Fly or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise

Album review

It’s not just the “new English scene” that’s shaking up the jazzosphere this decade. Chicago is also home to a bunch of inspired young musicians committed to taking jazz in new directions. And aside from just the charismatic drummer Makaya McCraven (the most famous amongst them) there are a handful of equally exciting rebels, including the extra-terrestrial Jaimie Branch. An active member of her local label International Anthem Records, the thirty-year-old trumpeter signs here a confusing and crazy sequel to the already confusing and crazy Fly or Die of 2017! With Fly Or Die II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, Branch not only plays the trumpet but also sings. From her lips comes a virulent, libertarian, feminist, anti-racist, anti-establishment discourse tackling socio-political issues. Sticking exclusively to jazz would be too restrictive for this Lester Bowie- Don Cherry-Booker Little love child; America is a patchwork and so is Jaimie Branch’s music. We find jazz, of course, both free and traditional, but also blues, Amerindian sounds, contemporary and avant-garde music that she infuses with both whispers and screams, depending on the message she’s trying to convey. This magnificent wall of noise and fury doesn’t exactly make the album easy-listening, but its density, radicalism and beauty are so great that every last detail of the record deserves appreciation. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz