SHARES LEAD SINGLE I CAN SAY TO YOU
FEATURING VANISHA GOULD

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PRE-ORDER/SAVE SOLAR MUSIC HERE

TORONTO, ON – June 13, 2023 – Richmond's polymath band, Butcher Brown, announces its new album, Solar Music, out October 6 via Concord Jazz, available on CD, 2-LP and digitally. While rooted in jazz, the band explores the through lines between genres and generations, which is clearly evident on the album's lead single, which is also out today: I Can Say To You featuring vocalist Vanisha Gould.

Following their critically-acclaimed 2022 album, Butcher Brown Presents Triple Trey, where they collided a hip-hop album with big band jazz, Solar Music demonstrates the essence of Butcher Brown down to its core. The album draws its name from a descriptor the band has come to use to categorize their music, the scope of which is decidedly broad and defies categorization altogether. Solar Music demonstrates the band's dynamic approach to the jazz format and incorporating their own rich lineage of musical influences from their upbringing in Richmond, fusing elements of soul, funk, rock, and hip-hop, into music that is universal. Incorporating longtime friends and new, unexpected guests into their approach, the album features the likes of Pink Siifu, Charlie Hunter, Braxton Cook, Jay Prince, Nappy Nina, Keyon Harrold, Michael Millions and more.

Reflecting on their latest project the band shares: "Solar Music is everything under the sun. We get asked so often what type of genre we fall into, and at the end of the day, we play all of our influences. It’s not genre specific… It’s all types, & this album is a true representation of that. Solar Music is for everybody.”

The band had a jam-packed live schedule in 2022 around the release of their last album, which included a sold-out show at Blue Note Jazz Festival in Napa Valley, a collaborative set with Pink Siifu at Pitchfork Music Festival and Afropunk Fest in Brooklyn all in the last year. Picking up where they left off in 2023, the band is slated for a run of festivals through the Summer, including the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival on June 18th, Newport Jazz Festival, and Telluride Jazz Fest and more.

Check out I Can Say To You featuring Vanisha Gould and pre-save Solar Music here. Learn more about the band and Solar Music below, and stay tuned for more new music from Butcher Brown soon.

TRACKLIST:
1. Cozumel
2. Espionage featuring Charlie Hunter
3. I Can Say To You featuring Vanisha Gould
4. MOVE (RIDE) featuring Jay Prince
5. Turismo featuring Julia Shuren
6. Eye Never Knew featuring Pink Siifu and Keyon Harrold
7. No Way Around It
8. Half of It featuring Nappy Nina
9. DYKWYD featuring Braxton Cook
10. Happy Hourrr
11. Run It Up featuring Pink Siifu
12. Pink Fur featuring Michael Millions
13. This Side of Sunshine
14. BubbleBath
15. Touring Pains
16. It Was Me
17. Around For A While

UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
6/18 - Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival
8/4 - Newport, RI @ Newport Jazz Festival
8/5-6 - Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
8/11-13 - Telluride, CO @ Telluride Jazz Festival
8/26 - Asheville, NC @ Salvage Station
8/31-9/3 - Stuart, VA @ Front Porch Fest

DOWNLOAD – album artwork | DOWNLOAD – hi-res photo

MORE ABOUT BUTCHER BROWN:
Miles Davis once quipped, “I’ll play it first and tell you what it is later.” Butcher Brown has released forward-thinking and expansive hybrids of jazz and hip-hop since 2013. Today, they have an apt descriptor for their songs: solar music. Drawing inspiration from every sound under the sun, the Richmond, VA band adds elements of funk, soul, and rock to their foundational mix. The result is a Southern-leaning, sometimes psychedelic fusion that feels fresh yet familiar. Simultaneously working within and defying genre conventions, Butcher Brown is a jazz festival mainstay that could tour with Tyler, the Creator as easily as Khruangbin.

“We get daps from the jazz cats, the rap scene, the indie scene, and everyone else,” says drummer Corey Fonville. Every Butcher Brown album, show, and improvisational leap therein stems from the synergy, vision, and inexhaustible musical curiosity of him and his bandmates: producer/multi-instrumentalist DJ Harrison; bassist/composer Andrew Randazzo; trumpeter/saxophonist/MC Marcus “Tennishu” Tenney; and guitarist Morgan Burrs.

The band’s past begins in Richmond, where several members attended VCU’s jazz program, and everyone mixed in the city’s vibrant music scene. Between classes and performances at local clubs, all congregated at Harrison’s home studio: Jellowstone. Jam sessions bled into blunt-passing smoke sessions soundtracked by beat tapes from renowned Richmond producer Ohbliv, D’Angelo’s sensual, funky and forward-thinking neo-soul, and saxophonist Joe Henderson’s Power to the People. All culminated in Butcher Brown’s 2014 debut, All Purpose Music, a 76-minute jazz-driven odyssey into every genre at the band’s disposal.

That spark fueled a beat tape (Grown Folk, 2015), southern-inflected soul and rock excursions (The Healer, 2015 and Virginia Noir, 2016), a raucous live album (Live at Vagabond, 2017), jazz-funk fusion (Camden Session, 2018), and an Afrobeat tribute (Afrokuti, 2018). After tours with Galactic, Lettuce, and jazz giant Kamasi Washington, Butcher Brown turned a corner with their Concord Jazz debut, 2020’s #KingButch. They recorded at Jellowstone and abandoned worries about creating songs that would be easily replicable live, blurring the lines between soul-jazz and boom-bap, eliminating the divide between P-funk and modern funk, and transforming rap-meets-bossa nova amalgams into kaleidoscopic psychedelia. With Tennishu rapping, the band was in new territory and closer to their roots than ever. Their catalog-spanning NPR Tiny Desk Concert, crowd-packing European tour, and inspired, Alex Isley-assisted cover of Patrice Rushen’s Remind Me in 2021 proved their range remained limitless, unbound by genre and time.

Describing the group's journey, bassist Andrew Randazzo says, “Over the years, everything about this band has become more refined and mature — from the playing and producing to recording — but the soul was there from the beginning... We already had the spark.”