Lars Gotrich | February 26, 2024
“When did your heart break?” It’s the question that Camae Ayewa asks to open this Tiny Desk, and one that's still rattling in my head. That soul puncture is an essential piece of Irreversible Entanglements, a free jazz band rooted in punk ethos.

Individually, these folks have made some of the most creative and challenging music of the past decade: Ayewa’s ever-evolving project Moor Mother, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes’ telepathic duets, saxophonist Keir Neuringer’s sonic monuments and bassist Luke Stewart’s restless projects as improviser and instigator. Deep catalogs for deep listeners.

For this Tiny Desk, the band runs through six songs without breaks, starting with “Fireworks,” a personal favorite, then leaning into music from Protect Your Light, which was released on Impulse Records (aka, the house that John and Alice Coltrane built). Joined here by guest vocalist Kyle Kidd, it’s a joy to see Irreversible Entanglements work as a unit: hard-struck funk bass lines seamlessly shift to the horns, which constrict and expand the melody, and elastic drums create a fluid palette for Ayewa to spit, yawp and intone her poetry. To close, she gives us a crucial message to take into the darkness of this year or any: “We need your light / We can’t stop shining / We must be the sun.”

SET LIST
“Fireworks”
“Soundness”
“Free Love”
“Our Land Back”
“root ᐸ=ᐳ branch”
“Protect Your Light”

MUSICIANS
Camae Ayewa: vocals
Aquiles Navarro: trumpet, synth
Keir Neuringer: saxophone, synth
Luke Stewart: upright bass
Tcheser Holmes: drums
Kyle Kidd: backing vocals

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Lars Gotrich
Director/Editor: Kara Frame
Audio Technical Director: Neil Tevault
Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern
Audio Engineer: Josephine Nyounai
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Estefania Mitre
Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

#tinydesk #nprmusic #irreversibleentanglements