Concert Review: Taylor McFerrin
June 12, 2017
On Sunday, July 9th, Brainfeeder artist, Taylor McFerrin made a stop by the Twilight Music Festival – a summer long music series hosted by Parks on Tap Jr. The festival is held in Fairmount Park, along the Schuylkill River – a great, laid back atmosphere for live music on a Sunday afternoon/evening.
Stationed behind his Fender Rhodes, MacBook (Ableton), and a midi keyboard, McFerrin started his set by playing music from his debut album Early Riser – an exploration of Jazz, Electronic, and Soul music. Though McFerrin didn’t have a band behind him, he still managed to offer refreshingly new takes on his music, with improvisation, piano solos, and interludes.
There’s no doubt that McFerrin’s music is rooted in Jazz. But, McFerrin’s set showed that he is also the product of Hip-Hop, as he created songs on stage, beatboxing percussion parts, and stacking looped vocals. McFerrin displayed some of his vocal capabilities when playing Postpartum – a mellow song carried by reverbed vocals and the Fender Rhodes.
After improving for about 15 minuets, McFerrin played some unreleased music. He shared that he had been invited to play a party hosted by Solange, and that he intended on giving her a song he produced. He played some of it for the audience – and it’s funky (!!!) reminiscent of some of her earlier music. Let’s hope they collaborate in some capacity. Closing out out the night, McFerrin played his remix Hiatus Kaiyote’s Laputa, which features Anderson .Paak. McFerrin stated that his sophomore album is slated to come out this year, so let’s hope we get more music from him.
