Milena Casado - O.C.T (Oda to the crazy times) [Candid]

Milena Casado is a trumpet and flugelhorn playing composer, who's also got some serious vocal chops. She's about to release her debut album, and I can't help thinking from what I've heard so far that she's going to hit the international jazz scene hard. Born and raised in Spain, the album is part of her coming to terms with her heritage in this wonderful, but still inherently racist country, unpacking mental baggage and finding her voice, which is already sounding pretty damn fresh and funky to my ears.

Her first single in February gently eased us into her multiverse. "Resilience" started easily and straight forward enough, but it wasn't long before Casado showed she's not afraid to push boundaries, feeding her voice through the machines as a spectral counterpoint to the increasingly urgent band and her more pointed trumpet lines. On "Circles" she goes full on ethereal, her voice a spirit world breeze in the universal consciousness, looking down on some low gravity synth and piano work. So far so pleasingly unexpected.

Now we have "O.C.T." strutting onto the stage, a defiant look in its eye and some serious attitude. The track hits the ground running, Lex Korten's piano angular keys urging Kim to get a percussive lick on and forcing Mendenhall to keep up with a driving bass line. A frantic pace set the rest of the group take turns leaping onto the stage; Casado alternating between soulful calls for change and frantic horn lines, aided by some impressive jazz rap from Kokayi who comes through like a 2025 Last Poet. It's a fierce, impassioned tune that takes no prisoners and exactly the sort of militant, saying something jazz that we need to wake people up to how f*^ked the world is. Bring on the album.

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Playlist Companion

Find Milena Casado saying something in the Slow Jazz Playlist.