Coinciding with its Black Music Month celebratory give attention to jazz this 12 months, Apple Music and award-winning artist/producer Robert Glasper have partnered for the unique launch of his newest album Let Go. (The Grammy- and Emmy-winning artist’s newest challenge is out there on Apple Music now.)
In a launch concerning the new partnership, Apple Music world editorial head of hip-hop and R&B Ebro Darden stated, “At Apple Music, we perceive that jazz shouldn’t be solely foundational to Black music, however all fashionable music. So ensuring we lean in and do extra with jazz needed to be a precedence.”
As its title implies, Let Go is meant to assist folks recalibrate mentally in a world rife with challenges. Among the many album’s few vocal moments is the monitor “Respiratory Underwater,” which includes a visitor flip by artist/bassist Meshell Ndegeocello. Shifting ahead, the unique partnership between Apple Music and Glasper will embody extra albums, a radio present and a dwell efficiency by the musician.
“My entire profession, all people’s been saying my music is meditative,” Glasper stated of Let Go in Apple Music’s announcement. “Individuals say they examine to my music, pray to my music, do yoga to my music; they only zone out. Individuals have needed me to do that for a very long time. I wouldn’t name it the ‘meditation challenge’ or nothing like that, but it surely’s one thing you may placed on that helps you discover your middle. It’s simply one thing that quiets the world and permits you to see what’s inside.”
Among the many musicians who labored on the album’s instrumental tracks are drummer Kendrick Scott, bassist Burniss Travis and guitarist Chris Sholar, of whom Glasper famous, “The musicians are very, crucial as a result of they must have that very same stream and that very same middle. [For example], the drummer is a water signal. Every little thing he performs is water. He looks like water. And that’s what I needed for this. I needed it to be liquid.”
In honor of Juneteenth (June 19), Apple Music’s jazz focus shall be supplemented by Freedom Songs 2024. The playlist of unique songs and covers is carried out by next-gen jazz musicians corresponding to Lakecia Benjamin, Theo Croker, Savannah Harris, J. Hoard, Alexis Lombre, Endea Owens, Joel Ross, Cisco Swank, Kamasi Washington and Immanuel Wilkins. Apple can be providing curated collections of music spotlighting the position that jazz has performed – and continues to play – in different genres like hip-hop, rock, R&B/soul, dance and digital music by way of albums, playlists and radio episodes saluting the heroes of jazz then and now.
Glasper’s final formal launch was 2022’s Black Radio III. The set featured a various mixture of artists from R&B, hip-hop and jazz such because the aforementioned Ndegeocello, Esperanza Spalding, Killer Mike, Q-Tip, H.E.R. and Gregory Porter. The album received the Grammy for finest R&B album final 12 months.
