Lifted

New Orleans has always been a fulcrum for American music, where cultural collisions gave birth to jazz and where some of the best blues, gospel, and soul to emerge from the U.S. were fostered. Troy Andrews, a.k.a. Trombone Shorty—who sings and composes in addition to blowing his namesake instrument—embodies the Crescent City’s musical melting pot for the modern age. On his first album in five years, the first one made in his own Buckjump Studio, he invokes those older styles through a gritty amalgam of rock, soul, and funk. Bluesman Gary Clark Jr. adds an incendiary solo to the storming “I’m Standing Here,” while singer Lauren Daigle duets with Shorty on the horn-stoked “What it Takes.” Classic Big Easy brass band sounds are updated with banging funk and the hooky chorus of “Everybody in the World,” while the title track evokes the crunch of vintage Lenny Kravitz—one of Shorty’s earliest advocates.