Black Spirituals

Cutting their teeth in San Francisco Bay Area underground venues, improvisational duo Black Spirituals rapidly gained a loyal following in the late 2010s. When solo artists Zachary James Watkins (guitar, electronics) and Marshall Trammell (percussion) convened, they amalgamated their academic and experimental backgrounds to create genre-evasive music that pursued American tradition, history, and black resistance via jazz-influenced drone music. Their innovative fusions saw them tour Europe with drone luminaries Earth and land opening slots for the Sun Ra Arkestra before releasing their last record as a duo, Black Access/Black Axes, in 2018. Watkins, a sound artist and award-winning composer who studied at the Cornish School and Mill College, formed Black Spirituals with Trammell in 2011 in Oakland, California. Primarily a percussionist, Trammell had a unique training background that included apprenticeships with improvisational and folkloric masters which fed into the duo's unique sound. Often eroding distinct lines of classification, they introduced their original approach by way of their 2014 debut Of Deconstruction. A series of cassette releases followed between 2015 and 2016, as did an extensive touring schedule which saw them perform alongside not only Earth, but rapper and poet Saul Williams. Further extending the improvisational nature of their music, alongside plunges into free-form jazz, psych rock, and drone, Black Spirituals returned with Black Access/Black Axes in 2018. The album was reported to be their last as a duo, with Watkins keen to continue with the group in an undetermined form. ~ Bekki Bemrose