Kendrick Scott Oracle returns April 5 with the release of A Wall Becomes A Bridge (Blue Note), an inspiring new 12-song cycle about overcoming obstacles both personal and collective.
The album was produced by Derrick Hodge, and find’s Scott augmenting his long-running quintet with the addition of turntablist Jahi Sundancewho joins guitarist Mike Moreno, pianist Taylor Eigsti, reedist John Ellis, and bassist Joe Sanders to expand Oracle’s palette. The lead track “>>>>>>>>>>>Mocean” is available today to stream or download.
Kendrick Scott lays out his vision for the album in his artistic statement:
“Walls are easier to build than bridges. We are often quicker to stack bricks built of fear than we are to weave a cable of empathy and reach across a divide. Where I see walls, then, I see an admission of our fundamental fragility – of vulnerability. So the question that I began to ask myself was how I personally, and we collectively, can use those vulnerabilities not as points of separation, but as points of convergence?
I realized that my life’s purpose is to become an instrument of peace; to bridge divides through my music. Yet, in pursuing this I found my path stagnated by my internal walls of fear and insecurity. As I worked to explore and understand these fears in myself, I came to see my personal journey as parallel with our collective social consciousness.
This project is, therefore, a response to a personal struggle that is also a collective one: how we are more connected than ever, but also more separated; and the opportunities that lie before us within that awareness.
This music was created to explore this narrative, revealing itself from the end (>>>>>>>>>>>) of the story to the beginning (>). Traversing 12 stages including Perspective, Breakthrough, Doubt, Acceptance, Denial, and Innocence, in the end, we arrive at the seat of the allegory: transformation and optimism. Ultimately, our walls don’t exist in contrast to bridges; they are our provocations and precursors to our breakthrough.”
The track listing for A Wall Becomes A Bridge is as follows:
- >>>>>>>>>>>>NewEyes
- >>>>>>>>>>>Mocean
- >>>>>>>>>>Windows
- >>>>>>>>>Voices
- >>>>>>>>BeLoved
- >>>>>>>Don Blue
- >>>>>>Becoming
- >>>>>Horizons
- >>>>The Catalyst
- >>>Plēh
- >>Nemesis
- >Archangel
