branch, jaimie – Fly or Die - New LP

 "Fuck your technique, sound first." - jaimie branch


Holy moly, I'm pretty darn picky when it comes to jazz (and while often I love when artists get adventurous and all crazy, that's not usually my feelings when it comes to jazz..often when people say it's great jazz because it's really adventurous, I hate it even more...lose the solos and gimme the forward groove or you will lose me so quickly... mostly it's just maximum R&B that I love, whether you call it punk, groove, power pop, funk...it's all the same thing, maximum R&B...pack it into the song and the rhythm, charge it forward and end it quickly) but jaime branch is both adventurous and just completely amazing, offers so much but keeps it packed into the groove, and even when instrumental reflection takes her off the path and into the forests of the mind, when her stories of racism and bullshit must be told, and her flights of fancy fly away like birds from the trees along the way, who am I to gripe when she's clearly got a complete grip on what she's doing. She packs so much history in her music, the knowledge, sounds and lessons of key Black artists of the previous century mixed with hints her own history, playing in ska and punk band as a youth, growing up with hip-hop and Nirvana, and dealing with the issues at hand in the world today and tapping into her Latin American heritage (Colombian on her mother's side) to add that infectious focus of latin american percussion to flavor some of her recipes, coming out of all that and bringing it into her music, which moves far away from her ska and punk beginnings to the places she has to go, to follow the pain and joy wherever it brings her.  She is a sum of her parts and so much more.  She's simply out of sight. -- winch