Marcus Strickland - People Of The Sun

Brooklyn composer-saxophonist Marcus Strickland, on 2016's Nihil Novi, was testing his mettle at hip-hop-inspired production, blending genres with a little help from album producer Meshell Ndegeocello. In the process, something big happened: "I was no longer concerned about what is or isn't jazz," he says. "I got rid of those barriers and was like, 'Well, who the fuck am I?' That's when I started on this path."

On his thrilling new LP, People of the Sun (Blue Note/Revive Music), Strickland blazes down that trail fully at the helm of his music-performing, writing, and producing with his outrageously able Twi-Life band on deck-even as he sonically and socially traces the African diaspora from present to past in an effort to unpack his identity.

"I'm thinking about where we came from," says Strickland, "and how that clashes and goes hand in hand with what we've created here as Black Americans."

The result is an album that's busy and beautiful, inventive and contemplative, an amalgam of influences from West Africa (griot culture, Afrobeat, percussion) and America (post-bop, funk-soul, beat music) performed in the key of revelation.

Side 1

Lullaby (featuring Weedie Braimah)

Timing

People Of The Sun (featuring Mitch Henry)

On My Mind (featuring Bilal, Pharoahe Monch, and Greg Tate)

Relentlessness

Marvelous (featuring Akie Bermiss)

Side 2

Black Love

Build

Cloaked In Controversy

Aim High (featuring Jermaine Holmes)

Spirit Of The Music

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