Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber: We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite

Described by Rolling Stone as “a fleet-footed big band, sliding and swaggering through galactic R&B, brawny jazz, and electric funk like a Sun Ra–sized spin on Miles Davis’s On the Corner band,“ Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber began as a forum for New York City’s improvisational musicians to compose, record, and perform an eclectic range of music. Led by Greg Tate, these masters of experimental soul-jazz-hip-hop have ranged from eight to twenty seven players at a time. For BSAC’s Hammer debut, Tate brings an eight-piece crew, with performance backgrounds, consisting of Shelley Nicole (Erykah Badu, Toshi Reagon), Mikel Banks (Vernon Reid), Lewis ’Flip’ Barnes (William Parker, The Holmes Brothers), V. Jeffrey Smith (Billy Ocean, Debbie Gibson), Ben Tyree (Valerie June, Dr. Cornel West), Leon Gruenbaum (James Blood Ulmer, Nana Vasconcelos), Greg Gonzalez (Patti LaBelle, Cecil Taylor), and Jared Michael Nickerson (The The, Wadada Leo Smith) to “caramelize“ Abbey Li