The sophomore album from
Keyon Harrold, 2017's ambitious, socially conscious
The Mugician,
finds the New York-based, Ferguson, Missouri-raised jazz trumpeter laying out an intensely felt, genre-bending vision of jazz in the 21st century. As the title somewhat cheekily implies,
Harrold is not simply a musician, but also a magician, or "mugician"; a notion evoked by director Don Cheadle when trying to describe the trumpeter's spellbinding work on the 2016
Miles Davis biopic Miles Ahead. Just as
Davis broke down musical boundaries throughout his career,
Harrold works to bridge genre gaps here, crafting expansive, often cinematic soundscapes that are equal parts improvisational jazz, psychedelic hip-hop, ruminative R&B balladry, and pointed social critique. It's an approach one might expect from a musician who counts both post-bop trumpeter
Charles Tolliver and rapper
Common as major influences. Joining
Harrold on
The Mugician are several longtime associates like guitarist
Nir Felder, saxophonist
Marcus Strickland, bassist Burniss Travis, drummer Mark Colenburg, and others. There are also a handful of special guests, including acclaimed pianist
Robert Glasper and vocalists
Jermaine Holmes and
Georgia Anne Muldrow, all of whom commune on the atmospheric, '70s soul-infused "Wayfaring Traveler." Similarly, idiosyncratic R&B singer
Bilal helps the trumpeter evoke the woozy '90s trip-hop of
Massive Attack on "Stay This Way," and rapper
Pharoahe Monch applies his acute wordplay to the sultry, minor-key grooves of "Her Beauty Through My Eyes." Also making notable contributions are singers
Gary Clark, Jr., actor/comedian Guy Torry, reggae vocalist Josh David Barrett, and more.
Harrold even makes room for a heartfelt, motivational voicemail from his mom that he frames with Darin Atwater's wide-screen orchestration. Along the way, he touches upon a bevy of timely, thoughtfully rendered topics from racism and bigotry to romantic fidelity and the environment. Throughout all of
The Mugician,
Harrold lives up to the album's title, conjuring rounded, clarion trumpet lines, spinning off his collaborators one second, and commanding the spotlight the next with an alchemical swagger. [
The Mugician was also released on LP.] ~ Matt Collar