In partnership with Revive Music Group, the online hip hop community Okayplayer has launched a new online channel called The Revivalist dedicated to illuminating jazz history, culture, and music, and its intersections with hip-hop. Coinciding with the launch is the release of the progressive hip-hop and jazz album Freedom Suite, a new project by six-time Grammy nominee Nnenna Freelton and hip-hop quartet The Beast. The live instrument oriented album is hosted by 9th Wonder, and is laced with both musical and interview snips from genre authorities like Brantford Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Phonte, YahZarah, Questlove.
Freedom Suite stands on its own as musically noteworthy, but given the launch of The Revivalist, it is also a timely gateway record for those intrigued but less acquainted with jazz and hip hop fusions. The jazz collaborators don’t hold back when it comes to presenting straight ahead complex idiosyncratic jazz harmonic language, stop-times and asymmetrical rhythms (what up Stephen “Steak” Coffman!), yet the album remains accessible, interspersed with subtly re-worked quotations of more popular jazz influenced hip-hop tunes like Lauryn Hill’s “Doo-Wop” and Mos Def’s “Umi Says.” All that aside, it’s just good music. And Eric Hirsh is a wicked awesome keyboard player.
Thanks to The Revivalist, the adventure is free.
“Rise Beyond the Sky” ft. YahZarah and Rapsody
[audio:https://thecomeupshow.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/The-Beast-Freedom-Suite-02-Rise-Beyond-the-Sky-ft.-YahZarah-Rapsody.mp3|titles=The Beast – Freedom Suite – 02 Rise Beyond the Sky ft. YahZarah & Rapsody]