Jazz vocalist and multi Grammy nominee Nnenna Freelon joins hip-hop quartet The Beast to release Freedom Suite: a 10-track collection of creative reflections on jazz and hip-hop. Freedom Suite will be available for FREE download, digitally released on Okayplayer’s new jazz channel, The Revivalist. Download HERE
With guest appearances from 9th Wonder, Branford Marsalis, Phonte (of The Foreign Exchange/Little Brother), YahZarah, Geechi Suede (of Camp Lo) and several others, Freedom Suite follows in the tradition of other collaborative jazz and hip-hop projects like the late Guru’s Jazzmatazz. The album features six original songs written and produced by The Beast, which are infused with both a live jazz aesthetic (drums, bass, piano, percussion, strings and horns were all recorded live) and an electronic/sample-based hip-hop aesthetic. Freedom Suite also includes five contemporary interpretations of “standards” from the jazz and hip-hop cannon, including arrangements of Mos Def’s Umi Says, Johnny Mercer & Hoagy Charmichael’s Skylark and Lauryn Hill’s Doo Wop.
