Since her debut album ‘The Oracle’ hit the store in late 2019 we’ve been total fans of Angel Bat Dawid, the Chicago-based instrumentalist, composer and bandleader who carved out her own unique path in modern spiritual jazz.

Recorded live at the Berlin JazzFest, Angel’s new double album catches her at her fiercest after her longtime collaborator Viktor Le Givens was hospitalized when he passed out en route to the airport, subsequently missing his flight to the gig. When contacted the festival organizers simply told her that it was ‘her problem, not theirs’, unwilling to work out a solution, much to Angel’s dismay.

The band did eventually make it to the gig, playing their hearts out, with an unleashed Angel raging over what she felt was blatant racism - the same racism she and so many others had experienced so many times before. ‘“We’re human beings! I’m just human!”, she cries out on ‘Black Family’ (“black family is the strongest institution in the world!”). The sheer intensity is enough to bring you to your knees, especially when she proceeds to launch into the hauntingly beautiful piano-led ‘What Shall I Tell My Children Who Are Black’, based on Margaret Taylor-Burroughs’ poem of the same name.

It’s that tension between Angel’s anger, frustration and despair on one hand and the deep spirituality and beauty that’s always shimmering under the surface on the other that makes this essential listening. Angel’s band Tha Brothahood (a band that includes Capetown drummer Asher Gamedze and multi-instrumentalist Adam Zanoline) is on fire here and they use that fire both to start a riot and to light a candle - not to mention a stick of incense. The smoke clearing halfway through ‘We Are Starzz’ after seven intense minutes to make way for a gentle piano melody brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it - and I’ve played this many times already. (RO). ⁣

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Clarinetist, composer, singer & spiritual jazz soothsayer Angel Bat Dawid presents this powerful live document alongside her band, Tha Brothahood. LIVE was mostly recorded on November 1st, 2019, at Haus der Berliner Festspiele in Berlin, Germany, during the 2019 edition of JazzFest Berlin.

For Angel and Tha Brothahood – which includes Deacon Otis Cooke (vocals, synth), Viktor Le Givens (vocals, auxiliary instruments), Xristian Espinoza (tenor sax, percussion), Norman W. Long (electronics, Msynths), Dr. Adam Zanolini (double bass, bass guitar, soprano sax, flute, percussion), Isaiah Collier (drums), and Asher Gamedze (drums) – it was the first stop of their first European tour. Angel and her band experienced a number of difficult, racially charged interactions during their two days in Berlin. But despite, or perhaps in light of the difficulties they faced, they performed a set at Berliner Festspiele that Angel considers to be one of their best ever. “The show was very deep, and really helped me to process all the rage, and uncomfortable things I was feeling... It made me think of all the artists of the past who endured way more than I ever will with this music industry. It was a very freeing and beautiful show… we played our ass off!!”

Deluxe Double Vinyl Package** two 140-gram vinyl discs inside a heavyweight reverse-board gatefold jacket with flooded black pockets, wrapped in a classic IARC obi strip and dome patterned inner sleeves. Gatefold features liner notes by Shannon J. Effinger (in English & German).