Angel Bat Dawid has released a new new live album with her band Tha Brothahood.
Titled LIVE, it was largely recorded on November 1, 2019 at Haus der Berliner Festspiele during that year’s edition of JazzFest Berlin. The album has been made available digitally now ahead of a vinyl and CD release in January.
Tha Brothahood is comprised of Deacon Otis Cooke (vocals, synth), Viktor Le Givens (vocals, auxiliary instruments), Xristian Espinoza (tenor sax, percussion), Norman W. Long (electronics, synths), Dr. Adam Zanolini (double bass, bass guitar, soprano sax, flute, percussion), Isaiah Collier (drums), and Asher Simiso Gamedze (drums), while Angel Bat Dawid acts as bandleader.
Speaking about the performance that makes up the album, Dawid says: "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!!"
Dawid explains further in a press release that just a couple of days before she and Tha Brothahood were due to play the show, band member Viktor Le Givens was found passed out on the street, and woke up in hospital with all his belongings missing. When the group informed JazzFest Berlin of this, they were told, ‘If you cannot find a substitute, we will have to reduce your fee’."
"I have issues in general about the way artists are treated because I see a difference in how tech folks treat women and artists of colour… I’m calling it out," Dawid says. "But all those things happen a lot and it was very evident at the festival…"
Dawid also speaks of further experiences of racism that informed the album in the press release for LIVE, which you can read in full here. You can also revist Emma Warren’s interview with the artist, published earlier this year, here.
LIVE is out now on International Anthem.
