When the Metropolitan Opera reopens in September, the occasion will be doubly historic after eighteen months in the dark. Some semblance of light at the end of a long tunnel, opening night will bring the Met’s first performance of an opera by a black composer, in the form of Fire Shut Up In My Bones by Terence Blanchard. An adaptation of the memoir by Charles M. Blow, the opera marks the latest surge of creativity from the prolific jazz composer, who has scored dozens of films including decades of work by Spike Lee. In the meantime, the trumpeter is back with the E-Collective for a tribute to Wayne Shorter, grooving out with the Turtle Island Quartet on strings.
New to the big screen, the Moscow producer Kedr Livanskiy provides the score for Jetlag, the latest feature by Michael Idov, which arrives alongside an accompanying miniseries. An accidental period piece picturing the flow of life before the pandemic, Livanskiy gives the tale of splintering love triangles and transcontinental connections a trancelike rhythm with rippling undercurrents of emotional availability.
Moor Mother spins a jazzy air upon moving to Anti Records, and the indie shapeshifter Indigo De Souza gets ready to mark her debut on Saddle Creek. Grime meets gqom as Scratchclart enlists the South African producer Mxshi Mo for his return to Hyperdub, while the Brooklyn transplant DJ Manny infuses juke and footwork with the swirling romance of R&B. There are demon spirits and knotted spirits, and songs of mourning and memory, with Caterina Barbieri launching her new label alongside Lyra Pramuk, More Eaze and Seth Graham palling up, and tracks by Alewya, Namasenda, Boldy James, Fatoumata Diawara, Wiki, Belly, and Nite Jewel rounding out the best of the week.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
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Mxshi Mo x Scratchclart – ‘Afrotek’
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Brady Watt, Westside Gunn, and DJ Premier – ‘The Narcissist’
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Terence Blanchard feat. the E-Collective and the Turtle Island Quartet – ‘Absence’
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Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes – ‘I Sing High’
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Moor Mother feat. Lojii – ‘Shekere’
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Boldy James & The Alchemist – ‘First 48 Freestyle’
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Namasenda feat. La Zowi – ‘Demonic’
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Kedr Livanskiy – ‘День за днем (Day by Day)’
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—__–___ feat. recovery girl – ‘In Memory of Simon Kingston’
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Caterina Barbieri & Lyra Pramuk – ‘Knot of Spirit’
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Fatoumata Diawara – ‘Kokoro’
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Belly, The Weeknd, and Young Thug – ‘Better Believe’
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VilloVilduVeta – ‘Längtan Får Vingar’
