Moor Mother Announces New Album ‘Jazz Codes’ Coming Out July 1
“IT’S POETRY THAT DRIVES THIS ALBUM. THE STORIES OF THESE ARTISTS AND
COUNTLESS OTHERS NOT NAMED BUT FELT - IS THE LEADING MOTIVATION. I WANTED TO HONOR & GIVE OFFERINGS, HOLD THEM IN MY BODY, DREAM WITH THEM, SEND SWEETNESS.” – CAMAE AYEWA
Called “the poet laureate of the apocalypse” by Pitchfork, Moor Mother is announcing ‘Jazz Codes’ today; coming out on July 1, it is 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.
“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.
’Jazz Codes’ uses poetry as a starting point, but the collection moves 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 Documenta 15, Montreal Jazz Festival and various other European festivals; she will also be headlining an album release show at Los Angeles’s Resident on July 8.