Collection: aja monet

the color of rain (22 May) is a compositional tour-de-force of poetry, emotion, and resonance. Rain nourishes, blesses, and renews. It loves everything it touches. This album is the space between droplets. At the crux of rising fascism, aja monet offers a waking-dream intervention, amid the sinister reality of contemporary events. A prompt to look up at the sky within., the color of rain is an imbrication of familiar genres forged beyond category or definition. as one stride’s through the sequence of poems, each song shifts between musical perceptions of jazz, soul, hip hop, rhythm and blues. surrealism at it’s finest, a marvelous unleashing of the mind. the color of rain reminds us that poetry predates the very blueprints of genre.

This is an evolution from the intimate, live-café energy of aja monet’s Grammy-nominated debut album, when the poems do what they do. While she nods at the Black Arts Movement’s legacy and lineage, this sophomore album is a conjure to experiment and explore the interior.  If the first album was a gentle altar call, then the second is an impassioned call to bare arms, a definitive guide to choose your weapon, wisely. If the pen is the sword, music sharpens or blunts the blade.

Live instrumentation anchors the record but it’s spirit surfaces in pre- and post- production with warped sonics, wayward voltas, and delicate investigations. Meshell Ndegecello conducts the illustrious cast of musicians while Justin Brown bolsters the prismatic vision. In true community organizing fashion, aja knows how to bring artists together, recruiting meaningful musical contributions from Burniss Travis, Josh Johnson, Daniel Mintseris, Jermaine Paul, Ambrose Akinmusire and Nico Segal.

The rain exploding
in the air is love.
-sonia sanchez