“So, what kind of music do you make?” This question is the bane of every musician’s existence because it requires that they shrink down the wide expanse of their creativity to an easily (mis)understood genre description. No matter how vivid or elaborate the description, “show” will always be more powerful than “tell.” The words we use to describe music don’t encapsulate what the listener’s experiences as much as give context clues. That’s why Butcher Brown – the multifaceted band from Richmond, Virginia – call their sound and their follow up to 2020’s #KingButch and their second release on Concord Jazz, Solar Music.
“Solar music” is not simply a description; it’s an invitation to listen and an invitation to feel. Friends and bandmates Corey Fonville (drums), Andrew Randazzo, (bass), Morgan Burrs (guitar), Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney, (trumpet, saxophone, vocals) and Devonne “DJ Harrison” Harris (multi-instrumentalist) make music that is as diverse as their own varied tastes and backgrounds. It’s a seamlessly blended amalgam of sounds including jazz, hip-hop, rock, funk, R&B, alternative, soul, country, house, bossa nova, pop, and more. “We are the melting pot. We are the mix,” says Devonne. “I feel like that’s what we represent and that’s what this album represents.”
But Butcher Brown’s eclecticism isn’t for the sake of musical masturbation or to impress chin-stroking critics. Theirs is music of, and for, the people. “It’s music for everybody,” says Tennishu reflecting on how well-received they’ve been on stages across the globe. “You can see it on all kinds of different faces, young, old, big, small, short, tall, they all start dancing eventually. It’s literally music for the whole solar system.”
SON LITTLE:
Son Little, praised by American Songwriter as “one of the best songwriters working today,” conceived his latest album, Like Neptune, in a cabin overlooking the Delaware River in upstate New York. Trading in the existential dread permeating his previous work for unbridled joy and self-acceptance, Son Little transmutes the chronic pain of self-doubt into a beautiful and freeing opus about overcoming generational trauma. Hailed by Afropunk as “a stunning statement of purpose,” Like Neptune decorates the altar of the primordial blues and elevating the labor of healing to high art. “I’ve always felt as though I was making music because I had to, something inside compelled me. Fueled me,” Little shared. “This the first time in a long time I’m making music for the pure joy of creating.”
Son Little and his band, comprised of Little on vocals/guitar, Steve McKie (drums), and DeShawn Alexander (keys/bass), will tour North America for the first-time support of Like Neptune through November and December.
