Immanuel Wilkins Quartet

Concert with Immanuel Wilkins Quartet at BIX Jazzclub - as part of jazzopen stuttgart 2025.

Immanuel Wilkins Quartet:
Blues Blood is the third studio album by Immanuel Wilkins, which was strongly inspired by his childhood in Philadelphia. It was co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello and combines jazz, blues and gospel with deep themes of heritage and generational memory. The album begins quietly and meditatively and develops with increasing tempo. Of particular note is the track "Afterlife Residence Time", which deals with ancestral memory and the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.

For the first time, Wilkins incorporates singers into his music who reflect different aspects of cultural heritage. The title of the album, Blues Blood, alludes to a quote by Daniel Hamm and addresses the paradoxical relationship between pain and joy in the blues. The album also deals with the importance of food and family traditions as a means of preserving cultural memory. Blues Blood offers both a musical and a sensual experience and aims to be a healing work that helps Black people in particular to come to terms with their history.