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A collection of newsworthy jazz-related headlines.

“This Week in Jazz” brings you a collection of jazz-related headlines, focusing on news, video, and articles in the new generation of jazz / hip-hop / soul. See below for the headlines you don’t want to miss this week.

FIRST LISTEN: AMBROSE AKINMUSIRE, ‘ORIGAMI HARVEST’

(NPR Music)

Trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire returns with new music in this exclusive First Listen from NPR Music. Sitting down with renown music journalist Nate Chinen, Akinmusire gives listeners a first taste of his upcoming album Origami Harvest.

“Ambrose Akinmusire offers a litany of the dead as the penultimate track of Origami Harvest, his audacious, politically exigent, altogether astounding new album. The track is titled ‘Free, White and 21,’ and its lyrics consist of the names of African-American men and women (and, it must be said, boys) slain in recent years by members of law enforcement or the neighborhood watch.

If you’ve followed Akinmusire’s career as a trumpeter and composer over the last decade, you’re sure to recognize this poison leitmotif. He introduced it with ‘My Name is Oscar,’ a spoken-word poem inspired by the murder of Oscar Grant III; that appeared on Akinmusire’s Blue Note debut in 2010, three years before #BlackLivesMatter coalesced as a movement. Then in 2014, he released an album track titled ‘Rollcall for Those Absent,’ again mincing no words.

‘Free, White and 21’ is the most musically fulfilling iteration in the series, owing to some insurgent yet elegant writing for string quartet.”

Listen to the full album here.

KAMASI WASHINGTON ON IGOR STRAVINSKY, ART BLAKEY, AND A CERTAIN VINTAGE ARCADE GAME

(WBGO)

Saxophonist Kamasi Washington, whose distinctive brand of avant-garde, epic, and ethereal jazz has garnered him world-wide acclaim, sits down with WBGO in an interview that touches on his early influences, both musical and not.

“Kamasi Washington’s Heaven and Earth Tour reaches New York City on Tuesday, with a stop at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center opening for Florence and the Machine.

Over the summer we spoke with the Herculean saxophonist about some of his most important early music influences — from Art Blakey to Busta Rhymes to Stravinksy — during an onstage conversation at Jazz Middelheim in Antwerp, Belgium.

In addition to sharing his favorite pieces by those artists, Washington also sheds light on an extra-musical preoccupation: video games. The vintage arcade game Street Fighter 2, in particular, has occupied his imagination a lot over the years — so much so that he actually composed a theme song for himself as the arcade player, preparing to go into battle and annihilate the competition.”

Listen to the interview here.

SONG YOU NEED TO KNOW: RAY ANGRY, ‘IT MIGHT BE GOLD’

(Rolling Stone)

Ray Angry’s album ‘One’, is a debut that comes from a storied musician whose work has been heard by audiences for decades now. Rolling Stone highlights a not-to-miss track off this brilliant first album.

“One, the new first album from Ray Angry, isn’t like most debuts. That’s probably because the pianist isn’t exactly an up-and-comer: He’s got a huge list of playing, writing and producing credits dating back to the Nineties, including work with everyone from Mick Jagger to Joss Stone, Christina Aguilera, the Roots, Miguel and DJ Khaled. That might explain why One sounds more like the statement of an assured veteran.

This is a jazz record, plain and simple, accessible yet consistently fresh. The Angry original “It Might Be Gold” sums up the album’s appeal, and shows off what an outstanding cast the pianist has assembled: reedist/flutist Myron Walden, trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire, bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Eric Harland, all world-class virtuosos and bandleaders in their own right.”

Read more here.

PITCHFORK DOCS — DIGABLE PLANETS: REACHIN’ (A NEW REFUTATION OF TIME AND SPACE)

(Pitchfork)

Hip-hop group Digable Planets was a major influence in melding the worlds of hip-hop and jazz during the 90’s. This week, Pitchfork released a mini-documentary outlining that influence and impact they still have today.

“Bursting onto the rap scene in 1993, Digable Planets arrived with an afrofuturist aesthetic, rooted in the art and philosophy of the Black Panthers. Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) still remains a classic, channeling the moment in hip-hop before gangster was the norm.”

ALBUM REVIEW: SAM WILKES, ‘WILKES’

(Pitchfork)

LA-based bassist Sam Wilkes has released a new album with some of his longtime and favorite collaborators, including Sam Gendel, Louis Cole, Brian Green, and Christian Euman. Pitchfork walks us through what’s new about his sound on this release, an album less about content than it is conversation.

“Following up his collaboration with saxophonist Sam Gendel, the Los Angeles bassist returns with a dreamy album that dissolves jazz structures into ambient, vaguely psychedelic forms.

Over the last couple years, as a session player, Wilkes has proven himself an adaptable spark plug for other musicians and their ideas. He’s backed the electronic duo KNOWER on tour and shines in the kitschy, funk-versions-of-classic-songs cover band Scary Pockets. He has also poked around the Los Angeles jazz scene. A few months ago he partnered with the saxophonist Sam Gendel on Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar, a remarkably intimate conversation of an album in which the two Sams play for and off each other and tinker with electronics in a warm, low-stakes environment. The fluency of that dialogue was less about their vocabulary than their good company and ideas.

WILKES also extends the collaboration with Gendel, but the album doesn’t train a spotlight on the saxophonist so much as gather the music around him, propping up his horn and coaxing out the best performance of his young career.”

Read the full review here.