When rapper André 3000 decided to put his mic down in 2023 and release his first album in almost two decades as a flautist leading a spiritual jazz ensemble, it was met with mixed responses. American jazz magazine Downbeat called New Blue Sun a record where “the music rarely rises above atmospheric noodling”, while Pitchfork awarded it Best New Album.
Whether you see the record as a brave step into the unknown from a hip-hop visionary or 90 minutes of wistful tooting on woodwinds seems to be a matter of subjectivity. Yet, when it comes to jazz, a genre premised on the instinctive self-expression of improvisation, the proof is in the live experience. On stage, there is nowhere to hide – not even behind a Teotihuacan drone flute.
