Review

Moor Mother

Jazz Codes

Anti • 2022

Moor Mother has been playing through the jazz game for the last three years. She released more records, launched new projects, travelled further and further. From Krems to Montreal, from Los Angeles to Salisbury – many of the curators of artsy festivals will have Camae Ayewa on speed dial by now. With »Jazz Codes«, her latest album, that isn’t going to change. The record meanders through hip-hop and jazz. Sometimes she dims the room to a vibe that has some people tucking cheroots into the corners of their mouths and sipping bourbon. Other times she pipes with a flow over boom bap beats that would make some OGs’ grillz pop out of their mouths. Needless to say, Moor Mother’s ensemble is also growing. The feature list on »Jazz Codes« reads like the credits for a Spielberg flick. With Keir Neuringer and Aquiles Navarro, she’s enlisted the most exciting jazz musicians in the USA. On the footwork opener, the pink panther winds up the clock: Harp specialist Mary Lattimore plucks herself into blissful ecstasy on the loop. Fatboi Sharif, the man in the mask, contributes 16 bars on »Blues Away«. The focus is never on Moor Mother – she walks a tightrope between empowerment and an ethnology seminar with her lyrics – but rather on the experience, which you unfortunately have to find first: Finding the LP in a record shop remains a challenge in itself. Which speaks in favour of it, not against it!