Videos

MOOR MOTHER announces new album ‘Jazz Codes’

• 15th Jun 2022

Moor Mother announces new album ‘Jazz Codes,‘ out on July 1st – her second album for ANTI- and a companion to her celebrated 2021 release ‘Black Encyclopedia of the Air’.

Alongside today’s album announcement she has shared a video for the new track “Woody Shaw” feat. Melanie Charles, directed by Cyrus Moussavi.

Other ‘Jazz Codes’ links: https://moormother.ffm.to/jazzcodes

“Woody Shaw” was filmed in the Leimert Park headquarters of the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra, founded in 1961 by Horace Tapscott with the vision of promoting a true community orchestra dedicated to Black music in South Central LA. Though Tapscott passed in ’99, PAPA still goes strong under the leadership of his son, Mekala.

Inspired by a book of poems of the same name – a collection of poems written in honor of jazz and blues icons like Woody Shaw, Amina Claudine Myers, and Mary Lou Williams – ‘Jazz Codes’ uses poetry & free jazz as a starting point, moving toward more melody, more singing voices, more choruses and more complexity. In its warm, densely layered course through jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, ‘Jazz Codes’ sets the ear blissfully adrift and unhitches the mind from habit.  Through her work, Ayewa illuminates the principles of her interdisciplinary collaborative practice Black Quantum Futurism, a theoretical framework for creating counter-chronologies and envisioning Black quantum womanist futures that rupture exclusionary versions of history and future through art, writing, music, and performance.

Moor Mother – aka the songwriter, composer, vocalist, poet, and visual artist Camae Ayewa – is also a professor at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She released her debut album ‘Fetish Bones’ in 2016 and has since put out an abundance of acclaimed music, both as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians who share her drive to dig up the untold. She is a member of many other groups including the free jazz group Irreversible Entanglements, 700 Bliss and moor jewelry. She has also toured and recorded with The Art Ensemble of Chicago and Nicole Mitchell.

This summer Moor Mother will be performing at End of The Road Festival in Dorset and various other European festivals; she will also be headlining an album release show at Los Angeles’s Resident on July 8. All upcoming dates are listed below. 
‘Jazz Codes’ will be released on July 1st through ANTI-. Pre-order here.
‘Jazz Codes’ track list:

1. UMZANSI (feat Black Quantum Futurism featuring Mary Lattimore)
2. APRIL 7th (feat Keir Neuringer)
3. GOLDEN LADY (feat Melanie Charles)
4. JOE MCPHEE NATION TIME INTRO (feat Keir Neuringer)
5. ODE TO MARY (feat Orion Sun & Jason Moran)
6. WOODY SHAW (feat Melanie Charles)
7. MEDITATION RAG (feat Aquiles Navarro & Alya Al Sultani)
8. SO SWEET AMINA (feat Justmadnice & Keir Neuringer)
9. DUST TOGETHER (feat Wolf Weston & Aquiles Navarro)
10. RAP JASM (feat AKAI SOLO & Justmadnice)
11. BLUES AWAY (feat Fatboi Sharif)
12. BLAME (feat Justmadnice)
13. ARMS SAVE (feat Nicole Mitchell)
14. REAL TRILL HOURS (feat Yung Morpheus)
15. EVENING (feat Wolf Weston)
16. BARELY WOKE (feat Wolf Weston)
17. NOISE JISM
18. THOMAS STANLEY JAZZCODES OUTRO (feat Irreversible Entanglements & Thomas Stanley)
19. BLACK HONEY (feat. Loijj & Honeychile) (CD bonus track)
20. WE GOT THE JAZZ (feat. Kyle Kidd, Keir Neuringer, Aquiles Navarro) (CD bonus track) 
21. BLACK DUST BLUES (feat. Elaine Mitchener) (CD bonus track)