VESSEL(hood)(ness)

Immanuel Wilkins, saxophonist and composer, exudes empathy and conviction as he weaves arcs of melody and lamentation into pluming gestures of space and breath. Listeners were first introduced to this riveting sound through his acclaimed debut album, Omega, which The New York Times named the #1 Jazz Album of 2020. The album also showcased his remarkable quartet, featuring Micah Thomas on piano, Daryl Johns on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums—a tight-knit unit that Wilkins again highlighted in his second release, The 7th Hand, also a New York Times Best Jazz Album of the year.

The 7th Hand explores relationships between presence and nothingness across an hour-long suite comprised of seven movements. “I wanted to write a preparatory piece for my quartet to become vessels by the end of the piece, fully,” says the Brooklyn-based, Philadelphia-raised artist who Pitchfork said “composes ocean-deep jazz epics.”

Conceptually, the record evolves what Wilkins begins exploring on Omega, which includes a four-part suite within the album. On The 7th Hand, all his compositions represent movements, played in succession. “They deal with cells and source material like a suite would,” says Wilkins, “but they function as songs, as well.”