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A nine-movement jazz piece, Moroccan blues, a complex collage of sounds and more musical delights

Zo! + Tall Black Guy feat. Phonte, Darien Brockington + Muhsinah: Hold My Hand Musicians and producers Zo! (aka Lorenzo Ferguson) and Tall Black Guy (aka Terrel Wallace) joined forces for the recently released Abstractions and from it comes the breezy “Hold My Hand.” The duo is responsible for all production and instrumentation, while the honeyed vocals come courtesy of Muhsinah, Darien Brockington and Phonte. The …

Green-House: Royal Fern

From Music For Living Spaces, the debut LP by Los Angeles-based, non-binary artist Green-House (aka Olive Ardizoni), “Royal Fern” ripples with optimism, like sonic skipping stones toward the sun. “I’m trying to hit that part of the brain that’s affected by the emotional state that you’re in when you perceive something as cute,” Ardizoni says. “Cuteness and joy are gateways to compassion. It’s the gateway …

Innov Gnawa: El Ghaba

Innov Gnawa’s new seven-minute single “El Ghaba” emphasizes the group’s North African roots. Hailing from Morocco, now based in NYC, the band (Ma’alem Hassan Ben Jaafer, Amino Belyamani and Ahmed Jeriouda) focuses on a genre known as Gnawa (sometimes called “Sufi Blues”), qraqeb-based music with vocal “prayers invoking saints and spirits for freedom and liberation.” Daptone co-founder Gabriel Roth produced the group’s forthcoming album, Lila, …