KASSA OVERALL *live

In the organizer's words:

Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated musician, MC, singer, producer and drummer who blends avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to take the fusion of jazz and rap in unpredictable directions.

On his first two studio albums, GO GET ICE CREAM AND LISTEN TO JAZZ and I THINK I'M GOOD, Kassa combined virtuosic drumming, meticulous production techniques and incisive lyricism, establishing himself as a rhythmic innovator and visionary poet who uses his voice to address the injustices of the penal system, the pharmaceutical industry and racism against black people while struggling with the dangers of his own mental illness.

ANIMALS, his debut on Warp Records, continues this kaleidoscopic and subversive vision. He layers Roland 808s against avant-garde drumming in the style of his mentors Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, with whom he studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Virtuoso musicians perform alongside rap poets such as Danny Brown, Wiki, Lil B and Shabazz Palaces. Top-class jazz improvisations alternate with orchestral string arrangements by Jherek Bischoff. Among the collaborators on the album are some of his close friends, such as singers Nick Hakim, Laura Mvula and Francis and the Lights, as well as jazz stars like Theo Croker and Vijay Iyer.

ANIMALS takes Kassa's message even further. The title is a loaded metaphor for the paradoxes of his life as an entertainer and as a black man in America. ANIMALS is the sound of an artist who is aware of the cost of embodying his natural self in public.

We are offering discounted tickets for this event to allow people with smaller wallets access to culture. These contingents are limited and only available at TixforGigs. We trust in your self-assessment: If you can, book standard tickets and leave the discounted contingents to those who need to save a lot right now.