Country : United States Label : International Anthem Genres and styles : Free Jazz Year : 2020

Transition East

· by Rupert Bottenberg

As part of the International Anthem family (which includes Makaya McCraven, Damon Locks, and Jeff Parker), the inventive Angel Bat Dawid is situated in a milieu of exploratory jazz with a strong sense of cultural activism and community building. The Chicago label proceeds in the spirit of the city’s venerable Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, liberating art to liberate people.

That spirit certainly informs this seven-inch, her musical concurrence to critic and journalist Emma Warren’s 2019 book Make Some Space – a chronicle of Total Refreshment Centre, the repurposed chocolate factory that was key to cultivating the London’s massively consequential post-millennial jazz scene. Its reflections on the importance of bringing bodies together, as well as minds, are poignantly pertinent in the present moment.

The A-side, “Transition East”, is a solo piece recorded at Warren’s Chicago lair, layering earnest clarinet lines over a muted machine beat. The B-side track here, a group jam, was captured at a gathering space in Brazil, during an artist exchange with Chicago. The dramatic flourish that announces “No Space Fo Us” gives way to an escalating alarm, driven by a simple, insistent cycle of three piano notes. The urgency builds, only to burst apart into joyful, relieved chaos – a little bit of liberation.

Latest 360 Content

Laura Krieg – Crépuscule

Laura Krieg – Crépuscule

The Cure – Mixes Of A Lost World

The Cure – Mixes Of A Lost World

Nuits d’Afrique | Sarab, East-West Conversation In Your Face

Nuits d’Afrique | Sarab, East-West Conversation In Your Face

Squid – Cowards

Squid – Cowards

Five Wonderfully Weird Acts to Catch at ShazamFest 2025

Five Wonderfully Weird Acts to Catch at ShazamFest 2025

Nuits d’Afrique | Flavia Coelho, A Woman of Many Instruments

Nuits d’Afrique | Flavia Coelho, A Woman of Many Instruments

Nuits d’Afrique | Shatta Initiation with Blaiz Fayah

Nuits d’Afrique | Shatta Initiation with Blaiz Fayah

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva Launches the Festival with a Bang

Nuits d’Afrique | La Chiva Gantiva Launches the Festival with a Bang

Festival de Lanaudière | Live tour de force by Christian Tetzlaff: the JS Bach Complete Sonatas and Partitas

Festival de Lanaudière | Live tour de force by Christian Tetzlaff: the JS Bach Complete Sonatas and Partitas

Sextile – yes, please.

Sextile – yes, please.

Festival Un Goût des Caraïbes: All Those Islands Within The Island

Festival Un Goût des Caraïbes: All Those Islands Within The Island

Nuits d’Afrique | KillaBeatMaker, Afro Columbian Electronic Groove

Nuits d’Afrique | KillaBeatMaker, Afro Columbian Electronic Groove

Puffer – Street Hassle

Puffer – Street Hassle

Nuits d’Afrique 2025: ALL About The Program

Nuits d’Afrique 2025: ALL About The Program

Festival de Lanaudière | Collectif9 : contemporary music through groove and folk

Festival de Lanaudière | Collectif9 : contemporary music through groove and folk

Sam Dickinson – Gemini Duets

Sam Dickinson – Gemini Duets

Monkey House – Crashbox

Monkey House – Crashbox

Mark Molnar – EXO

Mark Molnar – EXO

Nuits d’Afrique | SARĀB, Syrian-Lebanese Songs Sizzled With Metal and Jazz-Rock

Nuits d’Afrique | SARĀB, Syrian-Lebanese Songs Sizzled With Metal and Jazz-Rock

Tyr Jami – Morphic Subduction

Tyr Jami – Morphic Subduction

Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin, Markku Ounaskari – Arcanum

Arve Henriksen, Trygve Seim, Anders Jormin, Markku Ounaskari – Arcanum

Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet – Impact

Steve Holt Jazz Impact Quintet – Impact

Isabelle Faust/Les Siècles; François-Xavier Roth – Ligeti : Concertos

Isabelle Faust/Les Siècles; François-Xavier Roth – Ligeti : Concertos

Subscribe to our newsletter