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Kassa Overall
October 26, 2023 @ 7:30 pm
Thursday, October 26
7:30 pm PDT
Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute
In-person*
$12-38
Co-presented with Langston. Welcomed by KEXP.
Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer and drummer Kassa Overall melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions. Establishing himself as a rhythmic innovator and visionary poet, Overall used his voice to address the injustices of the carceral system, the pharmaceutical industry, and anti-black racism, while wrangling with the perils of his own mental illness, on his first two albums—Go Get Ice Cream and Listen to Jazz, and I Think I’m Good.
On his latest release, Animals (2023 Warp Records), Overall explores the paradoxes of his life as an entertainer and as a black man in America. Overall balances Roland 808s against avant-garde drumming in the vein of his mentors Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, the latter of whom he studied with at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Collaborators on the album include Danny Brown, Wiki, Lil B, Shabazz Palaces, Nick Hakim, Laura Mvula, Francis and the Lights, and jazz stars like Theo Croker and Vijay Iyer. For this performance ensemble members include Tomoki Sanders (Saxophone), Bendji Allonce (percussion), and Matt Wong (keys).
Catch Kassa Overall twice at the Earshot Jazz. Later on Friday October 27, Overall will launch a DJ set at The Royal Room.
“One of modern jazz music’s most audacious futurists.” –Pitchfork
*Earshot Jazz COVID-19 Policy: Earshot recommends that all ticket holders be vaccinated. Policy subject to change. Full COVID policy here.
Kassa Overall photo by Patrick OBrien Smith