Live on the spot with Su Comandante, first play first song part 8
11Madison McFerrin
The daughter of jazz legend Bobby McFerrin is a chip off the old block
BY: VRINDA JAGOTA FEB 3 2018
POP/R&B
The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter/producer Madison McFerrin (daughter of jazz legend Bobby McFerrin) crafts rich, infectious soul songs using only her voice. With an array of loops and percussive backing vocals, she creates a textured sound with room for her emotional explorations: Her debut EP, Finding Foundations: Vol. I, explored heartache, self-care, and budding romances. McFerrin’s new single, “Insane” (off her follow up EP, Finding Foundations: Vol. II), continues her a cappella experiments, this time to convey pure joy through cascading harmonies and a bubbling, jazzy arrangement.
On “Insane,” McFerrin’s words unfurl slowly over a backdrop of propulsive coos as she constructs a vivid picture of her desire: “Grasping memories between my hips/ Your lips graze against my skin.” Her repetitions provide the song its engine and sense of longing; McFerring’s singing intensifies and becomes more urgent during the repeated chorus, “You know you belong in my bed/I can’t get you off of my brain.” By the end of the song, the force of her romantic energy reverberates through every note she sings. Though she says her desire is driving her crazy, on “Insane,” she sings with stunning clarity.
Jyoti’s (aka Georgia Anne Muldrow) Mama, You Can Bet! is a revelation — of time, of rhythm, of sound. It takes the free-ranging jazz sensibilities of her previous outings under the Jyoti moniker (follows 2013’s Denderah and 2010’s Ocotea) and gives them a next-level boost. The legendary Alice Coltrane gave her this nickname, and Muldrow certainly puts all of her musical wisdom and power behind it.
This time, she adds depth through what is perhaps her best instrument, her voice. This acts as a contrast to what we’ve been fortunate and accustomed to hearing from her in the realm of R&B, hip-hop, and spacey funk. Is there a “post-funk” label we could apply here? If so, maybe we should.
The logical and natural entryway into this album is the title track, the opener. It moseys along, with its thumping bass, proving that inspiration need not arrive in a flash. “Mama,” sings Muldrow, “love is waiting for you…I know love is waiting around the corner.” Content-wise, the song is meant as a homage to Muldrow’s mother. Figuratively, it speaks to any mother, as a wellness check of sorts for mothers who normally guide us to sources of love instead of the other way around. There’s also a universal vibe, as in a tribute to our inborn intelligence (mother wit), expression through language (mother tongue), grounded in a wellspring of support (motherlode), all with cosmic alignment (mother nature).