Description
Full flight capture of the full Fly or Die suite, parts 1 & 2 compounded & flawlessly communicated in a singular epic of raw cosmic brilliance.
full story in the words of Piotr Orlov here:
There is a moment near the top of jaimie branchs FLY or DIE LIVE, the new album recorded by the trumpeters quartet in Zurich, Switzerland on January 23rd, 2020, which feels like it bears the weight of both that specific pocket of time, and a prophecy for all that was soon to come. branch and her Fly or Die crew cellist Lester St. Louis, double bassist Jason Ajemian, and drummer/percussionist/mbira player Chad Taylor had just kicked off the concert at Moods, with the opening tracks off their then-new studio album FLY or DIE II: Bird Dogs of Paradise, the second of which, Prayer for Amerikkka is among the best political songs written during the Tr*mp Era, and when the moment in question pops off.
The multi-part Prayer begins as a goth-blues stomp, its moaning ghosts flying around the room. A week into a European tour and after three months of constant live performance, Fly or Die is at home in this new songs contours, messing with its internal machinery while guiding its meaning. By now, Prayer had gained a tough spoken-word intro, bringing the context as it slowly gearshifts the intensity:Its a song about America, off-the-cuffs branch while the band seethes behind her, but its about a whole lotta places cause its not just America where shits fucked up… Then arrives the climax, at once site-specific and far-reaching: …and its not always time to be neutral, do you know what I mean? The gathered Swiss crowd knows, understands, and responds vocally, as Taylors backbeats cue branch to bring the trumpet to her lips, and let out a high-pitched wail. Her horn doesnt know whats about to happen to our world, and yet, somehow, it does with only the catastrophic details needing to be worked out. For the next 12 minutes, Prayer careens through its twists of wide-eyed racism and family separation, Ajemian and Taylor driving branchs punk-jazz Morricone horn line. This is a warning, honey cries the song, and over the ensuing 70 minutes, the band echoes its sentiment, filled with glee and terror. (CONTINUED ON BANDCAMP)
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