Maroon Cloud

Southern California-based flutist and prolific composer Nicole Mitchell offers something in the space between art song, blues oratorio, and free improvisation with *Maroon Cloud*, recorded live at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. The chamber-like quartet instrumentation is stark, with no drums but ample rhythmic connection between the leader, cellist Tomeka Reid, and pianist Aruán Ortiz. In the full-bodied tone and playful poetic imagery—spoken and sung, written and spontaneous—of Fay Victor’s voice, the group finds a focal point. The assertive, soul-heavy “A Sound” is a highlight, though the program is typically more abstract. “Warm Dark Realness” and other movements hint at the nature of the *Maroon Cloud*: for Mitchell, it’s the dark you see with your eyes closed, the space of imagination.

Recorded live at Brooklyn's National Sawdust as part of John Zorn's Stone Commissioning Series, Maroon Cloud is an eight-part chamber suite that develops and expands on the visionary concepts Nicole Mitchell explored on 2008's Xenogenesis Suite and 2017's Mandorla Awakening II: Emerging Worlds.