Something Enduring About April: Adrian Younge

One of the most creative and prolific artists in today’s music, composer-musician-arranger Adrian Younge has recently completed and released Something About April III. The concluding entry in a trilogy of soundtrack albums for movies that don’t exist, the record seamlessly combines hip hop textures, psychedelic soul and jazz instrumentation, all with a Brazilian feel. And he created it mostly on his own.

The “one artist does it all” era arguably began with Paul McCartney’s 1970 solo debut. Others followed; Emitt Rhodes, Todd Rundgren, Stevie Wonder and Prince upended ideas about what the term solo album meant. Today – with the widespread availability of low-cost recording tools – true solo projects are commonplace.

Yet even against that backdrop, Adrian Young is remarkable. A wholly self-trained musician, Younge started out as a hip hop beatmaker. Los Angeles-based Younge was fascinated by Italian horror film soundtracks, and he drew upon those records for sampling. But he soon found that approach wanting; he demanded the real thing. Still working solo, he taught himself a myriad of instruments, studied composition and honed his production skills. And in the course of a quarter century, he pushed the boundaries even further. “I went from the sampler to the symphony,” he says with a smile.

His early records leveraged his creativity and well-defined musical vision. Younge’s 2009 score for Michael Jai White’s blaxploitation homage Black Dynamite demonstrated his facility for creating evocative music that enhanced on-screen visuals. But Younge wanted to focus on music that got the vibe across even without a big screen. His 2011 release Adrian Younge Presents Venice Dawn: Something About April did just that, and it served as a notice that Younge had truly arrived as an artist.

Today – nearly 60 albums later – Adrian Younge is as groundbreaking as ever. He has continued pushing forward, expanding the horizons of his artistry. His 2018 project The Midnight Hour was a jazz excursion with A Tribe Called Quest’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad. A synthesis of post-bop and soul jazz, The Midnight Hour was – like Younge’s music for Ghostface Killah’s 2013 horror-concept album Twelve Reasons to Die – completely organic, wholly void of sampling.

Younge’s onstage use of primarily acoustic instrumentation drew a direct line back to classic jazz of the ‘50s, ‘60s and 1970s, with a deft balance of through-composed and improvisational work. Live shows – like one at Asheville Music Hall in August 2019 – were breathtaking, a fact underscored by the quick release of a live set (The Midnight Hour: Live at Linear Labs) mere months after the project’s studio debut.

In 2020 Younge again teamed up with Ali Shaheed Muhammad to launch the Jazz is Dead album series. The ironically-named project draws upon icons of jazz (and iconic jazz textures) as it breathes new life into the form, serving up hard bop and other substyles for a new audience, one that often knows jazz only for its use as sampling fodder.

As of 2023, the Jazz is Dead series comprised some 20 titles, featuring new work and collaborations with important artists including Gary Bartz, Lonnie Liston Smith, Brazilian funk fusioneers Azymuth, vibraphone legend Roy Ayers and many more.

Both projects continue, after a fashion. “In many ways, The Midnight Hour turned into Jazz is Dead,” Younge explains. “We have a whole album’s worth of The Midnight Hour stuff that we’ve finished but haven’t even released,” he says. “I’m like, ‘Yo, Ali, we need to release this shit!’” Younge says that he has a great deal of completed work featuring full orchestra, plus a number of soundtrack projects.

And though he’s always moving forward, for his latest project Younge picked up where a previous endeavor left off. 2016’s Something About April II continued with the “mind movie” aesthetic of its predecessor, but the project still left Younge feeling he had unfinished business. The newest entry in the series takes some turns that are unexpected, even from an artist such as Younge.

To begin with, the vocals on Something About April III are all in Portuguese. After a series of visits to Brazil, Younge fell in love with the people, their culture and their musical heritage. And he wanted to apply that focus to this new album. But rather than hire a Brazilian lyricist, Younge taught himself Portuguese and composed the music and lyrics for his album. With vocals recorded in São Paulo, Something About April III evokes the ‘60s bossa nova craze, crossed with ‘70s film soundtracks, all delivered with a modern sensibility.

And the album balances Younge’s one-man-band proclivities with deft use of his band Venice Dawn, and those Brazilian singers. He views his work in the larger context. “I’m continuing those [musical] conversations of yesterday for tomorrow,” he says. “I’m not the type of person that wants to rehash. I extract those classic elements and try to create something for today.”

With all of his studio projects, Younge hasn’t always prioritized live dates. “I haven’t toured as just Adrian Younge in over 10 years,” he notes. But that’s changing now, with a series of concerts, some featuring a 35-piece orchestra. And even for scaled-down shows in smaller venues like The Grey Eagle, Younge – on upright bass, the latest instrument he’s taught himself – dazzles. “I’m playing bass and I’m conducting the orchestra at the same time,” he enthuses. “And this stuff makes me super happy.”