Midnight marauders

Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad ‘express blackness with sound’

You could call The Midnight Hour “jazz fusion” and probably not raise any objections from its creators, renowned hip-hop producers Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad. The music made in the ‘70s by artists like Lonnie Liston Smith, Bob James, and Return to Forever made a big impression on them. 

“That jazz music had a vibrant feeling that was more upbeat and way different than bebop,” said Muhammad, best known as a member of the legendary hip-hop outfit A Tribe Called Quest. That legacy of fusing genres within the permissive framework of jazz is evident throughout The Midnight Hour’s self-titled debut, released last year on Younge’s Linear Labs Records.

When Muhammad and Younge first connected through a mutual friend, they quickly discovered they had been travelling parallel paths. Both went from sampling their favorite records using an MPC to teaching themselves how to play multiple instruments. 

Muhammad describes a pivotal moment working in the studio with Tony! Toni! Toné on their Sons of Soul album when “the guys started playing music to the beat that I had programmed, instantly, without even talking to each other.” The group’s ability to immediately expand on Muhammad’s ideas blew him away. From that point on, Muhammad played his favorite records not just to identify potential samples, but also to figure out how to play the music on instruments. Both he and Younge craved the kind of expression that couldn’t be attained by layering samples.

So it’s natural that The Midnight Hour finds themselves working with a live band, including strings and horns. “When you’re using an orchestra, you’re not only bringing in experienced musicians to add to your sound, you’re also expanding the frequencies that you hear,” Younge explained. Each instrument has its own unique voice. “When you mix all of these colors together, you create something brand new.” 

Using instruments that predate the era of electric music is also a way to connect to the ancestors. Promotional materials for Midnight Hour’s current tour, which stops by The Vanguard on Oct. 24,  describes the music as “an ode to the cultural sophistication that the Harlem Renaissance established for its people.” When asked why he’s holding this project to the standards of a movement that’s nearly a century old, Younge says being “unapologetically black” in one’s self-expression was a key feature of the New Negro movement. “We wanted to express our blackness with sound, and we wanted to do it in a way that was opulent, that conveyed the notion that we hear value in our sound,” he said.

The Midnight Hour certainly accomplishes that. Album opener “Black Beacon” kicks off with waves of cinematic bravado, which might be the strongest case yet for Idris Elba to be cast as the next James Bond. On the mid-tempo ballad “Don’t Keep Me Waiting,” the string arrangements unfurl like a red carpet, across which Marsha Ambrosius of Floetry fame strides with neo-soul swagger. 

But it’s not all smooth; The Midnight Hour won’t be mistaken for the Quiet Storm. On tracks like “It’s You,” Younge and Muhammad offer a counterpoint to the sweltering funk established by the rhythm section when they bring in horns to blow an angular, deliberate melody that evokes the music of Phil Ranelin and Sun Ra. In the background, animalistic vocalizations add a flash of psychedelia. This tension is finally released when the band switches up the groove, ushering in Raphael Saadiq’s vocals to sweetly affirm, “Everything is you.”

The album’s standout track is, by far, their remix of Luther Vandross’s shimmering love song “So Amazing.” Younge and Muhammad have taken Vandross’s original vocals and laid them over a slow, bossa-like beat. The chord progression on the verses introduces some dissonance to the fawning lyrics, implying loss and regret behind this otherwise straightforward declaration of devotion. This heightens the payoff each time we arrive at the refrain, “It’s so amazing to be loved,” and the dissonance momentarily resolves. Moments like this strengthen the case for hip-hop to be viewed as the connective thread between the ethos of jazz fusion and contemporary music. 

While there’s plenty to please crowds on The Midnight Hour, these two DJs/producers have no interest in sanitizing their influences to appeal to as wide a demographic as possible. “We wanted to create something that showed no compromise,” Younge said. “It was just all 100 percent us and what we believed in.” That defiance comes in no small part from their experience as pioneers in a genre known for producing artists who are raw and unapologetic. “We have always drawn this direct connection to music of the past,  but the foundation of hip-hop is always present.” 

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The Midnight Hour 

The Vanguard, 222 N. Main St. 

Thursday, Oct. 24, 7 p.m. — $10