MUSIC NERD Springtime Roundup

Subjects covered: Jazz, Idles, Norah Jones, and Combo Chimbita

Jazz has the power to captivate and alienate in equal measure. The British comedy troupe The Mighty Boosh tee up that debate in this way:

April 30th was International Jazz Day, established in 2011 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to highlight jazz and its diplomatic ability to unite people worldwide. Legendary jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock helps chair the event.

Renowned trumpet player and composer Nicholas Payton has argued for about a decade that “there has never been any tradition within jazz other than to ensure Black cultural expression is depreciated and undervalued,” and that “there has never been any tradition within jazz other than to ensure Black cultural expression is depreciated and undervalued.” Payton leans into the idea that in “Black American Music” there are no fields, but rather territories and lineages.

The writer Marcus J. Moore, who has authored books on Kendrick Lamar and De La Soul, wrote last week that the bass might be the most unheralded of all the instruments in jazz music, and yet no composition resonates without it. On May 3, saxophonist and composer Kamasi Washington released his latest album, “Fearless Movement,” which has contributions from Thundercat, Terrace Martin, Patrice Quinn, flutist André 3000, vocalists George Clinton, BJ the Chicago Kid, and D Smoke, and others, and kicks off like this:

The San Francisco Bay Area brass collective Jazz Mafia has a rotating lineup of star players, composers, and producers who pop up regularly in various incarnations for eclectic live performances that can leapfrog around from funk and soul to hip hop, New Orleans brass sounds, R&B, and more. Here’s “Whoa Damn!” from their recent album — their 40th — “Uncovered Volume 5: Nigeria, Jamaica & Beyond,” which has been on heavy rotation in my car lately:

More than twenty years ago, at age 23, Norah Jones entered the zeitgeist with her pop-jazz-folk-country debut album, “Come Away With Me,” which sold four million copies in its first 12 months.

Jones has since sold more than 50 million records worldwide, has won nine Grammy awards, and is considered one of the top jazz and pop artists of the 2000s. She’s collaborated with Mike Patton of Faith No More, Willie Nelson, Outkast, Herbie Hancock, and many others. She collaborates — and chats with — musicians like Rufus Wainwright, Questlove, Green Day’s Billie Jo Armstrong, and M. Ward — on her podcast “Norah Jones is Playing Along.”

Her latest project, the soulful “Visions,” was released in March and is a collaboration with Leon Michels, the musician and producer whose resume includes work with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Black Thought of The Roots, Lee Fields, the Wu-Tang Clan, Aloe Blacc, Chicano Batman, and many others.

The British rock band Idles formed in Bristol in 2009, recently released their fifth album, “Tangk,” and are touring to support that release. Idles must be seen in live performance to truly grasp their magnitude: it’s a swirling wall of noise and power that rattles bones. “There's a thrilling danger ever present whenever Idles are around,” one critic wrote. The 2021 Idles documentary “Don’t Go Gentle,” shows that the group is not just chaos and noise; there’s sensitivity and heavy emotion behind the music, and loads of humor.

Combo Chimbita are a group of first-generation New Yorkers who play what they call “tropical futurism,” music that centers itself around Cumbia but makes it psychedelic, trippy and freaky, by combining different rhythms and sounds from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America. I saw them perform recently with the reggae artist Pachyman at The Chapel in San Francisco and the big, heavy sound was mesmerizing.

A new MUSIC NERD “Springtime Roundup” playlist is up on Spotify and below. Thanks for reading MUSIC NERD! Support local music!