I just got back from getting my whole life at the Frye Art Museum, after the closing of its Genius exhibit—which featured Shabazz Palaces performing, triangulated between the three ornate tapestries that make up Nep Sidhu’s Malcolm’s Smile. (Oh yeah, one of Seattle’s very illest and prolific musicians, Morgan Henderson—you know, from the Blood Brothers, the Cave Singers, Fleet Foxes, just to literally name but a few—has apparently joined Shabazz Palaces. No big deal or anything.)
Where I was positioned in that packed room (up front but not in the center, let the shorties see, dudes), I was standing directly in front of a speaker and behind a tapestry. All I had were my ears and the feeling of everybody, including the performers, hearing all this together for the first time. Ocean-floor-deep jams, fluid, Henderson lacing with the flute and bass clarinet? That all happened. Just another intense ritual here, thankfully deeper than rap…