Kenny Beats’ group FATHERS announce debut album, share “PEARL”

In addition to being one of the most sought-after producers of the moment (Vince Staples, Geese more), Kenny Beats (real name: Kenneth Blume) is also a member of FATHERS, a quartet of jazz heavyweights whose other members are keyboardist Kiefer (Kiefer Shackelford), bassist CARRTOONS (Ben Carr), and drummer Nate Smith. They’ve just announced their self-titled debut album which will be out July 10 via Blue Note.

Smith put together the trio wth CARRTOONS and Kiefer for the 2023 Montreal Jazz Festival and went on to tour the US and Japan. “We all write, we all play at a high level, and we’re pushing each other to be better,” says Carr. “So we know going into anything that there’s going to be an inspiration and a push from everybody else, so that hunger that we all have independently becomes this super-being when we get together.”

Kenny Beats entered the mix when he asked them to come by and test out his new LA studio. “I was 95 percent through building my studio, and I asked Kiefer if he could come by with a band and play some instruments,” Kenny says. “We custom-built our recording console and hadn’t heard anything through it yet. So it was meant to be a test day to make sure the studio was up and running. Kiefer happened to be playing shows with Ben and Nate at the time, and in testing out the equipment we recorded these songs in 48 hours. Turns out the board works just fine.”

FATHERS also features contributions from saxophonist Nicole McCabe, vocalist Genevieve Artadi (KNOWER), guitarist Paul Castelluzzo (HETHER) and strings by Yasmeen Al-Mazeedi.

The first single from the album is “PEARL,” a very groovy track that recalls orchestral, phantasmagoric jazz wonderlands of David Axelrod, Roy Ayers, and other ’60s/’70s technicolor composers. You can listen below.

FATHERS
1. EYE LEVEL
2. PATCHWORK
3. PEARL
4. STUB
5. THE LEAK
6. TOMORROW AGAIN
7. FRONT YARD
8. FIGURE 8