LIVE

On the heels of her celebrated one-woman debut, *The Oracle*, Angel Bat Dawid is heard at JazzFest Berlin with her band Tha Brothahood on *Live*. The spell she casts on vocals, clarinet, and keyboards is rooted in the legacy of Chicago free jazz, with an approach to song that’s reminiscent of Sun Ra’s and Nina Simone’s. In fact, Sun Ra’s “Enlightenment,” reworked as a doleful out-of-tempo ballad, leads off the set, and already the emotion in Bat Dawid’s voice is palpable. The circumstances at this festival were not altogether happy—a story that rises to the surface on “VIKTORious Return,” which is simply Bat Dawid tearfully greeting bandmate and fellow vocalist Viktor Le Givens, whose arrival in Berlin was delayed by a frightening hospitalization. Working through these and other adversities, she and the group take a strong anti-racist stand from the stage, imploring audience members to join in the grooving communal chant of “Black Family” (“the Black family is the strongest institution in the world”). Bat Dawid offers several other compelling elaborations on material from *The Oracle*, including “London” and “We Are Starzz,” in the company of bassist Dr. Adam Zanolini, drummers Isaiah Collier and Asher Gamedze, and the rest of a deeply simpatico octet. But she also unveils a generous amount of new material, including “Melo Deez From Heab’N,” the rhythmic lilt and phrasing of which capture her funky songcraft at its best.

This revelatory and confrontational live album centers around Angel Bat Dawid’s prowess as a bandleader. With her eclectic band, it is a brilliant document of how free jazz functions as both exploration and exorcism.