Welcome to the November 2020 issue of Black Grooves, sponsored by the Indiana University Archives of African American Music and Culture. 

Our top features this month are The Power Of The One from funk legend Bootsy Collins with appearances from Christian McBride, Branford Marsalis, Victor Wooten, Snoop Dog, and members of the IU Soul Revue; and Uncivil War from blues queen Shemekia Copeland that probes deeply into the divided state of our nation.

Jazz releases include Benjamin Boone’s The Poets Are Gathering featuring eleven acclaimed poets narrating their works set to jazz; Chicago musician and composer Kahil El’Zabar’s America the Beautiful that reflects upon what America has become; trumpeter Alonzo Demetrius’s Live from Prison Nation that addresses the prison industrial complex; Venezuelan-born pianist and composer Edward Simon’s two-disc Latin jazz compilation 25 Years; Baltimore-based pianist Lafayette Gilchrist’s double album Now; and Aaron Burnett & The Big Machine’s genre-spanning Jupiter Conjunct.

New R&B/soul releases include Cory Henry’s socially conscious project Something to Say and Aloe Blacc’s All Love Everything. Also featured is the debut album All of This from Oakland reggae-rap fusion group Roots And Tings; Optimisme from the Malian supergroup Songhoy Blues; the self-titled debut from the Benin girl group Star Feminine Band; and the compilation Your Man of Faith featuring recordings from 1937-1956 by singing evangelist Elder Charles Beck.

Wrapping up this issue is our list of October Black Music Releases of Note.