You Shouldn’t be Surprised that a Multiracial Band of American Southerners Have Released This Year‘s Best Jazz Album
But You Will Be.
Like one of their primary artistic ancestors, Sun Ra, the No Tears Project has lived through the worst this country has to offer and managed to alchemize it into art that is both ancient and fresh.
The album — Humanitics — digs (via a tight offering of eight tracks) back into the past, stutter stepping to touchdown on the painful sites of state violence that have become the new marking periods in recent history.
Five of the tracks feature spoke word poetry penned by foundational jazz great, Oliver Lake.
Like the Black Artist Group out of which Lake distinguished himself, The No Tears Project band features players that shine just as bright as the times are dark.
They are: (From the Humanitics bandcamp page) “Kelley Hurt (vocals/spoken word), Christopher Parker (piano), Marc Franklin (trumpet and flugelhorn), Bobby LaVell (tenor sax), Chad Fowler (alto sax), Rodney Jordan (bass), and Darrian Douglas (drums) — alongside guest contributions from Treasure Shields Redmond, Ashley Tate (vocal effects), Michael Scott (bass clarinet and baritone sax), and Matt Dickson (soprano and tenor saxes).”
Humanitics opens with a groove that grabs you by the collar and takes you on a journey that proceeds like a conga line with its intentional step back every few beats, mirroring the United States’ cycle of growth and retrenchment.
Three steps forward, two steps back.
One piercing example of this move back-and-forth in time is the album’s central track, “Pre-existing Conditions.” It opens with Franklin’s talking horn and proceeds with spoken word delivered in Hurt’s toneful alto. The song is about the 2020 murder of George Floyd and contains the line, “wait, I already wrote my I can’t breathe poem back in 2014.” What follows is an almost 20 year time jump to the song “We’re Too Tall,” which pulls off comedy in the face of the death of Amadou Diallo.
Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying.
Or write poetry.
It has been a supreme pleasure to collaborate with players whose musicianship is at its highest level. They were gracious enough to allow my work to serve as the final sounds you hear on Humanitics. In “who is Sam blow?” I chose to explore America’s devastating birth injury, slavery.
Not only should you purchase this record and play it loudly, but do invite us to share our live show which features gripping dance performances created by Ashley Tate.
