Concord Records' Next Collective follows a gorgeous interpretation of the Watch The Throne standout "No Church In The Wild" from their self-titled EP with a cover of "Africa" from D'Angelo's Voodoo - an album still making waves since it's release in 2000. A super saiyan crew of jazz's best and brightest - featuring Christian Scott, Ben Williams, Gerald Clayton, Matt Stevens, Jamire Williams, Kris Bowers, and Walter Smith III with producer Chris Dunn - the Next Collective seeks to move past the label of jazz by working well outside of its boundaries. The track was arranged by Clayton - one of two pianists on the project - who also put together a cover of Missy Elliot's "Beep Me 911" which will be available on iTunes along with the February 26th release of their 10-track debut album Cover Art. Scroll down to stream "Africa" and read more about the Next Collective and their upcoming project by hitting the link below:
D’Angelo’s music is probably closer on the spectrum to jazz than a lot of the other music on this record, but also wildly popular. What went into your decision to pick that tune?For me it was finding the music that I really liked first. That D’Angelo record was a really impactful record for me. I remember just falling in love with that album in high school, and it seems to be universally so — everybody loves that record. So I went through all of those records that were meaningful to me first and then just sort of went on the hunt for something that would translate well into the groove and the instrumentation. There’s a track on that record that has a jazzy bossa nova feel in C-minor and all of the cats cover it, but I thought that would be a little obvious and might even stifle people’s ability to bring their own thing to it. So when I found “Africa” on the record, I knew it was the one. The harmony and the vibe were so great.
