André 3000 – New Blue Sun

I was intrigued when I heard that rapper André 3000 would release a flute album. The Outcast was a hip-hop act I was actually into. They were artsy yet pop. When I first listened to New Blue Sun, my first reaction was that it was ambient jazz without hooks – a snoozefest. I have been listening to the new Kamasi Washington, and there is a track that André 3000 is on, and I dig it. Per Kamasi’s website:

André 3000, perhaps rap’s finest stylist, whose guest verses are coveted by all, offers up his very first flute feature on “Dream State.” A song about moving on from struggle is an apt contribution from an artist searching for freedom. “Andre is connected to music in a way that’s inexplicable, and he still has that same magic on the flutes,” says Washington.“That honesty, and that trueness to his spirit is there.” When he showed up to the studio with a bag of flutes, Washington and his bandmate and fellow Fearless Movement composer Brandon Coleman invited him to jam. Together, they found the song on the first pass. “We’re not easy musicians to swim around with. We moved kind of fast and free, and he was just with us,” says Washington.

So, that had me returning to New Blue Sun. Given the excellent performance of “Dream State” on the Kamasi album and Kamasi’s story of the making of that song, I felt I owed André 3000 flute album a second look – plus I am a flute player.

Listening to New Blue Sun with more open ears, my revised take is still ambient jazz without hooks. However, it is not a snoozefest. It is pretty cool music. It is engaging if you give it a chance. It is the kind of ambient music that can be enjoyed both passively (background music) and actively (full engagement with the music: no distractions with a quality playback rig – or at least good headphones).

So, what does it sound like? There is a lot of synth, percussion, and flute (both organic and with electronic manipulation). It is mostly quiet, but there are occasional swells. At times, it invokes the ambient side of Pink Floyd. But most of the time, it is narcotic jazz, that is, slow-motion jazz.

I can’t imagine being in a New Blue Sun mood often, but I appreciate André 3000’s experiment. It is just not my thing – I need my music a bit more caffeinated.