As Grammy-nominated vocalist Jazzmeia Horn looks out the window of her 11th-floor hotel room in Tokyo, she describes the surrounding skyscrapers, the yellow and pink clouds floating by and Messages — her fourth leader date, which is set to release October 25, 2024, via Empress Legacy Records.

In part, Messages, is intended to be a word of encouragement to anyone making tough choices — a reminder that we all make sacrifices. Sometimes, the difficulties encountered along the way are worth it, though.

One of those hardships, for Horn, is being on the road as much as she is. It leaves less time to be with her family. But touring the world also granted Horn, a product of Dallas’ Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, space to ruminate on her relationships — both familial and romantic — how they’ve changed and how they inform her art.
“If you want to sing your own song, if you have a mission, if you have a lyric,” she began, looking out that window in Japan. “Whatever that voice is, that love, that light, that grit — whatever that is inside of you, you have to do that.”
In contrast to 2021’s Dear Love, the bandleader pared back her ensemble, eschewing the personnel of a big band, but retaining the avant-playfulness of the Sun Ra Arkestra — especially on the interstellar “Submit to the Unknown.” Ruminations on family, friendship, and love all circulate among the 10 original compositions on the album.

As much as those connections are mined for recurring lyrical motifs, Horn’s writing — her messages — readily reassures listeners to focus and pursue their ambitions. It’s also the bandleader bolstering herself against the world.

On “Sing Your Own Song,” she sings: “Some things may not be fair/ Gloom and misery everywhere/ But I think it’s amazing/ what life can bring to you.”

Horn said she wrote the tune for her mother, who gave up a career in music to raise her. The singer didn’t make the same choice for herself.

“I miss them when I’m on tour — and when I’m with them, I miss them, too,” Horn said about being away from her children. It’s a sentiment explored further on her composition “Mother’s Love,” an uplifting and comforting tune that changes meter while Horn lands its melody in unpredictable places. “They’re growing up, you know. I come back from tour and the youngest one lost a tooth and the other one won an award at school.”

As new generations engage the history of the music, it’s already been built into Messages: Horn interprets the 1932 composition “You’re Getting to Be a Habit with Me”; and her own tune “Tip” sounds as if it could have been recorded in the ’50s — the band in a casual groove as the bandleader displays her seemingly boundless vocal range.

Horn is among the vanguard in jazz, using her knowledge of the canon to inform decisions firmly rooted in traditional parts of the genre, while still adding in contemporary ideas, themes and music. The 21st century comes to bear on the album through the singer splicing in voice recordings and voicemails — literal messages — into a few songs. “Voicemail Blues” is a whimsical trip through Horn’s inbox as listeners get to hear from bassist Reggie Workman, the singer’s friends and family.
Album closer “Flip D Switch” features some Herbie-esque electric keys and a recording of an unhinged tirade delivered by Horn’s ex. After that piece of tape rolls — when the unnamed man tells Horn she has issues with, among a litany of other nonsense, obedience — the vocalist summarizes their relationship, dismissing his fits and tantrums.

She sings: “Flip the switch, I don’t play with kids, we grown/ Flip the switch, time for me to move on.”

The inverse of that song and sentiment arrives on “Mysteries of Us,” a compositionally complex, extended piece delving into the fullness of love Horn feels for her current partner — and their decision to be together.

“I’ve prayed about it, I’ve fasted about it, and I’ve asked God for guidance and wisdom,” she said about the relationship. “I’ve made my decision.”

The song’s comprised of a traditional lyric section, an instrumental portion — led by Chicago-bred trumpeter Marquis Hill — and an emotionally dense poem, where Horn guides listeners through the love and hardships of her long-term partnership.
“I love his sound,” Horn said about why she asked Hill to contribute to the tune. “And I felt like he was probably the only one who could really give me exactly what I wanted.”

While the bandleader again doesn’t explicitly say who she’s addressing in the lyric, it traces the couple’s dovetailing spirituality, and knowledge of literature and scripture.

“Listening to the lyrics, you can’t help but reflect on your own past relationships. I just used those thoughts and feelings, and poured it into the music,” Hill said about working with Horn and her ensemble, which here includes pianists Keith Brown and Victor Gould, bassist Eric Wheeler, percussionist Kahlil Kwame Bell and drummer Anwar Marshall. “When you hear Jazzmeia sing the melody and sing these lyrics, you can sense the rawness in her voice, and the realness in the music. I just tried to piggyback off her energy and tap into that same space.”

The openness Hill heard on that single song is evident across each of Horn’s Messages. She’s written this collection for herself, for her family, and for listeners and fans who might need a reminder to believe in themselves.

“When I write, I don’t really care what people think. I don’t ask, ‘Is this gonna fit?’ I don’t care,” Horn said. “My messages are for healing. My messages are for reconciliation. My messages are for exposing, for movement. My messages are for freedom — the freedom of expression. That’s what the record is really, truly about.”

 

August Wilson African American Cultural Center’s presentation of the Jazzmeia Horn Quartet is supported through a Chamber Music America Presenter Consortium for Jazz grant in collaboration with Jazz House Kids and DC Jazz Festival.

 A component of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, Presenter Consortium for Jazz is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation.