Composer/saxophonist Marcus Strickland has announced that he will be releasing a new album, People Of The Sun, on November 9th via Blue Note.

As per the release: “On People of the Sun, Strickland blazes down that trail fully at the helm of his music—performing, writing, and producing with his outrageously able Twi-Life band on deck—even as he sonically and socially traces the African diaspora from present to past in an effort to unpack his identity. “I’m thinking about where we came from,” says Strickland, “and how that clashes and goes hand in hand with what we’ve created here as Black Americans.” The result is an album that’s busy and beautiful, inventive and contemplative, an amalgam of influences from West Africa (griot culture, Afrobeat, percussion) and America (post-bop, funk-soul, beat music) performed in the key of revelation. Another facet that sets the album part is Strickland’s lesser-known woodwind obsession with the bass clarinet, which adds its noirish hues to so many of these songs.”

Marcus will play four record release shows on November 10th and 11th at Jazz Standard in NYC, featuring special guests Bilal and Pharoahe Monch.

People Of The Sun is available for pre-order now.

SOURCE: Press Release – October 5, 2018