Curly Martin – The Rhythm of Lineage, Love and Rebirth

INTRODUCING: Terrace Martin featuring Robert Glasper, Thundercat & Ronald Bruner) - Curly Martin - Curly Martin

There are certain songs that feel like it was passed down like an inheritance. More than that, they feel like they are passing emotions down, emotions that can’t be explained, but ones that can only be felt. I’m going to do my best here, however. Some songs are more than melodies or casual tunes that stick inside your head. They are so much more than that. A few carry the lineage of family, the lineage of love, and the lineage of soul and spirit. Terrace Martin’s Curly Martin, which was named in honor of his father, Ernest “Curly” Martin, is one of those pieces. Again, I don’t know if I have the vocabulary deep enough to categorize a jazz standard such as this. This is especially true due to the nature of the relationship I hold with my father. This standard is definitely a tribute, maybe even a prayer, to a deeply important family bloodline. It is the sound of healing and generational work of breath.

In the Kind Rebirth metaverse, this song is a tribute and meditation to legacy. As we inherit the rhythm of sound and rhythm of life, it’s an encouraging push to not rewrite our past, but an encouragement to rebirth into a new and promising future. We need to understand our past to shape our future and when you listen to this song, I would question your dopamine levels if you are not inspired (smile).

I’ve listened to Terrace’s music but have really only known him for other stylistic brands. His impacts have left marks across other musical genres including jazz, jazz soul, and hip-hop. This song holds different. If there was ever a way to honor someone through the sound of music, this is the song for you.

Rhythm is the Memory…the Memory is the Rebirth

Let me shape this sound for you, hopefully, before you have a chance to hear it. But if you want to cheat and listen now, by all means, do so. This is the Sunday afternoon after church. And I don’t want to confuse this with Sunday afternoon football. I mean we just got home from church, took our suits off, somebody mom and grandma is in the kitchen cooking and getting ready for a summer Sunday evening dinner with guests. It’s that feeling. The music is loud. The kids are outside playing. There may be some football on, but the sound is turned all the way down. Your dad or your uncles are in the garage smoking a cigarette. Depending on how far you want to go back and reminisce, the music that’s turned all the way up isn’t on an MP3 or 4 portable speaker. It’s on that old school record player. It’s all of that – where jazz and RnB records reign supreme and are kept next to the family Bible.

Now that the scene is set, listen to the humming of valuable wisdom being passed down. It’s not coming through words; it’s coming through those powerful drum beats and perfect melodic tempo. As much as I give credit and recognition to the fantastic and immeasurable talent Terrace puts out, I give honor to the rebirth of memory he provides for me. A kind rebirth does not erase roots; it transforms and transports them to the present. I think Terrace is telling us that his lineage is never a burden, only a bridge.

Curly Martin is not flashy nor aggressive. It is deeply rooted in an ancestral and gentle power of family. He has systematically and probably unconsciously let go of playing notes. My man is speaking gratitude to his father and to the legacy he left. He is honoring the distance between his father’s life and passing all the way to the present moment. And he is honoring and enjoying this moment. It’s obvious. He is carrying the soul of the one who shaped him inheriting their happiness and sadness, their ups and their downs, their dreams, and their scars.

Becoming

Terrace’s jazz and jazz journey is a sound of becoming – always evolving and always rebirthing. The lesson is improvisation and finding harmony in the unpredictable. Curly Martin embodies this lesson in a phenomenal fashion. Naming the track after his father is the most extreme reclamation and proclamation of “I am because of you. I am who I am because of you. I am also something new because of you.” This is becoming, this is the rebirth - the emergence of individuality needed to become his own sound, the emergence of the interconnectedness with his father, leading to the emergence of gratitude.

The beauty of this track is the warmth, the up tempo, but more than anything, the sense of home. Home is the honoring of the people who have shaped us into compassionate beings. For him, through the translation of this song, his father brought him that by allowing him a rebirth from the past into the present. Hold on to that as he did Curly Martin. It’s a gift.

Stay mindful…

Rebirth