It would be impossible to describe Camae Ayewa in a single word. She is a poet, musician, activist, sound designer, organizer, curator, visual artist and Afrofuturist visionary. But above all, she is unapologetically herself.
Known professionally as Moor Mother, Ayewa has released over half a dozen solo albums and collaborated with artists like Billy Woods, Screaming Females, and the Avalanches. Since 2021, she has worked as a professor at the USC Thornton School of Music. A fierce and prolific interdisciplinary artist, Ayewa is showing no signs of slowing down her creative output while pursuing a career in higher education. In fact, Irreversible Entanglements, a free jazz collective that Ayewa is a member of, released its fifth studio album last week.
Moor Mother’s discography, much like her professional life, is difficult to classify. It spans across punk rock, hip-hop, experimental, jazz and beyond. For Ayewa, this musical diversity comes naturally. She explored different styles of music throughout her youth and became a part of the eclectic DIY scene in Philadelphia.
“I’m really in love with all these genres,” Ayewa says. “It’s not something I’m moonlighting in just to become this teacher of particular audiences. No, I just understand that some people are into the hip-hop record and some people are into the noise record, and I’m just so happy that the message can be carried in both of those records.”
Irreversible Entanglements formed in 2015, when Ayewa connected with fellow DIY musicians, bassist Luke Stewart and saxophonist Keir Neuringer for an impromptu performance at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event in New York, which was organized after the police killing of 28-year-old Akai Gurley. The trio was soon joined by trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes. While their music is at times reminiscent of the free jazz of Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman, it also brings in elements of electronic music, punk rock and hip-hop. At times, Ayewa’s voice serves as another instrument, while at others, it is a guiding light.
Although she is the lyricist and frontperson of the collective, Ayewa maintains that Irreversible Entanglements is a true collective. “Unlike many bands who pick and choose who they want to be, who are created around a leader, we were not created around the leader,” she explains. “We have no leaders, and that’s not popular now, as far as how the industry wants to market products. But because of how we’re so united and on the front, it’s a harder thing to sell.”
The title of the group’s latest offering, “Future Present Past,” hints at its timeless essence. Most of its main tracks were recorded at the historic Van Gelder studio in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” Freddie Hubbard’s “Red Clay” and Sonny Rollins’ “Sonny Rollins on Impulse! “are just a few of the many legendary jazz albums that were recorded at Van Gelder. Furthermore, “Future Present Past” is Irreversible Entanglements’ second full-length album to be released on Impulse! Records, which boasts a renowned jazz catalog, featuring releases from Max Roach, Art Blakey, Gil Evans and perhaps most notably, John Coltrane.
Although this album has roots planted in the past, it also points toward the future. Throughout their discography, Irreversible Entanglements have seamlessly incorporated electronic elements such as synthesizers and modern postproduction into many of their compositions, which primarily feature otherwise organic instrumentation and textures. Much of Ayewa’s lyricism throughout the album is also concerned with what lies ahead. Take, for example, “Don’t Lose Your Head (ft. MOTHERBOARD),” which features the lyrics, “Foundation for the generation / It’s time to organize and plan,” and “The people will be marching on / We carry the freedom song.” Ayewa doesn’t spend her energy dwelling on the shortcomings of the past or present, but instead insists that we all take action and work toward a better future.
To some, the music of Irreversible Entanglements may seem confrontational. They often abandon traditional pop music structures, they don’t shy away from abrasive arrangements, and Ayewa’s lyricism speaks directly to the soul. Couple that with the group’s uncompromising punk rock attitude about their structure and message, and it’s easy to see why Irreversible Entanglements might not fit cleanly into everyone’s preconceived notions about “jazz.”
Ayewa has sensed judgment from some of the jazz elite. She recognizes that Irreversible Entanglements might be offered more shows and slots at festivals if their music were “safer.” But to compromise would be antithetical to the spirit of the group. “I refuse to be typecast within this music that we’re just a bunch of rebels [who are] going to mess up the legacy of this music,” Ayewa says. “If anything, we’re drenched in the legacy of this music. We’re optimists. I’m not ran by no doomsday clock. When we perform shows, people say, ‘You give me hope. Thank you. I needed that.’”
“Vibrate Higher ft. MOTHERBOARD” is Ayewa’s personal favorite song on “Future Present Past.” It opens with rumbling drums, a wandering upright bass, and an atmospheric synthesizer. The rest of the band joins in as Ayewa calls for the listener to look up to a world above war, bitterness, and division. “We so up up up up and away, I can’t hear you,” she says, “We at peace / We only understand great vision / High frequency / High territory / High moral / The high road.” This message transcends the political, religious, and social borders that separate us.
As much as Ayewa is a poet and musician, she is also an educator and organizer. She has received numerous grants for her artwork, community organizing, and for the Black Quantum Futurism collective she co-founded with Rasheedah Phillips. In 2021, she relocated to Los Angeles to teach composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, and she continues her work in and outside of the classroom. “This work is a world work,” she says. “It’s not a regional work. So, you know, I’m here to offer my expertise and my heart to California and to any place that I travel.”
To professionally announce her arrival in Los Angeles, Ayewa has been working on a California-centric Moor Mother album, which includes collaborations with a number of Californian artists. One track will feature a previously unreleased beat from the revered Leimert Park-based producer Ras G, who died in 2019.
“I told him I was coming to L.A. and he had all these plans for me,” Ayewa says. “He said he was going to take care of me and connect me to the right people. So that was a really heavy thing that happened when he passed, because all the possibilities of finding someone that you connect with that had been doing the same type of organization, and bringing together like minds.” Ayewa hopes to release the album later this year.
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