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\u2019s venerable Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, liberating art to liberate people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That spirit certainly informs this seven-inch, her musical concurrence to critic and journalist Emma Warren\u2019s 2019 book Make Some Space<\/em> \u2013 a chronicle of Total Refreshment Centre, the repurposed chocolate factory that was key to cultivating the London\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The A-side, \u201cTransition East\u201d, is a solo piece recorded at Warren\u2019s 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 \u201cNo Space Fo Us\u201d 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 \u2013 a little bit of liberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n