Dexter Story T'som Album Release Party

KCRW presents Dexter Story’s T’som album release party at 2220 Arts + Archives. Story performs music from the new Soundway album with a live 10-piece band and special guests, expanding the billed solo artist into a large-ensemble release-night set. The evening centers on the new record rather than a general career retrospective.

From South Los Angeles, Dexter Story is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, producer, composer, arranger and ethnomusicologist whose work brings jazz, soul, funk, folk and electronic music into conversation with Northeast and East African traditions. His Soundway releases Wondem and Bahir pair African musical research with contemporary Los Angeles jazz, soul and funk. Story has worked with Dwight Trible, Kamasi Washington, Build an Ark, Madlib, Gaslamp Killer, Sudan Archives and Carlos Niño, and produced Dr. Mulatu Astatke’s Mulatu Plays Mulatu. Bandcamp Daily called Bahir “a meticulously crafted and beautiful record,” citing its “seamless fusion between the old and the new”; AllMusic heard “pleasure, subtlety, grace, and groove” in Wondem, while NPR called his approach “surprising and joyous.”