Electrical Field of Love (Harriet Tubman & Georgia Anne Muldrow)

Georgia Anne Muldrow and Harriet Tubman—two borderless forces interested in the past and future of Black American music—unite for a rare show. Nearly 30 years ago, the trio Harriet Tubman linked three premier players who had long worked at the intersection of jazz and rock. Guitarist Brandon Ross is a veteran of Henry Threadgill’s and Cassandra Wilson’s bands, with a light touch and sharp edge. Bassist Melvin Gibbs played not just with the Rollins Band but also with John Zorn, Sonny Sharrock, and Marc Ribot, becoming a fixture of liminal and loud spaces. And drummer J.T. Lewis worked with Herbie Hancock’s Rockit Band and Lou Reed. While those résumés and their experiences certainly inform how the members of Harriet Tubman play, their music is not about the past. It is, instead, an urgent and exploratory dive into the space where psychedelic rock meets heavy jazz, surging forward on a tide of enthusiasm.

As Pitchfork once put it, Muldrow’s long-standing quest seems to be “immersing herself in as many forms of Black expression as possible.” On a few dozen albums in less than two decades, she has moved between trunk-rattling neo-soul and shimmering psychedelia. Inspired by Erykah Badu (her subsequent collaborator), Nina Simone, and Teddy Pendergrass, her voice is powerful and flexible, wafting like smoke one moment and flashing like a flame the next. And a recent series of masterful instrumental experimentations with boom-bap soundscapes and intricate electronic pieces reinforces her curiosity as a composer. Muldrow is a world-class singer, and Harriet Tubman is a world-shaping band; their rendezvous at Big Ears promises unexpected delight.