André 3000 review – live spiritual jazz leaves hip-hop visionary with nowhere to hide

André 3000 review – live spiritual jazz leaves hip-hop visionary with nowhere to hide

The Jazz Cafe, London
The former rapper starts promisingly with earthy improvisation but the band drifts disappointingly with no solos and few flashes of emotion

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.

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