John Carroll Kirby - “By The Sea”

SXSW 2020 - OEB Score: 7; Popularity Index: 2

Pairs Well With…BADBADNOTGOOD, Kamasi Washington, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah

John Carroll Kirby’s upcoming record My Garden has been previewed by a couple tracks that promise a lounge-ready jazz sound featuring Carroll’s sweet, plaintive piano melodies. Adding hip hop rhythms, spaced-out synth soundscapes, and slow-funk bass, Kirby’s music is vibrant even when moving on the chillest of grooves, textured and fresh from a traditional jazz pocket. The Stones Throw artist played a key instrumental role on much of Solange’s When I Get Home as well as work with Frank Ocean and Kali Uchis and threads of those artists’ experimentally-minded, alternative R&B also creep into the early singles from My Garden, but Carroll’s music is less wild fusion and more new-age smooth throughout his patient instrumental compositions. (Kevin McStravick)