Immanuel Wilkins Blues Blood 2LP

Saxophonist/composer Immanuel Wilkins' third studio album, Blues Blood, is a meditative offering partially inspired by his childhood, a multimedia performance about the legacies of our ancestors and the bloodlines connecting us. Co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello and featruing Micah Thomas (piano), Rick Rosato (bass), Kweku Sumbry (drums), and vocalists Ganavya, June McDoom and Yaw Agyeman – with guest appearances by vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, Marvin Sewell (guitar), and Chris Dave (drums) – it's his most ambitious LP to date. Blues Blood marks the first time he's included vocalists on an album, with each distinctive voice tapping into different aspects of heritage.

Blues Blood feels airy and celestial – a soothing balm for anyone searching for peace, and for Black people trying to reconcile history in a country that tries to erase it. It explores 'blues' as a symbol of radical optimism in the face of adversity and 'blood' as a symbol of all things ancestral and generational.

Blues Blood ups the ante of 21st century jazz and belongs in the company of Sonny Rollins' Freedom Suite and Duke Ellington's Black, Brown and Beige. With imagination, taste, and resolve, the album explores social and historical connections with modern society as racism, violence, displacement, class struggle, and oppression still govern American life for many.