Dream Child – Omari Jazz (2020) – Album Review

Album: the politics of being

Artist: Omari Jazz

Release Date: June 5, 2020

Strange coincidences seem to be the theme of the week. I realized when listened this album on Friday, it was on the six year anniversary of this album’s release. I’ve been to two shows where Omari Jazz played sets – one at Barn Radio last month and a couple of months ago at HARDWARE (4.23.26) at Process PDX. I had to duck out of the Barn Radio show after a banger set by Production Unit Xero because some weird derealization had started creeping through the walls of my head that night. I wasn’t sad that I left. but sometimes the body makes its little executive decisions. Still, I would have liked to have seen the rest of that show.

Dream Child is definitely an organized fever dream. When you listen to it, you’ll know exactly what I mean. I love how carefully the lucid stability is arranged. Drifting and blurring and aching with a twist of malcontent ala love. What was your last dream like? Are you your current self in your dreams? I like the idea that we’re all children in our dreams. With music like this, sometimes a bit of messaging, however obscure, can become dangerously delectable to the mind. To live in a dream as a child again – disoriented, curious and full of wonder. It sounds fun and terribly irresponsible.

Each track is under two minutes, which is ultimately frustrating – much like waking up from a good dream. How do I go back to sleep? What I love about this kind of music is that a beat or a melody seems to enter your memory with no clear source. A harpsicord with texture hangs in the background, carrying its little antique ache, and disappears at the same moment a melodic fragment lifts its head up to distract you; only to vanish just as quickly, leaving a silhouette of sadness. The title track (Dream Child) is absolutely beautiful – and just as it’s splashing at your toes and you’re getting your fill, it recedes back into the waters from whence it came.

This album is brief, but it lingers, god damnit. It’s like how a dream can give you an entire world, then take it back before you learn its laws. This was a welcome visitation and a beautiful little record. Put it on your list.