Of The Sun And Of The Earth

Audrey Powne “From the Fire”

“From the Fire” is a gorgeous piece of music that’s all the more impressive when you take into account that it’s very much a work of auteurism – Audrey Powne is the composer, the arranger, the producer, the lyricist, the singer, and the trumpet player, and she excels in all of those roles. I’m particularly into the keyboard chords and the trumpet solo, which she openly credits to her love of Herbie Hancock and Roy Hargrove. The lyrics were inspired by the bushfires in Australia back in 2019 and evoke the notion of a cleansing fire and rebirth. With this in mind, the music feels like watching a phoenix slowly emerge from the ashes and then take flight.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Kamasi Washington featuring BJ the Chicago Kid “Together”

“Together” is something of an outlier in the Kamasi Washington body of work – not an instrumental jazz piece, not a psychedelic epic, and in the context of his new record Fearless Movement, not a rap-adjacent party track. The song, composed by Ryan Porter, is a contemplative R&B ballad with lyrics by Washington and vocalist BJ the Chicago Kid that positions both singing and romantic love as a sort of ongoing spiritual practice. The tone is grey and drowsy but the implied scale of the music feels cosmic, like the music is illustrating the lyric’s notion of “our hearts whirling’ through time and space.” Or more likely, the other way around.

Buy it from Bandcamp.