Articles by Michael J. Warren

Saba

Bucket List Project

PUBLISHED Nov 2, 2016

Chicago, the apparent poster child city for arts incubation, has again staked its claim to 2016 with the release of Saba's Bucket List Proj...

Kadhja Bonet

The Visitor

PUBLISHED Oct 21, 2016

On the surface, Kadhja Bonet's The Visitor appears as a throwback to an era of gentle '60s-tinged jazz records. Over strings and buried dru...

NxWorries

Yes Lawd!

PUBLISHED Oct 19, 2016

Anderson .Paak and producer Knxwledge's Yes Lawd! feels in many ways like the spiritual successor to Below the Heavens, the 2007 collaborat...

​NAO

Takes Control

PUBLISHED Aug 22, 2016

"I was learning about my sound quite publicly," NAO says, reflecting on the progression between 2014's So Good EP and last year's February...

NAO Stakes Her Own Claim with 'For All We Know'

PUBLISHED Jul 29, 2016

NAO wants to set the record straight. "Essentially, everything about the album — and I don't think it's arrogant to say — the album definit...

NAO

For All We Know

PUBLISHED Jul 27, 2016

Two weeks before the release of her debut full-length album, UK R&B singer NAO was worried. The perpetual rumour mill of pending Frank Ocea...

Oddisee

Alwasta

PUBLISHED Mar 29, 2016

We are told to separate the art and the artist, but Oddisee makes that proposition difficult. His work is so rooted in his development as a...

Esperanza Spalding

Emily's D+Evolution

PUBLISHED Mar 2, 2016

On her fifth solo album, Esperanza Spalding asks, what if her younger self had not gone on to pursue jazz greatness and instead embraced he...