaborators, and his Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy shares some DNA with McCraven's breakthrough In the Moment, from 2015. For our confab here, I'd like to herald an album conceived in the same spirit and harnessing many of the same energies, but with hazier and somewhat headier results. ![]() It appeared on my own top albums list, and on many others its charms are abundantly clear. Jeff Parker ETA IVtet, Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academyīy now, critical consensus has anointed Makaya McCraven's In These Times the runaway crossover wonder of 2022. What to make of this vulnerable yet guarded instruction? Like the song's key metaphor, it's warm and welcoming, but with a faraway glow. "If you should love me / Don't ever tell me," she begins, over a harmonic progression that feels instantly familiar. "Moon Song" isn't the most attention-grabbing of them, but it centers so many of her favorite themes: impossible yearning, obsessive craft, the illusion of control. But can we stop for a moment to marvel at Salvant the songwriter? Ghost Song invites us to do just that, with its healthy balance of original gems. When people talk about Cécile McLorin Salvant, they often hail her interpretive daring - a natural focus, in light of the extravagant insight she keeps bringing to other people's songs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |