Warm water everywhere -- a sudsy bathtub, a tropical rain, a lagoon shining under a high blue sky. Rarely will you hear a debut as sensual as Black Nile's. Or as informed.
Brothers-leaders Aaron Shaw and Lawrence Shaw have been knocking around the L.A. music scene for several years; I was slain by the easy polyphonic groove of their octet incarnation when Black Nile opened for the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra at Zebulon in February 2018. It was clear right away that the bros were claiming a prize the Ark has always embraced but the world tends to neglect: the magic of minds extending through bodies in spontaneous interaction.
If that sounds like dance, it is, and if it sounds like jazz, it's that too. Black Nile's special factor resides in their wide-ranging knowledge, which enables them to tap soul, rap, improvisation, sampling, DJ loops, rock, psychedelia and modern harmony in a fluid chemical effusion that flows off them as naturally as sweat. They're not experimenting, just breathing their own air.
The soul feel starts with the immersive way the Shaws employ the reverb-soaked keyboards of Brandon Cordoba, one of three auxiliaries borrowed from the Los Angeles jazz collective Katalyst. The massage continues with Lawrence Shaw's fine-grained electric bass, steady and smooth, recorded like a hip-hop dream so you can turn up the low end till your spleen shakes. So far, the aesthetic might remind you of '90s black-pop reconceptualists P.M. Dawn.
Then you absorb Katalyst drummer Greg Paul, whose deft counteraccents keep reminding you that jazz is in the house while letting the groove roll on. The genial interruptions and non-pentatonic wanderings of Aaron Shaw's sax & flute also keep the conversation fresh, the structures unstrictured. Miles Davis nods from the Beyond.
Singers and rappers stop in to offer sighs and rhetoric, then flop on the floor to light up while the gang jams behind the trippin', atonal wah of Katalyst guitarist Bradford Tidwell. From glitch to scratch, from sand to cloud, it all sounds so good, nobody wants to leave.
Kamasi Washington and Kendrick Lamar got folks thinking something was happening in South Los Angeles. Black Nile knows it always has been.
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"Sounds of Color" is available for streaming and download at the World Galaxy website and via all the major platforms. Also check out the jammier music on Black Nile's Soundcloud page.
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Black Nile supports veteran trombonist Phil Ranelin's 80th birthday bash at Zebulon on Sunday, May 26.
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Credits provided by Black Nile manager Jeff Myles:
1. Black Nile Intro
Producer - Jamael Dean
Mahal - Voice
2. Jyro
Written & Produced by Lawrence Shaw
Greg Paul - Drums, Brandon Cordoba - Keys, Bradford Tidwell - Guitar, Aaron Shaw - Sax, Ewi, Lawrence Shaw - Bass
3. For You
Written and produced by Aaron Shaw
Kaylon Hallman - Vocals, Lawrence Shaw - Bass, Aaron Shaw - Producer, Sax, Brandon Cordoba - Piano, Mekala Session - Drums
4. Mystery
Written by Aaron Shaw
Victor Ekpo - Violin, Emile Martinez - Flugelhorn, Jelani Semaj - Vocals
5. Ancient Futurism
Written and Produced by Aaron Shaw
Aaron Shaw - Vocals, Saxophone
6. Drive
Written & Produced by Lawrence Shaw
Tyler Cole - Rapper, Greg Paul - Drums, Aaron Shaw - Sax, Ewi, Lawrence Shaw - Bass, Brandon Cordoba - Keys
7. Revival
Written by Patrick “TRU Sounds” Bucknor, Produced by Aaron Shaw
Lawrence Shaw - Bass, Mekala Session - Drums, Aaron Shaw - Flute, Lyrics: TRU Sounds
8. Tidal Wave
Written and Produced by Aaron Shaw
Mekala Session - Drums, Lawrence Shaw - Bass, Aaron Shaw - Vocals
9. Duo
Written by Lawrence Shaw
Chaynler Joie - vocals, Lawrence Shaw - Bass, Aaron Shaw - Flute
10. Unheard 1
11. Unheard 2