With the 62nd GRAMMY Awards right around the corner, the GRAMMY® Museum host a list of class-A private performances and artists exhibits including GRAMMY® Award-winner and global recording artist Kirk Whalum.
This year, guests were able to join the world renown saxophonist and friends in conversation centering around the making of his latest album, Humanité.
Fans of Whalum remember days before the musical-wind maker headlined as a solo artist; as a session player for top artists including Barbra Streisand, Al Jarreau, Luther Vandross, and Quincy Jones.
Most notably, Whalum’s solo on Whitney Houston’s mega-hit “I Will Always Love You” made his sound familiar to untold millions. He spent seven years touring the world with the late superstar.
Humanité: The Beloved Community
GRAMMY® Museum Artistic Director, Scott Goldman moderated the event sitting across from Whalum which began with an excerpt screening of the album’s companion documentary Humanité: The Beloved Community.
Humanité: The Beloved Community is Whalum’s new feature length documentary made in conjunction with his latest album, Humanité. The film and album are woven from the words, stories and original melodies of the diverse cast of international artists featured on the album.
The album was produced by Kirk’s longtime friend, producer, British jazz trumpeter and session musician, James McMillan.
Over a period of three months in 2018, Kirk and James recorded the soul-drenched, emotional and highly melodic tracks in locations ranging from studios in Jakarta, Tokyo, Paris, Nairobi, Johannesburg and Hastings, to hotel rooms, office buildings and even Kirk’s living room in his hometown, Memphis, Tenn.
Collaborators on the album provide a harmonious mix of American jazz, blues, funk and pop, along with global indigenous musical forms. Musical interludes include Japanese jazz pianist Keiko Matsui; the young bass phenomenon Barry Likumahuwa, gifted singer/songwriter Grace Sahertian and global pop star singer/actor Afgan, all hailing from Indonesia; soulful singer/jazz guitarist Andréa Lisa from New Zealand; superstar vocalist/guitarist Zahara from South Africa; iconic jazz bassist Marcus Miller from Brooklyn, NY; top percussionist Kasiva Mutwa of Nairobi; and Liane Carroll, long considered by cognoscenti to be the UK’s premier female jazz voice.
“I kept bumping into these amazing artists from all over the world and I wanted to make some crazy music with them and prove this point – that we are all one,” said Kirk.
“That’s the DNA of it. Like we say in the artwork, ‘With one voice, sometimes with words, we speak.’ This is the essential reality of being a world musician.”
The Beloved Community
Kirk was just nine years old when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis just blocks away from the Whalum family home. That shattering event, said Kirk, helped to shape his young worldview. But rather than turn him “cynical”, as he grew older his spiritual upbringing led him to embrace Dr. King’s vision of “The Beloved Community.”
Kirk spoke in depth about the message and inspiration behind the ethos of Humanité and music in general, presenting music as a universal form of expression of the greater good inherent in all of global humanity; which could, idealistically, lead to a society based on justice, civil rights and love of one’s fellow humans, when used as a mental and spiritual escape from the realities of the world that exist today, seemingly bent on oppressing marginalized peoples of the world.
Grammy Museum, 800 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90015
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