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Irreversible Entanglements

Irreversible Entanglements are a liberation-oriented free jazz collective formed in early 2015 by saxophonist Keir Neuringer, poet Camae Ayewa (a.k.a. Moor Mother) and bassist Luke Stewart, who came together to perform at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event organized after the slaying of Akai Gurley by the NYPD. Months later the group added trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes (a duo who also performed at the MAPB event) for a single day of recording at Seizure’s Palace in Brooklyn, and the full quintet’s first time playing together was captured for this debut. In four relentless bouts of inspired fire music the instrumentalists explore and elaborate compositional ideas drawn from their deep individual studies of free jazz improvisation, but the tone of each piece is driven decisively by Ayewa’s searing poetic narrations of Black trauma, survival and power. The message is the undeniable essence of the music. Though free jazz with voice is an uncommon approach in the modern day landscape of the genre, the spirit and subject the band channels and explores represent a return to a central tenant of the sound as it was founded – to be a vehicle for Black liberation. As creative and adventurous as any recording of contemporary avant-garde jazz but offering listeners no abstractions to hide behind, this is music that both honors and defies tradition, speaking to the present while insisting on the future.

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Play This!

Irreversible Entanglements: Open The Gates

Read "Irreversible Entanglements: Open The Gates" reviewed by Chris May


The title track from Ornette Coleman-Quartet-with-vocals Irreversible Entanglements' 2021 album, the band's last on International Anthem before moving to Impulse!. The kind of music we need more than ever in 2024 as hate-fuelled authoritarianism advances towards the US presidency. ...

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Year in Review

Chris May's Best Albums Of 2023

Read "Chris May's Best Albums Of 2023" reviewed by Chris May


Another great year for recorded jazz. Fourteen of 2023's most special albums are presented here. Eight are new recordings and six are reissues or previously unreleased archive items. Joint Number One Best New Albums Of 2023 Irreversible Entanglements Protect Your Light Impulse! There are two contendors for the slam-dunk top spot this year, but choosing between Irreversible Entanglements' Protect Your Light and Jaimie Branch's Fly Or Die quartet's Fly Or Die Fly Or ...

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Live Review

Irreversible Entanglements At EartH

Read "Irreversible Entanglements At EartH" reviewed by Chris May


Irreversible Entanglements EartH Theatre Protect Your Light Hackney, London November 15, 2023 Co-winners of this parish's Best Album of 2023 for Protect Your Light (Impulse!), sharing the blunt with the late Jaimie Branch's Fly Or Die quartet's ((World War)) (International Anthem), Irreversible Entanglements' return to the London Jazz Festival was among the most eagerly anticipated gigs of this year's event. It was, fittingly, at EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney), a multi-arts performance space ...

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Album Review

Irreversible Entanglements: Protect Your Light

Read "Protect Your Light" reviewed by Chris May


If ever there was a band which screamed to be taken up by Impulse! (or Strata-East back in the day), it is the semi-free agit-jazz quintet Irreversible Entanglements. Now, after three albums with the on-song but tiny International Anthem label, it has happened and, hopefully, greater exposure and recognition will follow. IE came together in 2015 when poet Camae Ayewa (a.k.a. Moor Mother), saxophonist Keir Neuringer and bassist Luke Stewart took part in a Musicians Against Police ...

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In Pictures

Ljubljana Jazz Festival 2022

Read "Ljubljana Jazz Festival 2022" reviewed by Luciano Rossetti


A collection of photos from my two days at the Ljublijana Jazz Festival in Ljublijana (Slovenia) from June 14 to 15 2022. Under the artistic direction of Bogdan Benigar and featuring Miha Gantar, Hamid Drake's Turiya: Honoring Alice Coltrane, Jure Pukl ANoRoK, Irreversible Entanglements and Cene Resnik opening the Luciano Rossetti's Exhibition “Note a Margine." ...

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In Pictures

Irreversible Entanglements at Novara Jazz

Read "Irreversible Entanglements at Novara Jazz" reviewed by Luciano Rossetti


A collection of photos from the Irreversible Entanglements concert at Novara Jazz in on February 6, 2022 featuring Moor Mother, Luke Stewart, Lukas Koenig, Aquiles Navarro and Keir Neuringer. ...

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Album Review

Irreversible Entanglements: Who Sent You?

Read "Who Sent You?" reviewed by Gareth Thompson


Irreversible Entanglements first came together to perform at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event in 2015, after the killing of Akai Gurley by the NYPD. Who Sent You? is their second album and was released in March 2020, two months before George Floyd's death at the hands of police in Minneapolis. A five-piece collective, Irreversible Entanglements feature the voice and texts of Camae Ayewa, aka Moor Mother. An artist and activist from Philadelphia, her other works include the ...

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