Georgia Anne Muldrow Returns To Solo Jazz Project Jyoti with 'Mama, You Can Bet!'

[Cover photo credit to Priscilla Jimenez]

We have four of the multi-talented Georgia Anne Muldrow's albums on-site at Tower Records right now, but we're about to make way for more since she has announced the birth of her next solo Jazz album in her series Jyoti, with Mama, You Can Bet!, arriving in August 2020. 

The Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist was called Jyoti by the late great Alice Coltrane.

With the announcement comes the release of lead single, “This Walk”, and b-side, “The Cowrie Waltz”. The single is available now digitally and a 7” single version can be pre-ordered now through Bandcamp.

Described by Muldrow as how “violence can both ignite and snuff out a voice,” “This Walk” brings in Muldrow’s own singing voice, accompanied by piano and harp.

“The Cowrie Waltz” has more of "a loungey jazz sound with shredding guitar", Muldrow explains, "to form a groovy and bombastic juxtaposition".

She adds:

“‘The Cowrie Waltz’ is me taking some magic scalpel I found, slicing up a hard bop feel, and exposing its ribs and gut-meat to say: ‘This is where the blues is.’”

The new album will feature two Charlie Mingus compositions that Muldrow has remixed for the album, “Bemoanable Lady Geemix” and “Fabus Foo Geemix,” both commissioned by Jason Moran and The Kennedy Center in 2017, a project that manifested into a live performance entitled “Muldrow Meets Mingus” that was held at both The Kennedy Center and Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2017, which aired on NPR.

Check out further info about Jyoti and Muldrow's work below:

Georgia Anne Muldrow not only creates jazz music - she’s lived it since birth. Her father, Ronald Muldrow, played alongside Eddie Harris while her mother, Rickie Byars, performed as lead singer of Roland Hanna’s New York Jazz Quartet and Pharoah Sanders Ensemble. Following in her parents’ footsteps, she has collaborated with famed musicians including Robert Glasper, Adrian Younge, Ambrose Akinmursire, Justin Brown's Nyeusi, and Keyon Harrold.

The newest Jyoti music arrives after many monumental years for Muldrow. Her most recent solo album Overload - released on Flying Lotus’ label Brainfeeder - earned her a 2020 Grammy nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album and landed on year-end lists for Pitchfork, Bandcamp, and The A.V. Club. 2019 saw Georgia perform at numerous Jazz Festivals around the globe: Nublu Jazz Festival (Brazil), Portland Jazz Festival (Portland, US), Bric Festival (Brooklyn, US), Blue Note Tokyo (Japan), New York Winter Jazz Festival and the DC Jazz Festival to name a few.

Most recently, Georgia was featured on “Play It Forward,” a new special segment series on NPR’s All Things Considered, listen HERE.