Terrace Martin - Velvet Portraits (2016)

Good luck pigeonholing Terrace Martin; on Velvet Portraits, the L.A. producer/saxophonist (who entered the limelight working with Kendrick Lamar) creates a wildly creative collision of jazz, soul, funk, and hip-hop that’s loaded with guests and restless creativity. Case in point? Take “Valdez off Crenshaw”—a wah-wah-infused, organ-driven instrumental based on a Donny Hathaway tune. Martin dresses it up with whistling synth leads and Zappa-esque guitars. Want to go further out? Take “Turkey Taco,” a showpiece of Outkast-inspired freakiness with a rubbery synth-bass, purring backup singers, and an off-kilter acoustic piano. When it’s time to come back, try “Patiently Waiting,” a soulful, sweat-soaked blues throwback featuring a gloriously gutsy vocal from Uncle Chucc or the simmering R&B of “Think of You." Weird, wonderful, and impossible to pin down, this is future-soul music from a musician who elegantly connects the music of Stax to the streets of Compton and beyond.

Tracklist:

01. Velvet Portraits
02. Valdez Off Crenshaw
03. Push
04. With You
05. Curly Martin
06. Never Enough
07. Turkey Taco
08. Patiently Waiting
09. Tribe Called West
10. Oakland
11. Bromali
12. Think Of You
13. Reverse
14. Mortal Man