Art Terry releases a new single: Kwanzaa

Release date: 26 December 2024

It’s not all about Christmas: for many Black Americans, Boxing Day is the first day of Kwanzaa, a festival created by activist scholar Maulana Karenga in 1966.

Intended as a pan-African holiday, Kwanzaa is now primarily celebrated in Black America, with symbolic elements of corn, fruits, gifts and a seven-candle candelabra. On each of the seven days of the festival – from December 26 to January 1 – performances, libations and feasting echo seven principles of African heritage, most around fostering community and family.

Art Terry’s homage to the holiday – ‘Kwanzaa’ – is propelled by an infectious, cubist funk groove from drummer JT Taylor, like backwards reggae not quite morphing into Afrobeat. Oblique, stabbing horn lines and righteous gospel harmonies anchor Art’s free-associative beat poetry, exploring his relationship to the eponymous Afrocentric holiday and its charismatic creator. Whether or not the groove has got you, ‘Kwanzaa’ keeps the listener fully engaged for seven and a half glorious minutes as the vocal narrative splits apart into overlapping layers and the horns begin to spiral around these in increasingly frenzied clusters. No matter how surreal and psychedelic things get, cutting through all of this is one of the artist’s most compelling pop hooks: ‘Could you be there?’ Adding up to a ‘Loft Jazz’ masterpiece that you’ll find yourself singing in the shower. 

Karenga caused controversy in Black America by allegedly meeting with Ronald Reagan and having a troubled relationship with the Black Panthers – a conflict viciously stoked by the FBI. But, in a world where so many people are chained to work or chasing work, Art Terry’s ‘Kwanzaa’ is a salute to a man who has carved out time for holiday and celebration.

‘When I think of this track I imagine and remember walking in Black LA during different eras. I have strong memories of these little storefront places which some Afrocentric hippy has managed to rent for a couple of years. They might put an old beat-up upright double bass and piano in the space.

I remember one place near LaBrea off Pico that I used to pass when I was a kid and it was always empty in the daytime, except there might be one or two people in there wearing dashikis and burning incense. Sometimes you would hear them warming up a bit, just gently playing their instruments – more like meditating on their instruments. Just messing around in a serene way. When they would see me poking my head in, they didn't know if I was a local prankster who was going to tease them for pretending they were in Africa or a young, gifted and Black open-minded curious boy. I remember a big marimba being prominent and dominant in the space. It was unusual to see a storefront that wasn't selling anything particularly to the public.’

Art Terry

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Credits
Written by Art Terry
Produced by Raphael Mann

Art Terry / vocals, piano
JT Taylor / drums
Ike Onwuagbu / double bass
Kayo Anosike / vocals 
BGBGB / vocals
Raphael Mann / kalimba, xylophone
David Medland / trumpet 
Hypnotique / clarinet
Michael St Cyr / alto sax
Mussinghi Brian Edwards / tenor sax