Pre-Order: Julia Keefe – Incarnadine

The Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band releases Incarnadine, a landmark debut album celebrating the diversity and vitality of Indigenous people in jazz. Led by acclaimed vocalist Julia Keefe (Nez Perce) and featuring a 16-piece ensemble of Native and Indigenous musicians from across Indian Country, the album draws on compositions made famous by 20th-century Indigenous jazz luminaries like Mildred Bailey and Jim Pepper alongside new works by contemporary Indigenous composers. Mali Obomsawin’s “Wawasint8da” transforms a Jesuit-translated Abenaki hymn into a haunting exploration of resilience and paradox. Delbert Anderson’s three-movement DDAT Suite honors Dine code talkers and sacred tribal landscapes. Rogan Kahale’s arrangement of Queen Liliuokalani’s “Ku’u Pua i Paoakalani” brings a tender, cinematic sweep to the program. Incarnadine is history, protest, and celebration rolled into one, a necessary and overdue document of a vibrant jazz tradition that ha