(August 3, 2021) The funk track “Fly To Freedom” is a reminder that music is a team effort. This effort began when P-Funk band members did a live show at BB King’s on Halloween in New York and decided they wanted to make some live music in the city during a layover. David Schwartz of Down Jazz managed to find a studio and needed instruments like a Moog keyboard and a drum kit, and the band went into studio where they recorded songs, including the tune featured in this First Listen, “Fly To Freedom.”
The group wanted a female vocalist as lead singer and Parliament-Funkadelic vocalist Steve Boyd suggested that Sue Ann Carwell, a vocalist whose credits include singing with Prince. The vocals were recorded at her home and in a Las Vegas studio. The track is one of the tunes recorded under the name Detroit Rising, and “Fly To Freedom” is a fusion of funk and jazz that serves as a call to free ourselves by elevating our thoughts and actions.
Bassist Lige Curry and drummer Benjamin Cowan lay down a heavy, percussive groove that provides a platform for some free form jazzy conversations to take place between keyboardist Danny Bedrosian and Blackbyrd McKnight on guitar. Meanwhile, Carwell’s vocals glide above it all as she takes us to church with lyrics that are both aspirational in their longing for true freedom while also calling for humanity to redefine the way in which we express and act upon our need to share and receive love. Check out the World Premiere of Detroit Rising’s “Fly To Freedom” below.
By Howard Dukes
World Premiere Video
“Fly To Freedom”
