aja monet – the color of rain
Surrealist blues poet, aja monet, announces her powerful new album, the color of rain, due May 22nd on drink sum wtr.
The album announcement arrives today with a Jesse Boykins III-directed video for album standout “elsewhere.” A track that poetically grooves and glimmers–featuring soul-stirring vocals by Georgia Anne Muldrow, Meshell Ndegeocello, and Novena Carmel.
“’elsewhere’ is a dedication to Sly Stone. We were in the studio working on the album and learned of his death. Meshell told me to go home and write something not in memoriam but in homage. The next day we started working on the song and it was like he was in the room with us,” monet explains. “Everything came together in divine timing. I had already reached out to Novena Carmel and also Georgia Anne Muldrow but they both responded the same day and joined us. The song reminds me of our love for one another and the portal of possibility.”
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, co-produced by monet, Justin Brown and Meshell Ndegeocello, 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. Rather than delivering poetry over fixed arrangements, aja works in close conversation with the music, adjusting phrasing, cadence, and tone as the compositions shift.
the color of rain 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 its 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, as well as features by Mick Jenkins and Vic Mensa.
monet is bringing her singular live show to New York City’s famed Carnegie Hall Theater. The show will take place at the Zankel Hall on May 20th.
Tour Dates:
5/20 – New York City, NY @ Carnegie Hall
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