Things are getting better is a bold statement to make in a time when the world seems to be on the verge of world war 3 and the cost of living is rising beyond most of our reach. Five years ago when I started the Voices of Creation with Jack I knew the world would need new songs, new mantras and prayers for this new day that is dawning. We would need more faith, we would need love, we would need vision, and we would need each other. A part of every beginning is an ending, this is an observable law of nature.
Revolution marks the third and final installment in producer Daniel Crawford’s Matrix-inspired trilogy, which began with 2012’s Red Pill and was followed by The Awakening in 2014. A jazz-soul manifesto akin to the work of Robert Glasper, who fuses jazz, soul, hip-hop, and R&B, Revolution uses each track to spark a conversation around injustice, police brutality, freedom, and love.
t's tempting to hear Kamasi Washington's six-track Harmony of Difference suite as a follow-up to his sprawling, justifiably acclaimed three-hour debut The Epic. But this EP, at just over half-an-hour, is, in many ways, a standalone work. It was performed in New York at The Whitney Biennial as part of a show that included a film by director A.G. Rojas and paintings by Washington's sister Amani. According to the artist, it was composed to explore "the philosophical possibilities of the musical technique known as 'counterpoint.'" Washington defines it as "the art of balancing similarity and difference to create harmony between separate melodies." That description is, at least in this setting, akin to metaphor in the current socio-political-cultural era where flash point battles over issues of race, gender, sexual orientation, and cultural appropriation are being waged afresh.