You don’t appreciate growing up until you look in the mirror and notice something’s different. Though maturing in itself is the act of physical and hormonal evolution, it’s not until you’re in a foreign city, eating something an elder used to cook to see how it compares, that you long for yesteryear. You start to miss that rickety screen door and the couch that no one could sit on. You try to make your grandma’s biscuits and realize they’re not quite hers. This nostalgia anchors Immanuel Wilkins’ third studio album, Blues Blood, a meditative offering partially inspired by his childhood in the Philadelphia area. Co-produced by Meshell Ndegeocello, and featuring Micah Thomas on piano, Rick Rosato on bass, Kweku Sumbry on drums, and vocalists Ganavya, June McDoom and Yaw Agyeman—as well as special guest appearances by vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, guitarist Marvin Sewell, and drummer Chris Dave—it’s Wilkins’ most ambitious LP to date, a multimedia performance about the legacies of our ancestors and the bloodlines connecting us.

(Marcus J. Moore)