This year was rich in pandemic emerged music to provide catharsis and healing by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra, Allison Russell, Arlo Parks, Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi, The War on Drugs, Yasmin Williams, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Mdou Moctar, Adia Victoria, Shungudzo and Weather Station. In the midst of this esteemed company, the West Hollywood-based artist Lady Blackbird (ladyblackbird.com) is very popular with her elegant debut album “Black Acid Soul”.
“It almost felt like going home,” she recalled when discussing the album the morning after an interview and a brief appearance at the Grammy Museum.
“I just wanted to make a classic, timeless piece as good as possible. But there were no rules. We were open to everything. It’s a feeling at the end of the day you get it It’s a mood. ”Laughing, as she described how producer / arranger / guitarist Chris Seefried started hashtagging“ #blackacidsoul ”to convey the fusion they created in the studio, she said,“ It’s our own little one Subgenre. “
Defying definition – jazz and psychedelic soul are equally applicable – “Black Acid Soul” represents a departure from previous rock, R&B and gospel projects that the singer has realized under her own name, Marley Munroe.
Apart from a few originals that she composed with Seefried, “Black Acid Soul” is an impressive showcase for her creative interpretations of melodies such as Reuben Bell, Sam Cooke, the James Gang, Nina Simone and Irma Thomas. Munroe says she tried to perform Simone’s intimidating “Blackbird” at a gig years ago and “it just wasn’t where I knew it could be, you know? It’s such a moment, this song, and it was too deep for that moment. “
But “Blackbird” was the first song that came to my mind when Seefried approached her about a collaboration that went back to basics with a very pared-down sound built around the textures and the mercury dynamics of her alto voice, so they did a quick vocal demo that “began the story,” as she puts it, of what became “Black Acid Soul”.
“Unlike the other songs on the recording, when we went in live and everyone played together, for ‘Blackbird’ we used the demo vocal recording and they played around me, which wasn’t the easiest thing in the world because of this song is very free. There’s no beat, ”Munroe said with a hoarse laugh.
“You come in when you want to come in. The whole process of how this album was, right through to the live recording, was new to me. It was real. I loved every part of it. …
“When Chris sat me down to talk about pulling it all out, I was trying to be a rock star (laughs). I didn’t realize I was going to take it all off – maybe I didn’t think I would make it. Because I love and appreciate all styles and genres of music and all kinds of artists. I’ve sung everything from soul to gospel to blues to R&B and rock, and I enjoyed singing it all. I drew from all of these genres to create what I have for myself. “
According to Munroe, while playing “Blackbird” in the studio, someone said something about “the lady” and Seefried replied with “Lady Blackbird”. Munroe embraced the name during the recording process as “another very natural, organic thing that happened”.
“I’m glad it did because it split (projects) and it felt like rebirth,” she said.
“Black Acid Soul” does not reveal a personal narrative like Russell’s “Outside Child”, but it also reaches moments of transcendence achieved after a long journey.
The intimate exchange between Munroe, Seefried, Miles Davis pianist Deron Johnson, bassist Jonathan Flaugher and drummer Jimmy Paxson resonates powerfully in a time of reckoning and reflection when people long for connection – perhaps most notably during the sublime meditative ” Fix It ”, written by Munroe and Seefried to the tune of Bill Evans’“ Peace Piece ”and a gorgeous rendition of Tim Hardin’s“ It Will Never Happen Again ”that almost never happened.
“At first I didn’t really notice. I thought, ‘I don’t know what to do with it.’ Chris really pushed that forward and said, ‘Listen a little more closely.’ I did and I can tell you that performing is one of my favorites, ”Munroe said. “It’s funny how things change when you listen a little deeper.”
BBC DJ Gilles Peterson has crowned her “Grace Jones of Jazz”, a well-deserved award that is often quoted but less explored. Munroe grew up in Farmington, New Mexico and sang “at fairs and churches and weddings and funerals.” (“Where do you sing in such a small town?” She said with a laugh. “There’s nothing there!”)
At 12 she was signed to a Christian label from Nashville. Munroe said it didn’t work out on its own, but she got to sing with TobyMac, a member of DC Talk. She was later briefly signed to Epic Records and basically had an album ready and released a single, “Boomerang”, “but the label made a” massive cut “to its artist list before that album could be released.
Now, with the birth and release of Black Acid Soul, she feels like she can finally “breathe out”. Munroe and Seefried followed up a recent sit-down interview at the Grammy Museum with a six-song performance with the entire band; On December 14th they will be giving a “pretty live presentation” of “Black Acid Soul” at the Zebulon in Silver Lake.
“So many disappointments and work and many years in which I do this and it doesn’t quite come to fruition,” she said, “for me it was worth this moment and how nice it all turned out to be together.”
Lady Blackbird with a full band
IF: 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 14
WHERE: Zebulon, 2478 Fletcher Drive, Silver Lake
COSTS: $ 30.75
THE INFORMATION: 323-663-6927, zebulon.la
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