Drummer, composer, producer Nate Smith is one of the leading names in today’s abundant crop of progressive, genre-bending and mashing artists who continue to redefine what Black music means in these times. Kinfolk 2: See the Birds is his follow-up, and second of a trilogy, to the 2017 Grammy-nominated Kinfolk: Postcards from Everywhere. This features a stunning array of guests including singers Brittany Howard, Amma Whatt, vibraphonist Joel Ross, rapper Kokayi, guitarist Vernon Reid., violinist Regina Carter, Michael Mayo, and Stokley Williams (of the R&B band Mint Condition, a high school listening obsession for Smith along with Reid’s Living Colour). The album takes inspiration from his teenage years spent listening to contemporary R&B, hip-hop, and neo-soul which he approaches with a jazz sensibility, delivered by his core quintet – Brad Allen Williams (guitar), Fima Ephron (bass), Jaleel Shaw (saxophone), Jon Cowherd (piano, Rhodes, Hammond B-3), while the two-time Grammy-nominated leader plays drums, keyboards, and percussion.
So, the first installment centered on childhood, this on his teenage years, and supposedly the third will be on adulthood. Yet, this is not a throwback album at all. Informed by his tenure with Chris Potter’s Underground band, to which Smith cites his fast-becoming signature drumming style that combines crisp funky grooves with jazz improvisation, Smith sees Shaw and Ephron returning while enlisting support from new members Williams and Cowherd. The album was recorded in two-band sessions – June 2019 at Sear Sound in NYC and February 2020 at the Bunker Studio in Brooklyn.
The buzz is already widespread through the release of three singles, one of which opens the album, “Altitude,” which features Mayo and Ross. Its mid-tempo, neo-soul-like groove forms the bed for wordless vocals from Mayo, a bright, gentle solo from Cowherd, and a typically melodic Ross turn. “Square Wheel” has Smith keeping time in odd-meter beats with rapper Kokayi’s cadences while Mayo overlays his vocals to the proceedings. Jaleel Shaw steps up for a riveting solo that keeps pace with Smith’s kit work. The most recent single release is “Fly (for Mike)” with Brittany Howard, with whom Smith collaborated on her 2019 solo album, Jaime. Emotive solos come again from Shaw and from Cowherd on the gospel-flavored ballad that commemorates Smith’s father, who passed in 2015. According to Smith, “See the Birds” is about wanting to be free while “Fly” is about being free.
The album is just filled with outstanding tracks. “Street Lamp” seems innocent enough, imbued by Ephron’s bouncy bass riff and the lyrical solos from Williams and Cowherd and unison passages with Shaw. Yet we learn that the song’s theme reflects Smith’s teenaged memories of riding bikes with his friends in the neighborhood with his mom’s enforcing a curfew of him returning home before “streetlamps turn on.” So, a darker theme lurks beneath – one that touches upon Black Americans forced to be inside their homes at “sundown” during Jim Crow-era America to avoid violence from White supremacists, which unfortunately remains a threat today.
“Don’t Let Me Get Away” is about teenage heartbreak, delivered by the smooth vocal from Stokely Williams, as Smith applies a steady beat and guitarist Williams takes a George Benson-like turn. Violinist Regina Carter lends her unmistakable style to “Collision,” a dramatic piece that sets the stage for the electronica-driven “Meditations-Prelude” and the Vernon Reid guest spot in the menacing, dark “Rambo: The Vigilante.” While Reid may be the featured guest here, it is Shaw’s inspired, aggressive tenor solo that steals the spotlight. The lone cover is Sting’s “I Burn for You,” with singer/songwriter Amma Whatt, who appeared on the first Kinfolk album, taking the soaring vocal while Shaw takes a more lyrical tact with his soprano. Smith was inspired by this tune in the Sting movie, especially Omar Hakim’s explosive drum solo, so he relives that in his own way here. Finally, the title track sees the return of Mayo and Ross, with the former singing optimistic lyrics and Ross creating both aerial and arial images with his mallets.
This second Nate Smith installment is beautifully well-conceived, teeming with strong musicianship and a contemporary flair that should garner at least as much attention as his Kinfolk debut.
