If the Black Lives Matter movement needed a soundtrack, I would nominate this record. The music, the message and the musicianship are all not only top notch but also endlessly thought provoking. My vote for most important record of 2017. - Roger Stolle (Cat Head)
 
DESCRIPTION: Irreversible Entanglements is a liberation-oriented free jazz collective formed in early 2015 by saxophonist Keir Neuringer, poet Camae Ayewa (a.k.a. Moor Mother) and bassist Luke Stewart, who came together to perform at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event organized after the slaying of Akai Gurley by the NYPD. Months later the group added trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes (a duo who also performed at the MAPB event) for a single day of recording at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn, and the full quintet’s first time playing together was captured for this debut. In four relentless bouts of inspired fire music the instrumentalists explore and elaborate compositional ideas drawn from their deep individual studies of free jazz improvisation, but the tone of each piece is driven decisively by Ayewa’s searing poetic narrations of Black trauma, survival and power. The message is the undeniable essence of the music.
 
1     Fireworks     9:22
2     Chicago to Texas     10:50
3     Enough     7:30
4     Projects     15:55