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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.

HOW BRAINFEEDER LEADS THE CHARGE FOR ESOTERIC FUNK, HIP-HOP, POP, & JAZZ

(Bandcamp Daily)

“Over the years, listeners have come to put their trust in that logo, knowing it means that they’ll be pushed out of their comfort zones, into unfamiliar musical worlds. But Brainfeeder’s position at a musical crossroads—where hip-hop heads find their way into funk, EDM fans become jazz lovers, and where the accessible meets the bizarre—has done so much more than just introduce individuals to new music. Brainfeeder’s dedication to artists who put their unique identities before anything else has given rise to totally original sounds—like the music of Iglooghost and Thundercat—and breathed new life into historic ones, such as funk and jazz.”

Read the full article here.

GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW IS THE WOMAN WHO BROUGHT US ‘WOKE’

(Pitchfork)

“The story of American popular culture is one of things moving from the edges to the center. As Andre 3000 put it on OutKast’s ‘Hollywood Divorce,’ ‘All the fresh styles always start off as a good little hood thing … Look at blues, rock, jazz, rap.’ But as the sounds, styles, and lexicon travel from society’s margins to its mainstream, the meaning of those things change. Georgia Anne Muldrow knows a thing or two about this evolution of meaning and how culture behaves. The singer-songwriter, rapper, and producer, who just released her soul-stirring Brainfeeder debut, Overload, is a big part of the reason “stay woke” is a part of our collective vocabulary these days.

…Long before the days of “woke bae” debates on Twitter and Childish Gambino’s “stay woke!” exhortation on “Redbone,” Badu released “Master Teacher,” with its defiant yet weary “I stay woke!” refrain. The song, from Badu’s 2008 album New Amerykah: Part One (4th World War), featured Georgia Anne Muldrow and was also co-written and co-produced by her. What would become an electrifying duet between Muldrow and Badu began as a song Muldrow had made with Afrofuturist hip-hop and soul collective Sa-Ra Creative Partners in 2005 for their unreleased album, Black Fuzz.

The original song was inspired by conversations Muldrow had with the saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin, when the two were students at The New School’s School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York City, alongside fellow budding stars like Bilal and Robert Glasper. “Most of the conversation in our friendship was about putting our struggles in our music because that was all we could do,” says Muldrow.”

Read the full interview here.

GREENTEA PENG MAKES MUSIC TO SOOTHE A BATTERED, WEARY SOUL

(Noisey)

“The 23-year-old’s debut EP ‘Sensi’ feels like lying in tall grass or lighting a fat incense stick. But its calm comes from an intense time in her life.

It’s hard to jam Greentea Peng into a neat category. On the record, the 23-year-old Londoner’s raspy voice floats over bassy beats that sometimes sound like neo-soul, sometimes like jazz, sometimes like the musical manifestation of taking a really deep breath while flat on your back in soft, long grass…

Her voice evokes the grit of Erykah Badu or Amy Winehouse, over love letters to weed’s calming effects (on “Medicine”) or how chasing money may still leave you empty, on single “Moonchild.” So it’s a jolt to know that the positivity, the light, the curiosity she feeds into her music now came from a pretty dark time.”

ANDERSON .PAAK GETS POLITICAL AND SATIRICAL: ‘AMERICA’S TURNING INTO A BIG MEME’

(NPR Music)

“From the ominous narratives of Vince Staples to Kanye West’s blunt partisanship, the line between the personal and political in hip-hop is becoming increasingly thin. Anderson .Paak is the latest to chime in with his new album, Oxnard, out now, which arrives as equal parts escapism and realism. One song in particular, “6 Summers,” tackles the absurdities of America’s politics, the gun violence debate and meme culture.

From the first few guitar chords, .Paak kicks in the door with, “Trump’s got a love child and I hope that b**** is buckwild,” and later sings, “Pop, pop, pop goes the shooter / Reform, reform shoulda came sooner.”

…while .Paak says he wants to express his views on current events, he’s not looking to lecture his listeners. In the vein of contemporaries like J. Cole and Kendrick Lamar — who both appear on Oxnard — .Paak says his goal is to make you dance and think, ‘Woah, this dude’s really talking about something. I don’t got to stop what I’m doing — the song is still funky, too — but dang, he’s actually really talking about some real stuff.’ To that end, the song gets a jazzy delivery even at its most probing and satirical.”

Read more at NPR.