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.