Drummer/Composer Jaimeo Brown Releases Debut CD, “Transcendence” | WATCH NEW VIDEO – STREAM TRACK!

Brown and his cohorts – acclaimed tenor saxophonist JD Allen and GRAMMY®-nominated guitarist and soundscape producer, Chris Sholar – form the nucleus ensemble on this album. The extended lineup includes a rotating cast of notables: pianist Geri Allen; harmonium player Andrew Shantz; East Indian vocalist Falu; avant-jazz keyboardist Kelvin Sholar; Brown’s parents, bassist Dartanyan Brown and pianist/flutist, Marcia Miget; Brown’s sister, vocalist Marisha Rodriguez; and Brown’s 2-year-old daughter, Selah Brown, who makes a charming vocal debut on the song “I Said.”

Perhaps the most transfixing element on this recording are the featured samples of the celebrated Gee’s Bend Quilters, spiritual singers that hail from rural Alabama. Their haunting songs, sung while quilting, were documented in 1941 and 2002 (via Tinwood Media). Their quilts have been featured in museums around the country and their music has inspired compositions by a handful of musicians, most notably pianist Jason Moran’s “Blue Blocks” (a commission by the Philadelphia Museum of Art).
 
“The primary purpose of black spiritual music is to build community and provide a medium for healing and worship. This is what I aim to do with my music as well,” says Brown. While subconsciously searching for healing of his own as a young artist, he first encountered the Gee’s Bend Quilters during his studies at Rutgers University. “I was investigating material for my thesis on ‘How the Black Church Affected Jazz,'” he explains. “In the process of researching the history of the Black Church, which is not documented well, I was thirsty for any information and music that I could find. Through the process, the
Gee’s Bend Quilters captivated my imagination.”

However, Transcendence is hardly a simple product of scholarly erudition. Brown creates a new organic combination of actual samples of their voices within a live context. He debuted this concept on Geri Allen’s celebrated holiday album A Child is Born, and returns to the concept now in collaboration with co-producer, Sholar (Kanye West, Jay-Z, Q-Tip, Mariah Carey) and JD Allen (Betty Carter, Lester Bowie, David Murray, Meshell Ndegeocello, Frank Foster ) and multi-GRAMMY®-Award winners Russ Titelman (producer of Eric Clapton, James Taylor, George Benson, Randy Newman) and Todd Whitlock (engineer of Wynton Marsalis, Chick Corea, Béla Fleck, Sting, Wayne Shorter). Transcendence unfolds as a multi-layered sonic odyssey where the Gee’s Bend singers voices weave in and out, affording Brown’s music a sensation that’s as fresh and emotionally penetrating as it is intellectually and spiritually provocative.