JazzPOP: Jamael Dean and the Afronauts

Aug 01, 2024

Devin Daniels, alto saxophone

Aaron Shaw, tenor saxophone

Jamael Dean, keyboard

Jonathan Richards, bass

Lyndon Rochelle, drums

Los Angeles keyboardist Jamael Dean convenes a quintet of longtime collaborators to navigate his shapeshifting original compositions and fresh takes on jazz standards. Part of a renaissance of next-generation Southern California jazz artists, Dean has collaborated with Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Carlos Niño, and has performed as a member of the legendary Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. Pitchfork writes that Dean takes “a wide-eyed view of jazz… to imbibe hip-hop, electronic, R&B, and ambient.”