Truly tremendous work from saxophonist Kamasi Washington – a set that may well even blow away his groundbreaking Epic album – given the scope of soul and spirit in the music! As with the previous project, this one's double-length, but maybe feels even more fitted to the mode – as Washington leads this incredible ensemble that unifies a jazz group, orchestra, and choir – all at a level that might even top some of Alice Coltrane's early 70s albums for Impulse! There's a richness in vision here right from the start – music that knows what it is, where it's going, and what it can accomplish – very personal, but also very welcoming too – just the right sort of spirit to help get the nation back on track! Washington blows tenor throughout – and gets great help from Cameron Graves on piano, Brandon Coleman on organ and keyboards, and Miles Mosley on bass – whose work alone really seems to drive the proceedings!
Live songs of iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE is a two-CD compilation sent to U2.Com subscribers as the annual subscriber gift for 2019. The CDs are housed in a photographic book documenting the tours, and they contain live music from the band. The booklet is similar in size to a 7-inch record. The set features one disc of live versions of songs from the Songs of Innocence album. The second disc features live versions of songs from the Songs of Experience album. Both releases are roughly sequenced to match the song flow from the 2015 and 2018 tours. All of the songs performed live from those two albums are represented on this release, with the exception of two bonus tracks, “Lucifer’s Hands” and “Ordinary Love.” The version of “The Little Things that Give You Away” is taken from the 2017 tour. All of the songs on the first disc are taken from 2015 with the exception of “Iris (Hold Me Close)” which is taken from the 2018 tour. There are 23 songs in total in this collection. The first disc is labeled “Live Songs of iNNOCENCE” and the second disc in the set is labeled “Live Songs of eXPERIENCE.” Both are manufactured in the Czech Republic.
Some of the greatest artists in the 20th century have been multi-instrumentalists – cue Prince, Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield, Todd Rundgren and Paul McCartney. That expansive understanding of composition, technique and sound changes how artists approach musicians has inspired Leland Whitty’s approach on his new record Anyhow.
Rhiannon Giddens’ You’re the One is the Grammy - and MacArthur - winning singer, composer, and instrumentalist’s third solo studio album and her first of all original songs; her last solo album was 2017’s critically acclaimed Freedom Highway. This collection of 12 songs written over the course of Giddens’ career bursts with life-affirming energy, drawing from the folk music that she knows so deeply, as well as its pop descendants. The album was produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Solange, Alicia Keys, Valerie June, Tank and the Bangas) and recorded at Criteria Recording Studios in Miami with a band composed of Giddens’s closest musical collaborators from the past decade alongside musicians from Splash’s own Rolodex, topped off with a horn section, making an impressive ten to twelve-person ensemble.