Now More Than Ever

ブライアン・ジャクソン×MAW奇跡の共演!伝説曲を現代に蘇らせるリイマジン超大作!

"コラボレーションは刺激的だ、それは私の血の中にある"──そう語るブライアン・ジャクソンが、自身とギル・スコット・ヘロンの名曲群を新たに再構築。ブラック・ソート、オマー、ムーディーマン、ラヒーム・デヴォーンら豪華ゲストを迎え、マスターズ・アット・ワーク(ルイ・ヴェガ&ケニー・ドープ)がプロデュース。「レディ・デイ&ジョン・コルトレーン」「ザ・レヴォリューション・ウィル・ノット・ビー・テレヴァイズド」等、時代を象徴した楽曲が現代的サウンドで蘇る。ダンスフロアでも自宅でも響く、魂と抵抗の系譜を今に繋ぐ決定版!

Brian Jackson has always been an enigma. The multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger was Gil Scott-Herons songwriting and recording partner on nine albums, and the architect of the Midnight Bands sound melding poetry, soul, jazz, blues, and funk. Following their split, he kept a low profile. Later he played sessions with everybody from Roy Ayers and Oneness of Juju to Kool & the Gang and Charnett Moffett. Along the way he cut his own records, including 2021s instrumental Brian Jackson JID008 and 2022s This Is Brian Jackson. 2026s Now More Than Ever, is a 19-track multi-disc set that revisits his material with Scott-Heron (the cover mimics the 1976 album Its Your World). It was cut in collaboration with New York production duo Masters at Work (Louie Vega and Kenny Gonzalez), and a stellar cast of rappers, singers, and poets. Jackson erected the musical foundation for all of it. It opens with a skittering drum kit, bass, and wonky piano before poet and rapper Wes Felton includes many of the Scott-Heron/Jackson song titles in his poem. Its followed by the jazzy soul and hip-hop of "Its Your World" with singer Raheem DeVaughn and rapper/poet J. Ivy, backed by the band with the horn section driving a massive vamp. Its followed by "We Almost Lost Detroit" featuring the Motor Citys own Moodymann (Kenny Dixon, Jr.) singing and speaking the lyrics with sweeping horns, a blues guitar, and backing singers. The laid-back, nearly sensual late night presentation is seemingly at odds with the harrowing lyrics, but theyre rendered with quiet power in this arrangement. Omar skillfully and passionately assists on an uptempo, hard, grooving, jazz-house version of "The Bottle," complete with riveting horns, wah-wah guitar funk, and backing singers. "Lady Day and John Coltrane" is authoritatively delivered by Rahsaan Patterson amid bubbling percussion, breaks, samples, jazzy horns, and a driving bassline. Black Thought rises above a funky pulsing vamp to deliver the classic "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" like a militant professor atop a Stax-style guitar and Jackson soloing beautifully throughout on flute. Raquel Ra Brown provides several provocative spoken interludes here including "Addiction" and "More Than Ever" accompanied by impressionistic jazz. Singer/songwriter Lisa Fischer fronts the band on the poignant, funky "Home Is Where the Hatred Is," with Jacksons Rhodes flowing around her as the band and samples lift her up. Patterson proves himself a fine jazz singer on "Is That Jazz?" while the house groove in "Racetrack in France," a new tune, is brought with pulsing delight by guests Josh Milan, J. Ivy, and Moodymann before Rich Medina and Jacksons troupe deliver a rippling, wah-wah-inflected, nearly cinematic version of "Winter in America." Singers Cindy Mizelle, Dawn Tallman, and Ramona Dunlap band together behind Jacksons rapping and singing on closer and pointed love letter "New York City." On Now More Than Ever, Jackson and guests completely inhabit the Midnight Bands songbook with resonance, emotional depth, and intense, joyful, musical focus. ~ Thom Jurek