Breathing through your fingers with Adrian Younge, Lonnie Liston Smith, Jean Carne and Brian Jackson

Music Life

Since starting out in the late 90’s, musician, DJ and label owner Adrian Younge's sound has borrowed from soul, funk, jazz and hip hop. His work includes scores for film and TV, including the Marvel series Luke Cage; a collaborative album with Ghostface Killah based on the comic book Twelve Reasons To Die; and productions for Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z. He founded the label Linear Labs, and is also co-founder of the Jazz Is Dead label with A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad. He’s produced for greats such as Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Wu Tang Clan, and in 2021, he released The American Negro, an album that provides an unapologetic critique on the evolution of racism in America.

Jean Carne is an incredible soul singer boasting a five-octave vocal range. She started her career in the early 1970s, with her 1978 solo single Don’t Let It Go to Your Head becoming an R&B hit. She’s also worked with Motown Records, the Temptations and Michael Jackson, and in 2014, she was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National R&B Music Society. She's worked with host Adrian through the years, most notably on the 1990 song Star Flower.

Brian Jackson is a keyboardist, flautist, singer, composer, and producer who had a decades-long writing and producing partnership with Gil Scott-Heron, including the albums Pieces of a Man, Free Will, and Winter in America. He went on to work with Earth, Wind & Fire and Stevie Wonder, and also has an extensive solo career, looking to both the present and the past for inspiration in order to honour the ancient tradition of the griot – the African troubadour of truth.

Legendary jazz pianist and bandleader Lonnie Liston Smith joined Pharaoh Sanders’s band in 1968, where he began to experiment with electric keyboards, and also had a stint in Miles Davis’ band before forming Lonnie Liston Smith and the Cosmic Echoes in 1974. In April this year, he released his first record in 25 years, called JID017.