“I’m a jazz musician first, I feel,” says Bilal. Maybe this comes as news to the many admirers who know him as an ethereal singer with a shape-shifting R&B profile, or as one of the original catalysts for neo-soul. On a compelling new album, Adjust Brightness — his first studio release in almost a decade — Bilal explores a galactic sweep of sound, making genre distinctions feel all the more irrelevant to any conversation. But we had plenty to talk about during a spirited interview backstage at World Cafe Live, before Bilal’s homecoming album-release show. “I grew up with my heroes being Miles Davis, or Jimi Hendrix, or Sun Ra,” he attests, aligning himself with a legacy of Afrofuturist improvisers. We put him there too, and this episode explains why.
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